Through our Best of the Bunch series, we gave a recap on the Eurovision entries from 2006 to 2015 and gave you the opportunity to choose your Best of the Bunch. As you may remember, the current Best of the Bunch winners were put into our ‘Ultimate Eurovision’ but it’s time to see which of the latest three entries have remained as your favourites! In our Best of the Bunch: The Trials series, we are going to recap the entries from a certain nation starting with 2016 and continuing through to the latest Eurovision season of 2018. Your job is to simply enjoy the music, and vote for your Best of the Bunch winner!
Today we will be taking a closer look at Austria, a nation with a long history at the contest. That long history has seen a lot of last place finishes, four of those with nul points, but it’s not all bad. The nation has also won the contest twice, with the most recent being Conchita’s win back in 2014. Today’s focus however will be on the latest three entries which we will recap, then it will be up to you to decide on the Best of the Bunch!
Austria 2016
We are starting our journey in 2016, where a national selection was used to select the Austrian Eurovision act. The result of that national final revealed that it would be Zoë who would represent Austria with her uplifting song Loin d’ici. After the nul point finish the year before, it wouldn’t have taken much to improve on that result, and with a colourful and cute stage performance, the song cruised through to the final in 7th place. At the final, Zoë gave yet another charming performance which was sure to win over the juries and the televoters. That it did, as the song finished in 13th place with 151 points.
Austria 2017
The following year saw a strategy change from Austria who decided to internally select their artist for the contest. It was announced that newcomer Nathan Trent would represent the nation with his song Running on Air. Like the previous year, the song was uplifting and Nathan himself has a lot of charisma. It was receiving mixed reviews prior to the contest, and even at the contest it was unsure as to whether Austria would be in the final. His performance was energetic and visually striking with the use of a crescent moon prop and billowing smoke on stage. Also like the previous year, Austria qualified into the final at 7th place and in the final, jury scores carried Austria into 16th place with 93 points.
Austria 2018
That brings us to the most recent entry from Austria, and once again the nation decided to use an internal selection to choose their representative. It was decided that Cesár Sampson would represent the nation, but it wasn’t his first Eurovision experience. Having been a backing singer two years in a row for Bulgaria, he followed in the same path as many Eurovision backing singers before, where he would now take the lead. His song was called Nobody but You which was a gospel inspired pop ballad. The song itself was epic, but nothing compared to the first reactions of the stage performance at Eurovision. Using the elevated stage with incredible lighting proved to be an eye catching strategy, and with a flawless vocal performance, it was clear Austria was in a good position. The nation qualified in at 4th place in the semi-final, and with a strong jury vote in the final, Austria managed to finish in a very respectable 3rd place with 342 points.
So now you’ve seen all three performances, it’s time to vote for your Best of the Bunch!
If you want more Best of the Bunch from Austria, check out our original series:
If you want to check out who made our Ultimate Eurovision, check it out here: