The Austrian national selection for Eurovision 2015 will start on 20th February and will last until 13th March, when an entrant will be chosen by a split vote from both an expert jury and the public, announced the Austrian Press Agency.
Four shows will be broadcast on ORF1 – on 20th and 27th February and 6th and 13th March – of which, the first three will be pre-recorded. The last and most important one will be, fortunately, broadcast live. Singer Anna F. and her manager Alex Deutsch will be responsible for selecting 20 artists as candidates to represent Austria in the next edition of the Contest. Their focus will be finding artists who are already experienced in singing, but haven’t had the possibility to prove themselves on a “big stage”.
Twenty selected artists will be given the chance to show their singing talent in front of an expert jury and an audience in the first selection show on 20th February. The jury, composed of musicians and producers, will have the task to choose six contestants who will go to the next round.
In the following two shows, the six contestants will be included in a creative workshop with domestic and foreign composers and producers. These include:
- Julie Frost, composer of the 2010 winning song Satellite
- Jimmy Harry, American Golden Globe winning songwriter and producer who worked together with Madonna, Bruno Mars, Pink etc.
- Lukas Hillebrand, Austrian producer
- I-Wolf, Austrian musician
In the scope of the workshops, the six contestants will face with different challenges in order to prove their talent. In the final show, on 13th March, each of them will perform two songs, after which, the ultimate judgement will be made when the expert jury and the audience chose the Austrian representative by a split 50:50 vote.
The host of all four shows will be Mirjam Weichselbraun, a famous Austrian television presenter.
