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Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023

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Eurovision Song Contest 2023
Participating broadcasterÖsterreichischer Rundfunk (ORF)
Country Austria
National selection
Selection processInternal selection
Selection date(s)Artist: 31 January 2023
Song: 8 March 2023
Selected artist(s)Teya and Salena
Selected song"Who the Hell Is Edgar?"
Selected songwriter(s)
  • Teodora Špirić
  • Selina-Maria Edbauer
  • Ronald Janeček
  • Pele Loriano
Finals performance
Semi-final resultQualified (2nd, 137 points)
Final result15th, 120 points
Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2022 2023 2024►

Austria was represented in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, United Kingdom, with the song "Who the Hell Is Edgar?", written by Teodora Špirić, Selina-Maria Edbauer, Ronald Janeček, and Pele Loriano, and performed by Špirić and Edbauer themselves under their stage names Teya and Salena. The Austrian participating broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF) internally selected its entry for the contest. Teya and Salena were announced as the Austrian representatives on 31 January 2023, while their song was presented to the public on 8 March 2023.

Austria was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 11 May 2023. Performing during the show in position 13, "Who The Hell Is Edgar?" was announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final, marking Austria's first qualification to the grand final since 2018. It was later revealed that Austria placed 2nd out of the 16 participating countries in the semi-final with 137 points. Performing in position 1 in the final on 13 May 2023, Austria finished in fifteenth place overall with 120 points.

Background

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Prior to the 2023 contest, Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty-four times since its first entry in 1957.[1] It has won the contest on two occasions: in 1966 with the song "Merci, Chérie" performed by Udo Jürgens and in 2014 with the song "Rise Like a Phoenix" performed by Conchita Wurst.[2][3] Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004 contest, Austria has featured in only seven finals. Its least successful result has been last place, which they have achieved on eight occasions, most recently in 2012.[4] It has also received nul points on four occasions; in 1962, 1988, 1991 and 2015.[5]

As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, ORF organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. ORF confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2023 contest on 9 June 2022.[6] From 2011 to 2013 as well as in 2015 and 2016, ORF set up national finals with several artists to choose both the song and performer to compete at Eurovision for Austria, with both the public and a panel of jury members involved in the selection. In 2014 and since 2017, ORF has held an internal selection to choose the artist and song.

Before Eurovision

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Internal selection

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Artists were nominated by ORF's Eurovision team, which collaborated with producer Lukas Hillebrand and music expert Eberhard Forcher who worked on the selection of the Austrian entries since 2016, to submit songs to the broadcaster.[7] In November 2022, it was reported by Austrian media that 15 artists, including singers Julian le Play and Slomo, were involved in the selection and that the Austrian entry would be selected by a panel of ORF entertainment editors together with the broadcaster's programme director Stefanie Groiss-Horowitz and entertainment director Alexander Hofer, after three entries had been shortlisted by a previous panel of 25 local and international music industry and Eurovision experts as well as Eurovision fans following a live casting round which took place on 30 October 2022.[8][9]

On 31 January 2023, ORF announced during the radio show Ö3-Wecker, aired on Ö3, that they had internally selected Teodora Špirić (Teya) and Selina-Maria Edbauer (Salena) to represent Austria in Liverpool.[10][11] Teya had previously attempted to represent Serbia at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2020, placing tenth in the national final Beovizija 2020 with the song "Sudnji dan", while Salena had previously been a participant in the seventh season of The Voice of Germany in 2017, where she reached the third round as a member of Samu Haber's team.[12][13] Both singers also previously attempted to represent Austria at the Eurovision Song Contest; Teya in 2020 with an English version of "Sudnji dan" entitled "Judgement Day" and Salena in 2019 with the song "Behind the Waterfall".[14] The song "Who the Hell Is Edgar?", written by Teya and Salena together with Ronald Janeček and Pele Loriano at a songwriting camp in the Czech Republic, was presented as the Austrian entry for the contest on 8 March 2023 during Ö3-Wecker.[15]

"This song is a snapshot of the fun we had on the day we wrote it. It started with wanting to convey what it feels like when a good song is made. Sometimes creativity rushes through you as if you‘re getting possessed by a ghost. But we also wanted to put our personal experiences as female songwriters into the song. It often feels like you have to prove yourself over and over again to be taken seriously. By presenting Edgar Allan Poe as the actual writer of the song, we want to draw attention to this frustrating part of the music business. It's satire."

