Introduction

Since 2011 Austria takes part regularly again at the Eurovision Song Contest. In a national final with five acts of high quality, Natália Kelly could achieve the first place with the song “Shine”.  The 18 years old singer was born in Hartfort, Connecticut, USA as she has an American father and a Brazilian mother. She grew up in Bad Vöslau, Austria. She has started singing at a very young age and founded a children’s choir. Her idol is Céline Dion, who has won the contest in 1988. Together with her mother she sang all her songs. Later Natália enjoyed a musical education based on guitar and piano. The biggest success in her life was winning “The Voice”. 

The producer Alexander Kahr, who has suggested and convinced her to take part in the Austrian selection, is familiar to Natália since her early childhood.  

The song “Shine” is a beautiful pop song with an international approach. This kind of song can be easily played in the radio stations as has huge hit potential. The song is about the ups and downs in life, everybody must stand up to shine again, to defy setbacks. This song will certainly be not a setback in Malmö.  A great song from Austria which deserves to be in the grand final.

History

Participations: 46 

Debut: 1957

Biggest success: 1st place 1966 “Merci Chérie” by Udo Jürgens, 1x 4th place, 4x 5th place, 2x 6th place, 2x 7th place, 2x 8th place, 3x 9th place, 4x 10th place

46 times Austria has taken part in the Eurovision Song Contest already. There were certain years when Austria missed out for a while. 2011 Austria came back after three years with new inspiration and enthusiasm, Nadine Beiler sang “The secret is love”, she has qualified for the grand final in Düsseldorf and made the 18th rank with a stunning performance, the host country Germany awarded this with 12 points! The old twist between Germany and Austria regarding the voting has smoothened. After many years a big national final is being been arranged by ORF to find a star for Austria every year now. 

There has been one big victory for Austria in 1966 by Udo Jürgens “Merci Chérie”, but there were quite a lot entries in the Top 10 like “My little World” by Waterloo & Robinson in 1976 (5th), “Weil der Mensch zählt” by Alf Poier in 2003 (6th) and “Nur ein Lied” by Thomas Forstner in 1989 (5th).