The History of Austria at Eurovision, Part 2 (1992 - Present)

Steven Perkins: 00:00:00

In this week's episode, drag queens, dead writers and more disastrous placings. As we conclude our story so far of Austria at Eurovision. I'm Stephen Perkins and this is Doucepoix. Hello, London. We are ready for your vote.

test, which will take us from: 1992

Undoubtedly, the bigger story since our last episode has been the EBU's announcement that the vote scheduled for next month regarding Israel's participation in the contest will no longer be taking place, apparently in response to the ceasefire deal that was struck recently between Israel and Hamas. The matter of Israel's participation is not off the table entirely, but has effectively been kicked down the line back to the General Assembly.

n the Eurovision Song Contest: 2026

Consequently, the Board decided to put the issue on the agenda of the ordinary Winter General assembly, which will take place in December, rather than convening an extraordinary meeting beforehand. There hasn't been much in the way of additional communication following the EBU's original statement, which has left the situation rather unclear.

At present, it's believed that no vote is actually scheduled for the meeting in December, though theoretically the members attending could call for one to take place.

My take on it, for what it's worth, it certainly seems like the EBU is looking to buy itself some time and hoping that the political situation will reach a point where nobody is calling for Israel to be excluded from the contest anymore, though I think that's rather wishful thinking on their part.

hances of Israel competing in: 2026

There's been no word from Ireland, Slovenia, Spain or the Netherlands suggesting that they are planning to walk back their decision to boycott the contest if Israel is allowed to compete. So the situation remains a deeply uncomfortable one for the ebu.

Either way, it looks like December is going to be a very challenging month for the contest. In lighter news, Melody Festival and stalwart Sanne Nielsen is reportedly throwing her hat into the ring to represent Sweden Again next year.

seven times before winning it: 2014

And finally, Eurovision winning German songwriter Bernd Meinunger has died at the age of 81.

s, most recently San Marino's: 2015

coring zero points in Rome in: 1991

So we're picking up in 92, where broadcaster ORF attempted to course correct with Tony Vegas and Zusamun Gaen or let's Go Together.

they picked him internally in: 1992

n that it's a pretty standard: 1990

I think he does a good job with it and I can see why he was a favourite to win, but I also think he's operating in the same realm as that year's winner Linda Martin's why Me For Ireland. So maybe he just didn't quite match up in the eyes of the juries.

ey decided to keep him on for: 1993

Organising a national final called and I swear I'm Not Making this up Veni VD Vegas to select the song for that year, the winning entry was Maria Magdalena, which was a very different vibe from the previous one, a lot more engaging and uptempo. And yes, if you look closely, you can spot our pal Gary Lux again on backing vocals.

Sadly, luck wasn't on Tony's side this year either and he finished in 14th place with 32 points.

In: 1994

points.: 1995

Stella Jones with Die Welt Dreit sich Verkehrt, or the World Is Turning Upside down, which is a funky blues number featuring what I'm fairly certain is the final appearance from Gary Looks for Austria, this time on backing vocals and keyboards. Truly the MVP of Austria over these two decades. We salute your commitment to the cause, Gary.

While this song was pretty cool, it wasn't really the sort of thing, genre wise, that won Eurovision during the era of Irish ballad domination. Still, a 13th place finish with 67 points was a respectable result.

hat the thinking was with the: 1996

Trying to be a lot of different things at once and not necessarily doing any of them terribly successfully. It's essentially what the hell just happened 30 years earlier. Somehow this got 10th place with 68 points.

So maybe the jury saw something in it that I didn't.

orting out her outfit for the: 1997

And speaking of: 1997

She was one of George Nussbaum's backing vocalists the year before, continuing Austria's grand tradition of the supporting singers going, yeah, that looks fun, I wouldn't mind a go at this myself.

There is some actual choreography going on here which is quite exciting and the whole thing is really fun, but it didn't resonate with the juries and finished in 21st place with 12 points.

