Introduction

After the great success from last year with Nadine Beiler, the Austrians have been motivated to play a role in the Eurovision Song Contest again. The Austrians have drawn back after a bad result in 2007 with the explanation that the Europeans don’t understand the Austrian music, in regards of the growth of participating countries especially from Eastern Europe. There has been a greatly pimped up national final this year with ten contestants, chosen by Ö3 radio. Former representatives and Austrian celebrities have been invited to comment this year’s performances.

The broadcaster ORF tried the utmost to make it look as modern as possible with DJ and dancing animation between the song presentations. The quality of the songs was moderate from chanson, pop, folk to rap. As the two super finalists Conchita Wurst and Trackshittaz have been chosen after a gassy show. At the end Trackshittaz could win with a small margin, they have entered the Austrian final last year already. Even if the Austrians obviously seem to like the entry “Woki mit dem Popo” (Shake your ass), they probably did not think of the international presentation at the ESC. The background dancers looked more than table dancers and the title of the song needs no comment.

This is not the first time that a rap song is entering an ESC, but this has never been really successful. “Woki mit dem Popo” is a tiring and wearisome three minutes song, a disaster for an international stage. It needs the utmost effort for the singers by convincing to get some points. The Austrians probably did not learn from the past, sorry Austria this song will definitely fail!

History

44 times Austria has taken part in the Eurovision Song Contest already. There were certain years when Austria missed out for a while. Last year 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 18^th rank with a stunning performance, 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 has been arranged by ORF and the radio station Ö3 to find a star for Austria.

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 (5^th), “Weil der Mensch zählt” by Alf Poier in 2003 (6^th) and “Nur ein Lied” by Thomas Forstner in 1989 (5^th).