— Teya and Salena about "Who the Hell Is Edgar?"[16]

At Eurovision

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Teya and Salena at a press conference for the Eurovision Song Contest 2023

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 31 January 2023, an allocation draw was held, which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, and determined which half of the show they would perform in. Austria has been placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 11 May 2023, and has been scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.[17]

Once all the competing songs for the 2023 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Austria was set to perform in position 13, following the entry from San Marino and before the entry from Albania.[18]

In Austria, all shows were broadcast on ORF 1, with commentary by Andi Knoll, with final broadcast on FM4, with commentary by Jan Böhmermann and Olli Schulz. ORF also provided additional programming alongside the live broadcast of the contest shows, with the two-part pre-recorded series "Mr. Song Contest Proudly Presents" fronted by Knoll, which aired prior to the two semi-finals, and two live broadcasts from the Tate Liverpool, "ESC – Der Countdown" and "ESC – Die Aftershow", conducted as a joint broadcast on ORF, Germany's ARD and Switzerland's SRF which aired prior to and after the final and was presented by Barbara Schöneberger.[19] ORF appointed Philipp Hansa as its spokesperson to announce the top 12-point score awarded by the Austrian jury during the final.[20]

At the end of the show, Austria was announced as a qualifier for the final.

The semi-final 1 broadcast on 9 May reached a total of 306,000 Austrian viewers, which represented a 16.5% market share.[21] The semi-final 2 broadcast on 11 May, which included the participation of Austria, reached 568,000 viewers (23.1% market share).[22] The broadcast of the final on 13 May was watched by an average of 1,079,000 viewers, representing a 47% market share, with a peak viewership of 1,230,000 at a given point during the broadcast on ORF 1. This marked Austria's best viewership figures for the contest since 2016, as well as all-time high viewing figures among the 12-49 and 12-29 target groups.[23]

Voting

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Points awarded to Austria

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Points awarded by Austria

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Detailed voting results

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The following members comprised the Austrian jury:

  • Christian Andreas Ude
  • Peter Schreiber
  • Thomas Traint
  • Elke Kaufmann [de]
  • Alica Ouschan
Detailed voting results from Austria (Semi-final 2)[24]
Draw Country Televote
Rank Points
01  Denmark 14
02  Armenia 7 4
03  Romania 12
04  Estonia 8 3
05  Belgium 1 12
06  Cyprus 9 2
07  Iceland 10 1
08  Greece 11
09  Poland 4 7
10  Slovenia 2 10
11  Georgia 13
12  San Marino 15
13  Austria
14  Albania 5 6
15  Lithuania 6 5
16  Australia 3 8
Detailed voting results from Austria (Final)[25]
Draw Country Jury Televote
Juror 1 Juror 2 Juror 3 Juror 4 Juror 5 Rank Points Rank Points
01  Austria
02  Portugal 16 23 10 13 10 19 23
03   Switzerland 8 11 2 6 14 7 4 9 2
04  Poland 11 24 16 8 9 18 13
05  Serbia 3 10 24 16 24 14 15
06  France 24 22 13 20 11 22 18
07  Cyprus 17 18 6 3 12 9 2 20
08  Spain 6 17 9 17 17 17 24
09  Sweden 9 1 4 5 8 2 10 7 4
10  Albania 20 25 14 10 23 21 8 3
11  Italy 19 6 5 2 1 1 12 3 8
12  Estonia 22 21 11 7 4 11 19
13  Finland 2 4 1 19 22 3 8 1 12
14  Czech Republic 1 2 19 22 19 6 5 12
15  Australia 13 5 18 11 21 15 17
16  Belgium 18 3 20 12 5 8 3 11
17  Armenia 14 8 3 14 13 10 1 22
18  Moldova 25 19 15 18 18 23 16
19  Ukraine 7 12 17 15 6 13 6 5
20  Norway 10 13 22 23 20 20 4 7
21  Germany 21 16 25 24 25 25 5 6
22  Lithuania 12 7 8 1 3 4 7 21
23  Israel 15 14 7 9 16 16 10 1
24  Slovenia 5 9 12 4 2 5 6 14
25  Croatia 4 20 23 21 7 12 2 10
26  United Kingdom 23 15 21 25 15 24 25

