It’s the Eurovision down season, and don’t you for a second think we’re going to stop speculating, arguing, and pushing our heated opinions. Our latest series looked at the national finals of Eurovision, and discussing how we would reform the national finals of Eurovision. This time we’re creating national finals from scratch; continuing with Austria.
In part four of this series Angus, Kittens, and Euan discuss how they’d create a national final for Austria.
Do we think that they will return to a national final, and would we want that?
Euan
I think the prospect of Austria returning to a national final in the nearby future is extremely unlikely. ÖRF seems very content with their strategy at the minute. The fact that they didn’t come back to a national final after the 2019-2022 results makes me think that it’s going to be a good while before we get one again. I think like Kittens that Austria is lacking a proper approach to the Contest and a national final could be a good method to creating one. Plus, the years of Austrian national finals tend to produce entries I love so I am biased there.
Kittens
Well, it’s been a long time since a national final for Austria. Personally I don’t see them doing anything different too soon. Since 2014’s success, even through national finals, they’ve been a bit of a musical mess, with absolutely no level of consistency and no idea of any sort of overarching method to their madness. At this point I’m not sure what Austria’s identity is at Eurovision and I’m a little afraid to ask.
That being said, there’s no doubt someone could wake up one day in Austria and think ‘well, what if we did a NF after all?’ because that because that feels very on brand for their experience recently.
Would I welcome it if they did so? Well, the truth is that it’s so hard to say given the information available. I’d like to think they could pull something out of the bag, but it all feels like such a mystery.
Angus
I don’t think Austria is looking to organize a national final anytime soon. As the others have said, there is no clear identity or approach by ÖRF when it comes to Eurovision. While I understand why Euan thinks a national final could help create that, it also is obvious how much a directionless approach can make things worse *cough* DMGP *cough*. So unless or until there are signs that the Austrian broadcaster is aiming to make some big changes as far as Eurovision is concerned, I’m more than happy to live in an Austrian NF-less world.
What would our dream national final look like?
Euan
I’d like to see a smaller concise national final for Austria; with say 5 entries. I think the national final should focus more strongly on established acts sought after directly from ÖRF bringing their own individual approach to the Contest rather than direction from the broadcaster itself. Because of this I think four of the five acts should be picked in this manner, with the final act decided by an open selection, with a form of online voting to decide the winner. In a similar manner to how the German acts for Die Grosse Entscheidungsshow were selected. It would still allow an injection of fresh talent to the contest, and hopefully further diversity. Having such a small selection of competing entries should be used to showcase a diverse range of musical styles and genres.
Kittens
Identity, identity, identity. Honestly I have no idea what the Austrian music scene is like. So either it’s completely random or it doesn’t have much identity, or it’s hiding things really really well. So to give it the benefit of the doubt, in fantasy land, lets say it’s hiding things really well.
Lets then go with a very simple national final. Handful of acts (10 or less), one singular night. Nice mix of established acts and newcomers. Get some sort of national treasure to host the whole thing. Televote and jury – a nice jury of industry representatives in the jury. Good mix of genres and languages (and songwriters, don’t just melfest-reject yourself out of this). Nice and simple, and should be a good starting point to build on to test the waters.
Angus
A smallish, 7 song or thereabouts national final might work decently to test the waters. I want Austria to start small so they don’t immediately get swamped by sheer quantity. From there they can slowly figure out what they want their national final to be like. A national final, after all, can be anything from a national music showcase to a tense competition. I don’t know at this point where on that spectrum (or beyond it) I would like to see Austria go. I just would hope they then pick and iterate on a format that works well with that vision.
Austria’s Eurovision Journey
In 1957, Austria made their debut into the Eurovision Song Contest, where Bob Martin represented the landlocked nation with the song “Wohin, kleines Pony?”. At the close of voting, it managed to place 10th overall. Since their debut, Austria has participated 56 times (being in the final 49 times), and have won the competition on two occasions in 1966 and 2014.
For 2024, Kaleen was internally selected to represent Austria with their song “We Will Rave”. In Malmö, Kaleen qualified for the final, where she went on to finish in 24th place with 24 points. Of these, 5 points came from the televote and another 19 came from the juries.
What do you think about our reforms? As always, let us know what you think by commenting down below. Also, be sure to follow ‘That Eurovision Site’ on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Threads and Bluesky for all the latest Eurovision news!
News Source: That Eurovision Site
Photo Credit: Corinne Cumming / EBU
Tim J