2000 and Whatever – Austria

We may not get to see our 2020 favourites take to the stage, but that doesn’t mean we can’t reminisce on our Eurovision favourites. This series is aimed to discover the team’s favourite entries from the 21st century, from 2001 to 2019.

In collaboration with ESCDaily, we will be reviewing some of their 21st Century favourites, while over on their site, you will find their reviews of our favourites!

Below our reviews, you will find a poll where you can vote for your favourite Eurovision entry from the 21st Century.

Austria

Anita Reviews Dennis’ 21st Century Favourite

César Sampson – Nobody But You | 3rd place, 342 points (Final)

I think it’s fairly obvious why this was one of Austria’s best results in recent years. Let’s start with the vocals, which were truly wonderful. His tone of voice is so soothing, and so perfectly matches the soulful feel of this song. In some circumstances, we see backing singers not completely gel with the lead singer, but in this case, the backing singers are literal perfection when it comes to supporting César.

Now onto staging – this was definitely one of the most memorable uses of the 2018 stage, which as you will remember, did not feature an LED backing screen. This meant that the broadcasters needed to think outside of the box to create a memorable staging moment for their entries, and using the platform was perfect for this song. The lighting was simple but effective for this entry, and just the overall stage performance worked really well for this song. With those things combined, 3rd place seems very justified.

Joshua Reviews Brandon’s 21st Century Favourite

Zoë – Loin d’ici | 13th place, 151 points (Final)

I personally love this entry, and remember it as one of the songs I used to learn French in high school! It is such a delicate, pretty and fairytale-like song, and deserved its solid placing in the grand final. Although seemingly nervous, Zoë delivered a good vocal performance, with staging to match the style of the song. This could have gone top 10 if it was not for an exceptionally strong year of competition.