2023-05-11 16:58:34
Eurovision is hard to escape in Austria – even for those not watching.
Radio stations are filling local airwaves with songs from previous competitions, including those by previous Austrian winners Udo Jürgens and Conchita Wurst. Already in January, EUROfansCLUB in Vienna hosted a big party that brought six former contestants from around Europe, just a few days ahead of the big reveal for this year’s Austrian competitors.
Various bars, especially LGBT ones, will put on viewing parties. Many Austrians will host Eurovision watch parties at home.
Eurovision has an outsized cultural impact in Austria – especially because relatively fewer people watch it in the alpine republic than in other European countries. In 2022, just 500,000 people watched Eurovision in Austria. That compares with over two million in Eurovision powerhouse Sweden, seven million in both Germany and Spain, and nearly nine million in the UK.
Of course, aside from Sweden, Austria is much smaller country in terms of population and 500,000 out if just under nine million inhabitants is not a small number.
Yet, when Conchita Wurst won the Eurovision Song Contest for Austria in 2014, Vienna radio station 88.6 The Music Channel played her song “Rise Like a Phoenix” 48 times on repeat the next morning – one for each year that had passed since singer Udo Jürgens last brought the title home in 1966 with “Merci Cherie.”
When Wurst returned to Vienna from Copenhagen, which hosted the 2014 contest, over 1,000 fans – some wearing replicas of her trademark beard, came to greet and congratulate her on her historic win.
Austrian newspaper editorials reflected on how a bearded drag queen had just won Eurovision – an already kitsch contest complete with backup dancers, glitter cannons, costume changes and pyrotechnics, to name but a few – for a generally conservative country.
Then Austrian President Heinz Fischer called Conchita’s win “not just a victory for Austria, but above all for diversity and tolerance in Europe.”
READ ALSO: Stadthalle ‘wing’ award for Conchita
The slow and steady Eurovision country
Austria started participating in the contest in 1957 – the year after it originally premiered – and has competed in most contests ever since.
Back when Austria joined, only ten countries competed. This year in host city Liverpool, 37 countries will compete, with two semi-final rounds helping to decide which 26 acts even make it to the Grand Final on Saturday, May 13th.
Despite its long history in the contest, Austria has only ever won twice. The 48 years between Austrian wins is also the longest period of time that has passed between wins among countries that have won more than once.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqasLQyydeU
That’s still more than many participating countries – but well behind powerhouses like Sweden and Ireland, with six and seven wins apiece.
Austria at Eurovision 2023 – Top ten possible?
The country’s performance at Eurovision has been inconsistent over the years, with seven last place finishes on the night of the Grand Final, two wins, and a third place finish.
This year though, bookmakers are giving Austria a small outside shot at a win, with national act Teya & Salena widely predicted to come in the top ten at the Grand Final.
The Austrian duo will be performing their song “Who the Hell is Edgar?” – an offbeat ditty about being possessed by the spirit of American writer Edgar Allan Poe – in Liverpool.
The song even makes a clever swipe at the music industry with the line “0.003,” referring to the amount songwriters are paid for their songs per stream, closing out with “give me two years and your dinner will be free.”
To qualify for May 13th’s Grand Final, Teya & Salena will have to snag one of the ten spots up for grabs in the second semi-final two nights before on Thursday, May 11th. With 16 competitors that night, six will be eliminated.
Unfortunately, Eurovision doesn’t allow people to vote for their own country, so people who are in Austria during voting unable to vote for Austria.
However, “Who the Hell is Edgar?” has unexpectedly climbed its way into fan favourite songs online, having nearly broken three million streams on Spotify in the last month, opening up the possibility of a strong finish.
For now, Teya and Salena say their first goal is to take Austria to the Grand Final for the first time since 2018 – and then go from there.
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