Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019

Austria participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. Paenda was internally selected by the Austrian broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF) on 29 January 2019 to perform the song that will represent the nation at the 2019 contest in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Eurovision Song Contest 2019
Country	Austria
National selection
Selection process	Internal Selection
Selection date(s)	29 January 2019
Selected entrant	Paenda
Selected song	"Limits"
Selected songwriter(s)	Paenda
Finals performance
Semi-final result	Failed to qualify (17th, 21 points)
Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2018 • 2019 • 2020►

Background

Prior to the 2019 contest, Austria had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 51 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 five 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 2019 Eurovision Song Contest on 21 September 2018.[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 and 2018 contests, ORF opted for an internal selection to select their artist and song.

On 21 November 2018, ORF announced that they would opt for an internal selection again in order to select their act and entry for the 2019 Contest.[7]

Before Eurovision

Internal selection

On 29 January 2019, ORF announced Paenda as the Austrian entrant at the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 during radio show Ö3-Wecker, aired on Ö3.[8] Her song "Limits" was released on 8 March 2019.[9]

Promotion

Paenda made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Limits" as the Austrian Eurovision entry. On 6 April, she performed at the Eurovision in Concert event in Amsterdam, hosted by Cornald Maas and Marlayne, to over 4500 spectators.[10] She also performed during the London Eurovision Party, which was held at the Café de Paris venue in London on 14 April.[11]

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (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 28 January 2019, 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 second semi-final, to be held on 16 May 2019, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.[12]

Once all the competing songs for the 2019 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 9, following the entry from Sweden and preceding the entry from Croatia.[13]

Semi-final

Austria performed ninth in the second semi-final, following the entry from Sweden and preceding the entry from Croatia. At the end of the show, Austria was not announced among the top 10 entries in the second semi-final and therefore failed to qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that country placed seventeenth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 21 points: 0 points from the televoting and 21 points from the juries. With the old voting system, Austria would have ranked 18th (last) with 1 point.

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.[14]

Points awarded to Austria

Points awarded to Austria (Semi-final 2)
Televote
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
Jury
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
		Sweden		Lithuania
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
			Denmark	Albania  Germany  Italy  Latvia  Romania

Points awarded by Austria

Semi-final 2 Score Televote Jury 12 points   Switzerland  Sweden 10 points  Norway  Netherlands 8 points  Croatia  North Macedonia 7 points  Azerbaijan   Switzerland 6 points  Netherlands  Azerbaijan 5 points  North Macedonia  Croatia 4 points  Russia  Denmark 3 points  Albania  Norway 2 points  Denmark  Malta 1 point  Sweden  Armenia

Final Score Televote Jury 12 points   Switzerland  North Macedonia 10 points  Italy   Switzerland 8 points  Norway  Netherlands 7 points  Netherlands  Italy 6 points  Iceland  Sweden 5 points  Russia  France 4 points  Serbia  Azerbaijan 3 points  Australia  Czech Republic 2 points  Slovenia  Serbia 1 point  Azerbaijan  Norway

Split voting results

The following five members comprised the Austrian jury:[14]

• Peter Vieweger – Chairperson – musician
• Stephanie Lorenz-Stauffer – singer
• Bettina Ruprechter – PR consultant, coach
• Mathea Elisabeth Höller – singer and composer
• Julian Heidrich – artist

Split voting results from Austria (Semi-final 2)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		P. Vieweger	S. Lorenz-Stauffer	B. Ruprechter	M. E. Höller	J. Heidrich	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Armenia	4	16	17	6	9	10	1	13
02	Ireland	14	17	12	8	16	15		16
03	Moldova	16	9	11	15	17	16		17
04	Switzerland	7	8	5	1	6	4	7	1	12
05	Latvia	11	12	16	10	12	14		15
06	Romania	15	10	10	11	11	13		12
07	Denmark	5	7	8	4	14	7	4	9	2
08	Sweden	8	1	1	5	2	1	12	10	1
09	Austria
10	Croatia	2	4	6	16	8	6	5	3	8
11	Malta	9	15	14	3	4	9	2	11
12	Lithuania	17	14	13	12	13	17		14
13	Russia	13	3	15	13	15	11		7	4
14	Albania	12	13	9	17	7	12		8	3
15	Norway	3	6	7	14	10	8	3	2	10
16	Netherlands	10	5	2	2	1	2	10	5	6
17	North Macedonia	1	2	4	7	5	3	8	6	5
18	Azerbaijan	6	11	3	9	3	5	6	4	7

Split voting results from Austria (final)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		P. Vieweger	S. Lorenz-Stauffer	B. Ruprechter	M. E. Höller	J. Heidrich	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Malta	17	14	18	5	10	15		21
02	Albania	24	17	19	18	17	24		11
03	Czech Republic	16	11	10	4	9	8	3	18
04	Germany	21	6	16	13	8	14		17
05	Russia	4	10	15	16	21	12		6	5
06	Denmark	18	13	14	9	18	17		13
07	San Marino	26	24	8	26	22	20		23
08	North Macedonia	1	1	7	7	2	1	12	12
09	Sweden	7	4	2	6	5	5	6	16
10	Slovenia	22	22	9	19	11	18		9	2
11	Cyprus	2	20	24	21	16	11		22
12	Netherlands	12	3	3	3	1	3	8	4	7
13	Greece	23	25	26	24	24	26		26
14	Israel	25	19	13	20	23	22		20
15	Norway	8	5	12	15	15	10	1	3	8
16	United Kingdom	20	18	11	11	20	19		24
17	Iceland	19	26	21	12	26	21		5	6
18	Estonia	15	21	22	23	19	25		15
19	Belarus	11	16	23	10	14	16		25
20	Azerbaijan	10	12	5	14	6	7	4	10	1
21	France	9	7	6	8	7	6	5	14
22	Italy	14	15	1	2	3	4	7	2	10
23	Serbia	3	8	20	17	13	9	2	7	4
24	Switzerland	6	2	4	1	4	2	10	1	12
25	Australia	5	9	25	22	12	13		8	3
26	Spain	13	23	17	25	25	23		19

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. Jiandani, Sanjay. "Austria: ORF confirms participation in Eurovision 2019". esctoday.com. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
7. Jiandani, Sanjay. "Austria: ORF confirms internal selection for Eurovision 2019". esctoday.com. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
8. "Pænda startet für Österreich beim Song Contest". oe3.ORF.at. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
9. Granger, Anthony. "Austria: "Limits" By PAENDA Released". Eurovoix. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
10. "This was Eurovision in Concert 2019 in Amsterdam". Eurovision.tv. 6 April 2019.
11. "18 Eurovision 2019 acts to perform in London on Sunday 14 April". Eurovision.tv. 13 April 2019.
12. Jordan, Paul (28 January 2019). "Eurovision 2019: Which country takes part in which Semi-Final?". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
13. "Exclusive: This is the Eurovision 2019 Semi-Final running order!". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. 2 April 2019. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
14. Groot, Evert (30 April 2019). "Exclusive: They are the judges who will vote in Eurovision 2019!". Eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 30 April 2019.