Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018

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Eurovision Song Contest 2018
Country Austria
National selection
Selection processInternal selection
Selection date(s)Artist: 5 December 2017
Song: 9 March 2018
Selected entrantCesár Sampson
Selected song"Nobody but You"
Selected songwriter(s)
Finals performance
Semi-final resultQualified (4th, 231 points)
Final result3rd, 342 points
Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2017 • 2018 • 2019►

Austria participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 with the song "Nobody but You" written by Cesár Sampson, Borislav Milanov, Sebastian Arman, Joacim Persson and Johan Alkenäs. The song was performed by Cesár Sampson. The Austrian broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF) organised an internal selection in order to select the Austrian entry for the 2018 contest in Lisbon, Portugal. Cesár Sampson was announced as the Austrian representative on 5 December 2017, while the song, "Nobody but You", was presented to the public on 9 March 2018.

Austria was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 8 May 2018. Performing during the show in position 13, "Nobody but You" was announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 12 May. It was later revealed that Austria placed fourth out of the 19 participating countries in the semi-final with 231 points. In the final, Austria performed in position 5 and placed third out of the 26 participating countries, scoring 342 points.

Background[]

Main article: Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest

Prior to the 2018 contest, Austria had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty times since its first entry in 1957.[1] The nation had 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, Austria had featured in only six finals. Austria's least successful result has been last place, which they have achieved on eight occasions, most recently in the 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 2018 Eurovision Song Contest on 16 August 2017.[6] From 2011 to 2013, ORF had 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. For the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest, ORF held an internal selection to choose the artist and song to represent Austria at the contest. In 2015 and 2016, the broadcaster returned to selecting the Austrian entry through a national final. For the 2017 contest, ORF opted for an internal selection to select the artist and song, a procedure that continued for the selection of the 2018 entry.[7]

Before Eurovision[]

Internal selection[]

Artists were nominated by the ORF Eurovision Song Contest Team, which collaborated with music expert Eberhard Forcher who worked on the selection of the Austrian entries in 2016 and 2017, to submit songs to ORF.[8] In addition, ORF also invited all interested artists to submit their entries to the broadcaster between 10 August 2017 and 31 August 2017.[9] On 5 December 2017, ORF announced during the radio show Ö3-Wecker, aired on Ö3, that they had internally selected Cesár Sampson to represent Austria in Lisbon. Sampson previously represented Bulgaria in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 and 2017 as a backing singer for Poli Genova and Kristian Kostov, respectively.[10]

ORF confirmed in December 2017 that the song to be performed by Sampson at the contest would also be chosen internally and presented to the public in March 2018. On 27 February 2018, the song "Nobody but You" written by Cesár Sampson himself together with members of the songwriting team Symphonix International Borislav Milanov, Sebastian Arman, Joacim Persson and Johan Alkenäs was announced as the Austrian entry for the contest. The presentation of the song took place on 9 March 2018 during Ö3-Wecker.[11]

Promotion[]

Cesár Sampson made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Nobody but You" as the Austrian Eurovision entry. On 6 April, Sampson 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.[12] Between 8 and 11 April, Sampson took part in promotional activities in Tel Aviv, Israel and performed during the Israel Calling event held at the Rabin Square.[13] On 14 April, Sampson performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the AFAS Live venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Cornald Maas and Edsilia Rombley.[14]

At Eurovision[]

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 29 January 2018, 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 8 May 2018, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.[15]

Once all the competing songs for the 2018 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 Croatia and preceding the entry from Greece.[16]

Semi-final[]

Austria performed thirteenth in the first semi-final, following Croatia and preceding Greece. At the end of the night, Austria was one of the ten countries announced as qualifying for the grand final, making it their fifth appearance in the final in a row since 2014. Following the semi-final, Cesar Sampson participated in a press conference with the other qualifying nations, during which they drew to see which half of the final they'd perform in. Austria was drawn to perform in the first half of the grand final.[17] It was later revealed that Austria placed fourth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 231 points: 116 points from the televoting and 115 points from the juries.[18]

Final[]

Austria performed fifth in the grand final, following Lithuania and preceding Estonia. They earned 342 points, with 271 coming from the jury vote (where they finished first, Austria's second time winning a jury vote in the semi-final era) and 71 coming from the televote (where they finished thirteenth). This averaged out to a third place, Austria's highest score since their victory in 2014.[19]

Voting[]

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.