References

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  1. ^ "Eurovision Song Contest 1957". European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Retrieved 25 November 2014.
  2. ^ "Eurovision Song Contest 1966". European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Retrieved 25 November 2014.
  3. ^ "Austria wins Eurovision Song Contest". BBC News. 11 May 2014. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
  4. ^ "Eurovision Song Contest 2012 Semi-Final (1)". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
  5. ^ "History by Country – Austria". European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Retrieved 25 November 2014.
  6. ^ Jiandani, Sanjay (Sergio) (9 June 2022). "Austria: ORF confirms participation at Eurovision 2023". ESCToday. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  7. ^ Granger, Anthony (24 January 2023). "🇦🇹 Austria: Eurovision 2023 Representative to be Revealed in the Next Week". Eurovoix. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  8. ^ "Song Contest 2023: Wie Ukraine und Österreich ihre Lieder für Liverpool finden". kleinezeitung.at (in German). 3 November 2022. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  9. ^ "Österreich: Slomo macht seine Bewerbung mit "UPAMET" für den ESC 2023 öffentlich". ESC kompakt (in German). 25 November 2022. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  10. ^ Ude, Christian (31 January 2023). "Song Contest: Geheimnis gelüftet: Ex-Starmaniacs singen für Österreich". Kleine Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 10 February 2023.
  11. ^ Kleine Zeitung Graz (31 January 2023). "Geheimnis gelüftet: Ex-Starmaniacs singen für Österreich" (in German). Retrieved 31 January 2023.
  12. ^ "Frauenduo vertritt Österreich beim ESC 2023". vienna.at. 31 January 2023. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  13. ^ James Washak (31 January 2023). "🇦🇹 Austria: Teya and Salena to Eurovision 2023". Retrieved 31 January 2023.
  14. ^ "Teya & Salena - Fab Two für Liverpool" (in German). 8 November 2019. Retrieved 31 January 2023.
  15. ^ "Teya & Salena will represent Austria in Liverpool". European Broadcasting Union (EBU). 31 January 2023. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  16. ^ "Austria: 'Who The Hell Is Edgar?' revealed as entry". eurovision.tv. 8 March 2023. Retrieved 8 March 2023.
  17. ^ Groot, Evert (31 January 2023). "Eurovision 2023: Allocation Draw results". European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Retrieved 31 January 2022.
  18. ^ "Eurovision Song Contest 2023 Semi-Final running orders revealed!". Eurovision.tv. EBU. 22 March 2023. Retrieved 22 March 2023.
  19. ^ "Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in ORF 1 – multimedial und barrierefrei" (Press release) (in German). ORF. 5 May 2023. Archived from the original on 5 May 2023. Retrieved 31 May 2023 – via Austria Press Agency.
  20. ^ "Eurovision Song Contest 2023: Die zweite Probe von TEYA & SALENA in Liverpool" (Press release) (in German). ORF. 5 May 2023. Archived from the original on 6 May 2023. Retrieved 31 May 2023 – via Austria Press Agency.
  21. ^ Carabaña Menéndez, Hugo (10 May 2023). "Audiencias: Los datos de la 1ª semifinal de Eurovisión 2023 en Europa" (in Spanish). ESCplus España. Archived from the original on 31 May 2023. Retrieved 31 May 2023.
  22. ^ Carabaña Menéndez, Hugo (12 May 2023). "Audiencias: Los datos de la 2ª semifinal de Eurovisión 2023 en Europa" (in Spanish). ESCplus España. Archived from the original on 31 May 2023. Retrieved 31 May 2023.
  23. ^ "Eurovision Song Contest 2023: Bester ORF-1-Finalabend seit 2016" (Press release) (in German). ORF. 14 May 2023. Archived from the original on 31 May 2023. Retrieved 31 May 2023 – via Austria Press Agency.
  24. ^ a b c "Results of the Second Semi-Final of Liverpool 2023". Eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union.
  25. ^ a b c "Results of the Grand Final of Liverpool 2023". Eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union.