2024-05-09 03:30:09
Kaleen from Wels will perform “We Will Rave” at the 68th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö, Sweden, to bring her third victory to Austria. Our country’s ESC history is colorful and ambivalent. Here is a short review without any claim to completeness.
Tonight we’ll have to keep our fingers crossed again and hope that Austria will reach the final of the 68th Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö, Sweden, and cause a sensation there. This time the hopes rest on the 29-year-old Wels dancer Kaleen, who is supposed to bring a lot of atmosphere to the Malmö Arena with her party piece “We Will Rave”, which is based on 90s Eurodance, and – already announced in advance – bold clothing. In doing so, this country is following the tradition of the recent past and trying to bring success back to the Alpine region with disco beats and exalted dancing. Solid for victory However, the selection committee has it written in its book: The greatest successes in the local competition history are due to more solid compositions. In 1966, Udo Jürgens, who was born in Carinthia, competed en suite for Austria for the third time and finally celebrated his great triumph. After sixth place and fourth place in previous years, he achieved the great triumph with a well-behaved parting, puppy eyes and the flattering “Merci, Chérie”, which the whole of Austria has benefited from for almost half a century. This prank was only repeated in Copenhagen in 2014 become. Conchita Wurst, the fictional character of the Styrian Tom Neuwirth, thrilled the audience with the epic anthem “Rise Like A Phoenix” and a brilliant show full of glamor and glory. The socio-political impact of Conchita’s triumph was even greater than the musical success. As a diva with a full beard, Wurst’s triumph was an immensely important sign for the LGBTQ scene and togetherness in general. Curious detail on the side: Since the song was rejected by every record company in advance, the ORF finally released it themselves. Between melancholy and anarchy Moments of success are otherwise rather rare in the Austrian ESC history, but there were always positive results. In 1972, the Milestones surprised everyone in Edinburgh, Scotland, with fifth place for “Falter in the Wind”. Seen at the piano at the time: the still very young Christian Kolonovits. Four years later, the cult duo Waterloo & Robinson thrilled everyone in a good mood. Her song “My Little World” also took fifth place and was still ringing in my ears for a long time afterwards. Looking back, the 2000s can be seen as the greatest drought period in domestic ESC history. An outlier was the Styrian Alf Poier, who hit the ravages of time in 2003 with his anarcho song “Because man counts” and took sixth place in Riga as the curiosity of the evening. A success of a slightly different kind was the Trackshittaz disco Hymn “Woki with your bottom”. Lukas Plöchl and Manuel Hoffelner were eliminated without a hitch in the semifinals, but apart from that, the song developed a cult potential that is otherwise only known from Skero’s “cabin party”. The last big highlight so far was César Sampson’s quite surprising third place with “Nobody But You” in 2018. Thomas Forstner has an ambivalent look back on the competition. With the number “Nur ein Lied” written by Dieter Bohlen he reached a respectable fifth place in 1989, while “Venedig im Regen” pulverized him to the end of the field in 1991 with no points. Numerous zero reports This brings us to the ESC flops, which are uneven in Austria There were more often than great successes. Not only Thomas Forstner had to leave the field with zero points, but also Eleonore Schwarz with “Nur in der Wiener Luft” (1962), Wilfried with “Lisa, Mona Lisa” (1988) and The Makemakes with “I Am Yours” (2015 ) had to start the journey home with their heads hanging low. In the case of the latter, we still remember the theatrically burning piano, but musically the persuasiveness was significantly less. At the very first appearance in 1957, Bob Martin landed in tenth place out of ten with “Where to, Little Pony?”. The poor performances of Christina Simon with “Today in Jerusalem” (1979) and Anita with “Just Away” (Einfach weg) ( 1984). If Austria took part at all in the 2000s, they either ended up way back or fell out in the semifinals, like Global Kryner or Eric Papilaya. With high expectations, our disco duos of the last few years landed hard on the ground of reality. Lum!x feat. Pia Maria failed in the semifinals in 2022 with “Halo” due to a lack of vocal power, while the track “Who The Hell Is Edgar?” by the Styrian/Viennese duo Teya & Salena, which was initially highly rated by the bookmakers, had to settle for 15th place a year ago Being is everythingThe Song Contest is always a surprise bag for Austria, which likes to orientate itself between blind euphoria and unexpected sadness. Regardless of whether Kaleen makes it to the final tonight and perhaps even wins it on Saturday, or flies back home as an early loser with an impressive show – the party will enthrall people on site and in front of TV screens all over Europe. In the end: being there is everything!
#Triumphs #tragedies #song #contest #history #Austrias #tops #flops