Introduction

• Participant(s): Lum!x feat. Pia Maria
  
• Song: Halo
  
• Writer(s): Luca Michlmayr, Anders Nilsen, Gabriele Ponte, Rasmus Flyckt, Sophie Alexandra Tweed-Simmons
  
• Composer(s): Luca Michlmayr, Anders Nilsen, Gabriele Ponte, Rasmus Flyckt, Sophie Alexandra Tweed-Simmons
  
• Broadcaster: ORF
  
• Social media:      
  
• Team review: 

Austria is choosing their Eurovision entries internally in the past years. So this year is no exception. Last year Vincent Bueno could not make it into the Grand Final of Rotterdam with his anthem “Amen”. This year there are very modern tunes coming from the land in the Alps. LUM!X and Pia Maria will sing “Halo” for Austria in Turin.

LUM!X is one of the most successful music producers from Austria. He was born as Luca Michlmayr in Rohrbach, Upper Austria in 2000. Luca liked to play his guitar and started to produce his own music in the age of 11. Through uploading his dance song results on YouTube he has been spotted by a Swedish record company. With his song "Monster"  he gained more than 200 million streams on Spotify and “Thunder”  was another successful track. In 2021 he has been nominated in the Amadeus Austrian Music Awards in the category “Electronic / Dance”.

Pia Maria (Pia Außerlechner) was born in Tyrol in 2003. She has been writing songs since she was 16. Pia is also experienced in musical theatre. Together with Luca from LUM!X they are going to fly the flag for Austria in Turin.

“Halo” is a dancefloor song with a repetitive chorus, an electro pop song, which the youngsters would love. This kind of music is nothing new in Eurovision, but probably not expected from Austria. But there might be a lot of fans to vote for Austria this year.

History

• Debut: 1957
• Participations: 55
• Victories: 2
• Finals: 48 (7 since 2004)
• Top 10: 22

This year, it will be the 55th Austrian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest. T hanks to Conchita Wurst, Austria could win the ESC for a second time in ESC history. Vienna has been a wonderful host city in 2015. The Vienna ESC 2015 was truly magical and showed the city and the country in the best possible light, a very good atmosphere, friendly people and a real ESC enthusiasm throughout the city.

In the very beginning in 1957, the Austrian debut song “Wohin, Kleines Pony” by Bob Martin made the last place in Frankfurt. This should not be taken as bad omen, as there were quite a lot of successes over the years. 48 times the Grand Final could be reached and at least Austria could get a Top10 position for 22 times.

The biggest moments for Austria were of course Udo Jürgens’ entry “Merci Chérie” in 1966. Regrettably, Udo Jürgens passed away in 2015. He started a very successful career, not only in Austria and Germany, even beyond. He composed more than 1000 songs and released 50 albums and sold more than 105 million albums. He will always be connected with the Eurovision Song Contest. Luckily he was able to witness the second Austrian victory “Rise Like A Phoenix” by Conchita Wurst in Copenhagen 2015. This was a truly revival of the “Sleeping Beauty Austria”. Firstly criticised in its own country, later celebrated as hero - Conchita has shown what tolerance and freedom really means to the entire world. Conchita also become an icon for the LGBTQ+ community and stands for equal rights.

After her victory she travelled around the world, has been invited to TV shows in Australia and performed in the UN headquarters in Vienna and produced many new songs and albums and is present in a lot of TV shows.

Austria has mainly participated on a regular basis, but in recent years they even had to pause due to unsuccessful entries in the early 2000’s. It was a rule that the country has to pause for a year, if a Top 10 place was not reached. But the Austrians came back with more enthusiasm and new energy. 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, in former years both countries have not been generous with their points to each other.

Last year Vincent Bueno had a great song “Amen”, but was not able to convince the juries and televoters to reach the Grand Final in Rotterdam.

Biggest successes

• 2x 1st place
  “Merci Chérie” | Udo Jürgens (Luxembourg 1966) 
  “Rise Like A Phoenix” | Conchita Wurst (Copenhagen 2014)
• 1x 3rd place
  “Nobody But You” | Cesár Sampson (Lisbon 2018)
  
  

Video Nostalgia

• “Tausend Fenster” | Karel Gott
  Rank 13, London 1968
  
• “Heute In Jerusalem” | Christina Simon
  Rank 18, Jerusalem 1979
  
• “Nur Noch Gefühl” | Gary Lux
  Rank 20, Brussels 1987

First Rehearsal