Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023

Eurovision Song Contest 2023
Country	Austria
National selection
Selection process	Internal selection
Selection date(s)	Artist: 31 January 2023 Song: 8 March 2023
Selected entrant	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 result	Qualified (2nd, 137 points)
Final result	15th, 120 points
Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2022 • 2023 • 2024►

Austria participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, United Kingdom, having internally selected Teya and Salena to represent the country with the song "Who the Hell Is Edgar?". Teya and Salena were announced as the Austrian entrants to the contest on 31 January 2023, while their song was presented to the public on 8 March 2023.

In the second semi-final, Austria qualified for the final on 13 May.

Background

Main article: Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest

Prior to the 2023 contest, Austria has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty-four 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 2023 Eurovision Song 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 to represent Austria at the contest.

Before Eurovision

Internal selection

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

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] The Austrian spokesperson, who announced the top 12-point score awarded by the Austrian jury during the final, was Philipp Hansa. ^[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

Points awarded to Austria

Points awarded to Austria (Semi-final) [24] Score Televote 12 points   Australia 10 points   Albania   Belgium   Poland   Slovenia 8 points   Iceland Rest of the World   San Marino 7 points   Romania   United Kingdom 6 points   Denmark   Estonia   Greece   Lithuania   Spain 5 points   Cyprus   Ukraine 4 points   Georgia 3 points   Armenia 2 points 1 point

Points awarded to Austria (Final) [25] Score Televote Jury 12 points   Belgium 10 points   Cyprus   France 8 points   Iceland   Lithuania 7 points   Australia   Denmark   Greece    Switzerland 6 points   Australia   Israel   San Marino   Serbia 5 points 4 points   Netherlands 3 points   Serbia   Slovenia 2 points   Finland   Armenia   Finland   Germany 1 point   Malta   Netherlands

Points awarded by Austria

Points awarded by Austria (Semi-final) [24] Score Televote 12 points   Belgium 10 points   Slovenia 8 points   Australia 7 points   Poland 6 points   Albania 5 points   Lithuania 4 points   Armenia 3 points   Estonia 2 points   Cyprus 1 point   Iceland

Points awarded by Austria (Final) [25] Score Televote Jury 12 points   Finland   Italy 10 points   Croatia   Sweden 8 points   Italy   Finland 7 points   Norway   Lithuania 6 points   Germany   Slovenia 5 points   Ukraine   Czech Republic 4 points   Sweden    Switzerland 3 points   Albania   Belgium 2 points    Switzerland   Cyprus 1 point   Israel   Armenia

Detailed voting results

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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7. Granger, Anthony (24 January 2023). "🇦🇹 Austria: Eurovision 2023 Representative to be Revealed in the Next Week". Eurovoix. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
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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.
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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.
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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. "Results of the Second Semi-Final of Liverpool 2023". Eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union.
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