According to ORF’s Creative Director Eberhard Forcher, Austria is close to revealing the name of its act for the 2022 Contest.
He said in an interview that ORF is currently running a brand new internal selection process, designed to improve on the poor results from their past 2 attempts.
They are currently speaking to four potential candidates, whittled down from the hunderds who applied, and they are now in the final stage of the process. ORF will reveal the name of the chosen act in December at the latest.
Austria is perhaps one of the most musically-diverse nations at Eurovision historically, having sent gospel, yodelling, mulletted power ballads and cardboard cut-outs of farm animals in years gone by.
However, their crowning achievements came in 1966 and 2014, the latter thanks to drag queen Conchita Wurst, who romped to victory in Copenhagen with Rise Like A Phoenix, earning 290 points in the Grand Final.
Their two most recent efforts at the Contest following Cesár Sampson’s surprise third place in 2018 have left little to write home about, with Pænda failing to score a single point from the public in 2019’s second Semi-Final, and Vincent Bueno finishing a disappointing 13th in 2021’s, despite being one of the breakout stars of the rehearsal period.
Austria is also home to another secret weapon: homegrown artistic director extraordinaire Marvin Dietmann, who directed a total of 11 performances at Eurovision 2021, yet has shown preference for his home nation, being responsible for Conchita Wurst and Cesár Sampson’s staging, as well as Zoë (2016) and Vincent Bueno (2021). His role at the next Contest is not yet known.
Who would you like to see representing Austria in Turin? Let us know in the comments and on our various social media platforms.