Points awarded to Austria[]

Points awarded by Austria[]

Detailed voting results[]

The following members comprised the Austrian jury:[22]

  • Nathanaele Koll (jury chairperson) – singer-songwriter, represented Austria in the 2017 contest
  •  [de] – singer, producer, vocal coach, composer
  • Hannes Tschürtz – founder and general manager of Ink Music
  • Regina Mallinger [de] (Ina Regen) – singer-songwriter
  • Florian Cojocaru – songwriter, producer, label-owner
Detailed voting results from Austria (Semi-final 1)[20]
Draw Country Jury Televote
M. Ballwein H. Tschürtz I. Regen N. Trent F. Cojocaru Average Rank Points Rank Points
01  Azerbaijan 14 16 16 17 14 16 7 4
02  Iceland 17 8 12 14 13 15 17
03  Albania 4 4 3 8 6 5 6 10 1
04  Belgium 1 6 1 13 11 4 7 14
05  Czech Republic 5 10 2 2 4 3 8 2 10
06  Lithuania 15 7 5 15 7 9 2 12
07  Israel 2 1 4 1 2 1 12 5 6
08  Belarus 16 18 17 18 17 18 16
09  Estonia 8 2 7 12 9 8 3 8 3
10  Bulgaria 6 9 8 9 3 7 4 6 5
11  Macedonia 18 17 18 16 16 17 18
12  Croatia 12 13 13 7 18 13 9 2
13  Austria
14  Greece 10 15 14 10 12 14 13
15  Finland 13 14 9 11 10 12 11
16  Armenia 3 5 6 3 1 2 10 15
17   Switzerland 11 11 11 6 8 10 1 3 8
18  Ireland 7 3 10 5 5 6 5 1 12
19  Cyprus 9 12 15 4 15 11 4 7
Detailed voting results from Austria (Final)[21]
Draw Country Jury Televote
M. Ballwein H. Tschürtz I. Regen N. Trent F. Cojocaru Average Rank Points Rank Points
01  Ukraine 22 22 22 13 22 22 22
02  Spain 12 16 20 7 17 15 23
03  Slovenia 14 3 3 12 9 6 5 20
04  Lithuania 23 11 14 21 13 16 15
05  Austria
06  Estonia 5 9 7 9 10 9 2 16
07  Norway 15 12 15 17 16 17 17
08  Portugal 16 4 6 14 11 11 25
09  United Kingdom 18 15 19 18 19 20 19
10  Serbia 17 25 25 25 25 24 3 8
11  Germany 6 7 4 1 1 2 10 5 6
12  Albania 3 6 5 8 4 4 7 9 2
13  France 11 18 21 15 18 18 21
14  Czech Republic 7 13 9 4 8 8 3 1 12
15  Denmark 21 24 24 20 24 25 6 5
16  Australia 9 14 16 19 6 14 14
17  Finland 24 19 13 22 20 21 24
18  Bulgaria 13 10 2 10 3 5 6 13
19  Moldova 25 20 23 24 15 23 12
20  Sweden 2 2 8 5 12 3 8 18
21  Hungary 20 21 12 23 14 19 8 3
22  Israel 4 1 1 3 2 1 12 4 7
23  Netherlands 1 23 11 16 21 10 1 11
24  Ireland 10 5 10 6 5 7 4 7 4
25  Cyprus 19 8 18 2 23 12 10 1
26  Italy 8 17 17 11 7 13 2 10

References[]

  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. ^ Jiandiani, Sanjay (16 August 2017). "Austria: ORF confirms participation in Eurovision 2018". esctoday.com. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  7. ^ Jiandiani, Sanjay (16 August 2017). "Austria: ORF confirms participation in Eurovision 2018". esctoday.com. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  8. ^ Ude, Christian (10 August 2017). "ORF entscheidet intern über den Vertreter Österreichs in Lissabon". Kleine Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 27 May 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. ^ "Eurovision 2018 - Cesár Sampson (Austria)". ESCKAZ. Retrieved 27 May 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  10. ^ Gallagher, Robyn (8 December 2017). "HAIL CESAR! ORF REVEALS CESAR SAMPSON WILL REPRESENT AUSTRIA AT EUROVISION 2018". Wiwibloggs.com. Retrieved 5 December 2017.
  11. ^ Jiandani, Sanjay (27 February 2018). "Austria: ORF to premiere Cesar Sampson's Eurovision entry on 9 March". Esctoday.com. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  12. ^ Kristjans, Kristin (6 April 2018). "Which London Eurovision 2018 act impressed you the most with their live performance?". Wiwibloggs. Retrieved 27 May 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  13. ^ "Israel: Watch the performances at Israel Calling 2018 Party in Tel Aviv". INFE. 11 April 2018. Retrieved 27 May 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  14. ^ "Fans fired up after 10th Eurovision in Concert in Amsterdam". European Broadcasting Union (EBU). 16 April 2018. Archived from the original on 12 August 2020. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  15. ^ Jordan, Paul (29 January 2018). "Which countries will perform in which Semi-Final at Eurovision 2018?". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 29 January 2018.
  16. ^ "Running order for Eurovision 2018 Semi-Finals revealed". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. 3 April 2018. Retrieved 3 April 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  17. ^ "Eurovision 2018: Results of Semi-Final 1 allocation draw". ESCToday. 9 May 2018. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
  18. ^ "First Semi-Final of Lisbon 2018". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 8 May 2021. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  19. ^ "Grand Final of Lisbon 2018". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 8 May 2021. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  20. ^ a b c "Results of the First Semi-Final of Lisbon 2018". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 9 May 2021. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  21. ^ a b c "Results of the Grand Final of Lisbon 2018". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 9 May 2021. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  22. ^ Groot, Evert (30 April 2018). "Exclusive: They are the expert jurors for Eurovision 2018". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
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