I do wonder if this was maybe slightly ahead of its time and it might have fared slightly better if it had gone the following year after the switch to Televoting because I just think the public might have got this slightly more than the juries did.

s what happened to Austria in: 1998

They returned in: 1999

year's contest. The entry in: 2000

Very much wanting to be the Supremes or the Brunettes, but something about it doesn't quite gel. It feels quite a nervous performance and as a result the vocals don't really have the kind of heft you need with this genre of music.

It's a fun song and you can definitely feel them getting into gear properly as the performance goes on. To the extent that the final third of this actually works really well, but I think that came just a little bit too late to save it.

were sadly relegated again in: 2001

So in: 2002

The chorus is a bit too bland and repetitive and I had to laugh that even the commentator on the clip I watched noted its similarity to Freeze alright now he only scored 26 points and finished 18th.

And Austria qualified for the: 2003

Comedian Alf Poier with Weil Der Mentschelt or because the person counts.

He sang in the South Bavarian Styrian dialect, and it was an elaborate joke entry in which he performed surrounded by cardboard cutouts with animal heads. He's no singer, let's be honest, and the whole thing reads like an enthusiastic karaoke performance at best.

He was predicted to do very badly, but ended up in sixth place with 101 points, and continued to troll the contest afterwards by declaring that his very low placing was a sign that Europeans have no taste.

emi final qualifying round in: 2004

ntry in standard German since: 1997

Since the other German songs since then were all in various dialects, it fared pretty disastrously at the contest, only picking up nine points, five from Greece and four from France, and finished in 21st place as a result.

count the audio only one from: 1996

It might have had a slim chance of succeeding as the comedy entry that year, but any hope of that was pretty much buried when it was selected to perform first in a field of 25 in the semi final, and they only picked up 30 points, finishing in 21st place and not qualifying for the final.

lts and declined to return in: 2006

was the official song of the: 2007

I believe all profits from the single went to charity, but but it's maybe a little heavy handed in its messaging and it did not resonate with the voters, finishing 27th in that year's semi final with just four points.

It's such a shame to see something that came from such a good place do so poorly, but I can't help thinking that the song itself was the weakest element of the whole package.

r failure to qualify again in: 2007

o the competition again until: 2011

points.: 2012

The duo Track Shitters with voki mit daimpopo, which is performed in a central Bavarian dialect called Mlvietlerish and means sheikh. The fact that a group called Track Shitters was allowed to compete at Eurovision at all kind of blows my mind, but here we are.

This feels like the sort of thing that was aimed squarely at performing really well in the televote, but it was a total miss. They finished last in their semi final with just eight points and only managed to finish second from last in the televote.

s violations committed at the: 2012

2013 saw a less abrasive attempt with Natalia Kelly's Shine, a rousing ballad that definitely had the potential to be a real crowd pleaser and she is a really good singer, but the whole thing just feels a little bit undercooked, particularly in the staging where she's just sort of left wandering around and generally vibing.

It's a shame because I feel there is definitely a world in which this could have qualified for the final if they'd just done something slightly more dynamic with it. But as it was. This was a second consecutive non qualifier for Austria, finishing 14th in its semi final with 27 points.

victory would have seemed by: 2014

But perhaps that underdog narrative only worked in favour of Conchita Verse with Rise Like a Phoenix, it does seem like Austria have learned from their mistakes the previous year.

Although Conchita's performance itself is fairly static, the team have done a great job with the lighting and the visual imagery to drive the message of the song home. And Conchita has such magnetic stage presence that the lack of choreo doesn't really matter. She's just serving winner energy from the off.

I remember how much they toyed with us in the presentation of this year's contest as well that she was left quite near the end of the qualifying announcements and even the vote reveals in the final came in such a way that she didn't take a clear lead for a while.

