Austria participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö, Sweden. The Austrian entry was selected through the national selection "Österreich rockt den Song Contest", organised by the Austrian broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF). The country was represented by the song "Shine" performed by Natália Kelly, which failed to qualify from the first semi-final of the contest, placing 14th and scoring 27 points. The entry was written by Alexander Kahr, Andreas Grass, Nikola Paryla and Natália Kelly herself.
Österreich rockt den Song Contest (Austria rocks the Song Contest) was the national final that selected Austria's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2013. The competition took place on 15 January 2013 at the ORF Center in Vienna, hosted by Mirjam Weichselbraun 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.[1]
Format[]
Five songs competed in the competition where the winner was selected by public voting and an international expert jury panel consisting of five individual members.[2] The sum of all the jury scores were assigned based on the percentage of votes each song achieved. For example, if a song gained 10% of the jury vote, then that entry would be awarded 10 points. Viewers were able to vote via telephone or SMS and scores were also assigned based on the percentage of votes each song achieved.
The members of the international jury panel were:[3]
Marija Šerifović (Serbia) – singer and winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2007
Shay Byrne (Ireland) – radio presenter
Gerd Gebhardt (Germany) – music producer
Luke Fisher (United Kingdom) – chief editor of Eurovision website ESCXTRA.com
Anton Zetterholm (Sweden) – musical actor
Competing entries[]
ORF invited all interested artists to submit their applications to the broadcaster between 2 October 2012 and 31 October 2012.[4] All submissions were reviewed and nominated by a team of music professionals consisting of musician, composer and music producer Thomas Rabitsch, Eurovision expert Ralf Strobl and music label manager Anja Rabitsch. The five artists selected to compete in the national final were revealed on 11 December 2012 during Ö3 radio show Ö3-Wecker.[5]
Andreas Grass, Nikola Paryla, Natália Kelly, Alexander Kahr
Yela
"Feels Like Home"
Daniela Bauer, Lukas Hillebrand, Alexander Pohn
Final[]
The televised final took place on 15 January 2013. Five songs competed where the combination of votes from an international jury panel and a public vote selected "Shine" performed by Natália Kelly as the winner. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the competing artists each performed a cover version of a former Eurovision winning song.[6]
Natália Kelly at the first semi-final dress rehearsal in Malmö.
Austria was allocated to compete in the first semi-final on 14 May for a place in the final on 18 May.[7] In the first semi-final, the producers of the show decided that Austria would open the semi-final and perform 1st, preceding Estonia.[8] On stage, Kelly had five backing singers: Karin Bauer, Regina Mallinger, Birgit Kubica, Harald Baumgartner and Monika Ballwein.[9]
Austria failed to qualify from the first semi-final of the competition, placing 14th and scoring 27 points.[10][11]
Austria
