Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019

Eurovision Song Contest 2019
Country Austria
National selection
Selection processInternal selection
Selection date(s)Artist: 29 January 2019
Song: 8 March 2019
Selected artist(s)Paenda
Selected song"Limits"
Selected songwriter(s)Paenda
Finals performance
Semi-final resultFailed to qualify (17th)
Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2018 2019 2020►

Austria participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 with the song "Limits" written and performed by Paenda. On 29 January 2019, the Austrian broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF) announced that they had internally selected Pænda to compete at the 2019 contest in Tel Aviv, Israel, while "Limits" was presented to the public on 8 March 2019.

Austria was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 16 May 2019. Performing during the show in position 9, "Limits" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Austria placed seventeenth out of the 18 participating countries in the semi-final with 21 points.

Background

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Prior to the 2019 contest, Austria has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty-one times since its first entry in 1957.[1] The nation 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. Austria's least successful result has been last place, which they have achieved on eight occasions, most recently in 2012.[4] Austria has also received nul points on four occasions; in 1962, 1988, 1991 and 2015.[5]

The Austrian national broadcaster, Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF), broadcasts the event within Austria and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. ORF confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest on 21 September 2018.[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 to represent Austria at the contest.[7]

Before Eurovision

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Internal selection

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Up to 12 artists, including singers Hyäne Fischer, Joe Traxler and Sara De Blue, were nominated by the ORF Eurovision Song Contest Team led by ORF chief editor Stefan Zechner, which collaborated with music expert Eberhard Forcher who worked on the selection of the Austrian entries since 2016, to submit songs to the broadcaster.[8][9] On 14 January 2019, Forcher revealed that three entries had been shortlisted with a final decision to be made within the week.[10] On 29 January 2019, "Limits" written and performed by Paenda was announced by ORF as the Austrian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2019.[11] Paenda was selected from the three shortlisted artists by Forcher, the ORF Eurovision Team and a panel of around 15 to 20 music industry and Eurovision experts, but was requested to submit a new song from her forthcoming unreleased album Evolution II due to the one initially submitted being deemed unconvincing enough.[12][13] The presentation of the song took place on 8 March 2019 at an ORF press conference as well as during the radio show Ö3-Wecker, aired on Hitradio Ö3.[14]

Promotion

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Paenda made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Limits" as the Austrian Eurovision entry. On 6 April, Pænda performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the AFAS Live venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Cornald Maas and Marlayne.[15] On 14 April, Pænda performed during the London Eurovision Party, which was held at the Café de Paris venue in London, United Kingdom and hosted by Nicki French and Paddy O’Connell.[16]

At Eurovision

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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 28 January 2019, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Austria was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 14 May 2019, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.[17]

Once all the competing songs for the 2019 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 9, following the entry from Sweden and before the entry from Croatia.[18]

The two semi-finals and the final were broadcast in Austria on ORF 1 with commentary by Andi Knoll.[19] The Austrian spokesperson, who announced the top 12-point score awarded by the Austrian jury during the final, was Philipp Hansa.

Semi-final

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Pænda during a rehearsal before the second semi-final

Paenda took part in technical rehearsals on 6 and 10 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 13 and 14 May. This included the jury show on 13 May where the professional juries of each country watched and voted on the competing entries.

The Austrian performance featured Paenda sitting on a stool and performing on a black and white stage, with explosions of lights throughout the performance from thin light poles surrounding Paenda that create patterns and from the triangles on the ceiling.[20][21][22] Paenda was joined by three off-stage backing vocalists: Christina Horn, Noy Ben Shabat and Or Ilan.[23]

At the end of the show, Austria was not announced among the top 10 entries in the second semi-final and therefore failed to qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Austria placed seventeenth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 21 points: 0 points from the televoting and 21 points from the juries.

Voting

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Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.[24]

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Austria and awarded by Austria in the second semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows:

Points awarded to Austria

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Points awarded to Austria (Semi-final 2)[25]
Score Televote Jury
12 points
10 points
8 points  Sweden
7 points
6 points  Lithuania
5 points
4 points
3 points
2 points  Denmark
1 point

Points awarded by Austria

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Detailed voting results

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The following members comprised the Austrian jury:[24]