But in the end she had a fairly comprehensive victory with a tally of 290 points, making this Austria's first win in 48 years, setting a record that still stands for the longest gap between Eurovision wins.

they would need to wait until: 2032

They sent the make makes with I Am Yours, a light, bluesy track that's mostly memorable for the staging where the piano catches fire in the middle of it, and for the fact that Austria became the first host country in Eurovision history to score 0 points. However, by a weird quirk, they weren't actually last that year.

Because Germany's Black Smoke by Anne Sophie also scored zero points, and because Austria had performed earlier in the running order, tiebreak rules in place for that contest meant that they ranked head of Germany in the final tally.

re a lot of eyes on Storks in: 2016

However, the secret weapon was Zoe herself, a Disney princess, maid flash with a sweet, charming voice who fully leaned into her aesthetic for the staging and gave the impression that a wonderland was blooming around her as she sang.

The juries were unimpressed, awarding her just 31 points, but then she received a whopping 120 points from the public, an 8th place finish in the televote that propelled her to 13th place overall. Attempts to reconstruct Zoe in boy form the following year were less successful.

Nathan Trent was a sweet cinnamon role of a human being, but his song running on air wasn't the stealth banger that Luan DC was, giving more of a polite coffee shoppy Jason Mraz kind of vibe. He finished in 16th place with 93 points, zero of which came from the televote.

In: 2018

An interesting case because he'd originally been chosen for the UK's national selection that year, but withdrew after Austria offered him a guaranteed internal selection.

garian entrants Polyjanova in: 2016

But it was still enough to pull off a very impressive third place finish overall with 342 points.

And while I don't remember being that taken with this song on the night, it has since made its way into my Eurovision Bangers playlist, so fair play to him.

downhill again for Austria in: 2019

There's kind of an FKA Twigs vibe to the whole thing, but her vocals are quite challenging to listen to in the live performance and this one finished in 17th place in its semi final with 21 points, again with zero of them coming from the televote.

Had the: 2020

nough to get invited back for: 2021

If there is a significant chance of the answer being no, as it was here, finishing 12th in the semi final with 66 points.

inued to loom over Austria in: 2022

It's a real shame because this song is absolutely slaps and was one of my favourite entries for the entire contest that year and they were both so happy and joy filled at the end of their performance.

points. In: 2023

A song about songwriting and also about being possessed by the spirit of Edgar Allan Poe. It was such a fan favourite to the extent that if you watch the live performance, they're almost drowned out by the crowd singing along.

But despite a strong result in the semi final in which they finished second, this was let down by a poor Televote score during the final, with only 16 of its 120 points coming from the public.

The generally received wisdom among the fans is that being on first in the running order probably did hurt them, but this was still a much better result than Austria had had for five years and Thea would get her revenge soon enough.

2024's entry for Austria was Killeen and We Will Rave, a take no prisoners banger from a singer who had a long history with Eurovision, albeit largely as a creative director working across both Junior Eurovision and the main contest.

In the end, this performance became primarily known for the camera failure that occurred during the dance break, which cut a whole chunk of it out and which has been substituted for a wide shot of the arena when it was uploaded to YouTube. As great a song as it is, this was probably never really destined to be a top 10 finisher and it ended up in 24th place with 24 points.

And that brings us to: 2025

Much like Nemo's the Code, this one just felt like a winner when I first heard it. Although I admit I had my doubts when I saw the staging at the contest, which felt too music video like too busy.

But in a year where there was very little consensus between the way the jury were voting and the way that the public was. This one was a rare matter of agreement. Winning the jury vote and finishing fourth with the public for a total of 436 points.

sent day, what awaits them in: 2026

Hopefully a better result than they got the last time they hosted, although they couldn't really do much worse. No doubt we'll be covering that in more detail when we find out more about their next entry.

And with over 400 songs reportedly submitted for their national final, hopefully there are some serious contenders in there. That's all for this week's episode. Thank you as always for spending some time with us.

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