Austria participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan. The Austrian entry was selected through a national final, organised by the Austrian broadcaster ORF.[1]Trackshittaz represented Austria with the song "Woki mit deim Popo", which failed to qualify from the first semi-final, achieving 18th place with 8 points.[2]
Österreich rockt den Song Contest (Austria rocks the Song Contest) was the national final that selected Austria's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012. The competition took place on 24 February 2012 at the ORF Center in Vienna, hosted by Mirjam Weichselbraun, Robert Kratky and Andi Knoll and broadcast on ORF eins as well as streamed online via ORF's official website and the official Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.tv.[3][4]
Competing entries[]
Nine of the ten artists were nominated by radio station Hitradio Ö3. The nine artists selected to compete in the national final were revealed on 1 December 2011.[5][6] The tenth act was chosen through a public wildcard selection. For the wildcard selection, ORF invited all interested artists to submit their entries to the broadcaster between 1 December 2011 and 31 December 2011. At the close of the deadline, the broadcaster received over 100 submissions. On 9 January 2012, "How Can You Ask Me?" performed by Mary Broadcast Band was announced as the winner of the wildcard.[7] On 29 January 2012, it was announced that !DelaDap had been disqualified from the competition due to their song "Crazy Swing" having been performed before the 1 September 2011 date when songs are eligible for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012.[8] On 3 February 2012, ORF announced that !DelaDap would remain in the competition and would perform the song "Don't Turn Around" instead.[9]
The televised final took place on 24 February 2012. Ten songs competed in the first round where the top two were selected by a public vote to proceed to the second round. The top two were "That's What I Am" performed by Conchita Wurst and "Woki mit deim Popo" performed by Trackshittaz. In the second round, public televoting selected "Woki mit deim Popo" performed by Trackshittaz as the winner. Viewers were able to vote via telephone or SMS. The song became Austria's first entry in the contest to be performed entirely in Mühlviertlerisch, a Central Bavarian dialect spoken in Upper Austria.
Austria competed in the second half of the first semi-final (16th on stage), on 22 May 2012, following Hungary and preceding Moldova. Austria received 8 points and placed 18th, thus failing to qualify for the final on 26 May.[10] The public awarded Austria 17th place with 15 points and the jury awarded 17th place with 27 points.[11]
Austria
Switzerland
Belgium
Iceland