Detailed voting results from Austria (Semi-final 2)[25]
Draw Country Jury Televote
P. Vieweger Missy May B. Ruprechter Mathea J. Le Play Rank Points Rank Points
01  Armenia 4 16 17 6 9 10 1 13
02  Ireland 14 17 12 8 16 15 16
03  Moldova 16 9 11 15 17 16 17
04   Switzerland 7 8 5 1 6 4 7 1 12
05  Latvia 11 12 16 10 12 14 15
06  Romania 15 10 10 11 11 13 12
07  Denmark 5 7 8 4 14 7 4 9 2
08  Sweden 8 1 1 5 2 1 12 10 1
09  Austria
10  Croatia 2 4 6 16 8 6 5 3 8
11  Malta 9 15 14 3 4 9 2 11
12  Lithuania 17 14 13 12 13 17 14
13  Russia 13 3 15 13 15 11 7 4
14  Albania 12 13 9 17 7 12 8 3
15  Norway 3 6 7 14 10 8 3 2 10
16  Netherlands 10 5 2 2 1 2 10 5 6
17  North Macedonia 1 2 4 7 5 3 8 6 5
18  Azerbaijan 6 11 3 9 3 5 6 4 7
Detailed voting results from Austria (Final)[26]
Draw Country Jury Televote
P. Vieweger Missy May B. Ruprechter Mathea J. Le Play Rank Points Rank Points
01  Malta 17 14 18 5 10 15 21
02  Albania 24 17 19 18 17 24 11
03  Czech Republic 16 11 10 4 9 8 3 18
04  Germany 21 6 16 13 8 14 17
05  Russia 4 10 15 16 21 12 6 5
06  Denmark 18 13 14 9 18 17 13
07  San Marino 26 24 8 26 22 20 23
08  North Macedonia 1 1 7 7 2 1 12 12
09  Sweden 7 4 2 6 5 5 6 16
10  Slovenia 22 22 9 19 11 18 9 2
11  Cyprus 2 20 24 21 16 11 22
12  Netherlands 12 3 3 3 1 3 8 4 7
13  Greece 23 25 26 24 24 26 26
14  Israel 25 19 13 20 23 22 20
15  Norway 8 5 12 15 15 10 1 3 8
16  United Kingdom 20 18 11 11 20 19 24
17  Iceland 19 26 21 12 26 21 5 6
18  Estonia 15 21 22 23 19 25 15
19  Belarus 11 16 23 10 14 16 25
20  Azerbaijan 10 12 5 14 6 7 4 10 1
21  France 9 7 6 8 7 6 5 14
22  Italy 14 15 1 2 3 4 7 2 10
23  Serbia 3 8 20 17 13 9 2 7 4
24   Switzerland 6 2 4 1 4 2 10 1 12
25  Australia 5 9 25 22 12 13 8 3
26  Spain 13 23 17 25 25 23 19

References

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  1. ^ "Eurovision Song Contest 1957". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
  2. ^ "Eurovision Song Contest 1966". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
  3. ^ "Austria wins Eurovision Song Contest". bbc.co.uk/news. BBC. 11 May 2014. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
  4. ^ "Eurovision Song Contest 2012 Semi-Final (1)". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
  5. ^ "History by Country – Austria". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
  6. ^ Christou, Costa (25 May 2019). "Austria: ORF confirms participation for Eurovision 2020". escXtra. Archived from the original on 26 May 2019. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
  7. ^ Jiandani, Sanjay. "Austria: ORF confirms internal selection for Eurovision 2019". esctoday.com. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
  8. ^ "Autriche 2019 : Joe Traxler ou Sara de Blue ?". L'Eurovision Au Quotidien (in French). 14 August 2018. Archived from the original on 27 October 2020. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
  9. ^ Feddersen, Jan (17 December 2018). "Hyäne Fischer: Im Lodenmantel für Österreich?". eurovision.de (in German). Archived from the original on 17 December 2018. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
  10. ^ McCaig, Ewan (14 January 2019). "Austria: Artist For Eurovision 2019 To Be Selected This Week". Eurovoix. Archived from the original on 15 January 2019. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
  11. ^ "Pænda startet für Österreich beim Song Contest". oe3.ORF.at. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
  12. ^ "Eurovision 2019 - PÆNDA (Austria)". ESCKAZ. Archived from the original on 1 November 2018. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
  13. ^ Bayer, Calvin (17 February 2019). "Austria almost axed Pænda from internal Eurovision selection, says scout Eberhard Forcher". Wiwibloggs. Archived from the original on 15 December 2019. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
  14. ^ Granger, Anthony (8 March 2019). "Austria: "Limits" By PAENDA Released". Eurovoix. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
  15. ^ "This was Eurovision in Concert 2019 in Amsterdam". Eurovision.tv. 6 April 2019.
  16. ^ "18 Eurovision 2019 acts to perform in London on Sunday 14 April". Eurovision.tv. 13 April 2019. Archived from the original on 15 April 2019. Retrieved 16 April 2019.
  17. ^ Jordan, Paul (28 January 2019). "Eurovision 2019: Which country takes part in which Semi-Final?". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  18. ^ "Exclusive: This is the Eurovision 2019 Semi-Final running order!". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. 2 April 2019. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  19. ^ Redaktion, KOSMO (29 April 2019). "ANDI KNOLL OUTET SICH: "ICH BIN SEIT 18 JAHREN MIT EINEM MANN ZUSAMMEN"". kosmo.at. Archived from the original on 4 May 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  20. ^ Luukela, Sami (6 May 2019). "LIVE DAY 3 REVIEW: 🇦🇹 PÆNDA focuses on lights, not LED 🇦🇹". escXtra. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  21. ^ Maddalozzo, Riccardo (10 May 2019). "🇦🇹 LIVE DAY 7 REVIEW: Intimate setting and a triangles show for PÆNDA 🇦🇹". escXtra. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  22. ^ Royston, Benny (10 May 2019). "Exclusive footage as second rehearsals of Eurovision 2019 continue". eurovision.tv. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  23. ^ "Austria". Six on Stage. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  24. ^ a b Groot, Evert (30 April 2019). "Exclusive: They are the judges who will vote in Eurovision 2019!". Eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  25. ^ a b c "Results of the Second Semi-Final of Tel Aviv 2019". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 2 April 2021. Retrieved 2 April 2021.
  26. ^ a b "Results of the Grand Final of Tel Aviv 2019". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 2 April 2021. Retrieved 2 April 2021.