In recent history, Austria has been hit or miss with their entries. After the success of Conchita Wurst, the nation had mixed results, with the last two entrants failing to reach the final. Hoping to break that streak is Lumix featuring Pia Maria who will perform ‘Halo’.
Anita
Song and Vocals
Austria is bringing the party to Eurovision this year, with DJ and producer Lumix. The Austrian star Lumix has a wealth of experience, with a string of mega international hits, however this will surely be the performance of a lifetime for Pia Maria.
Halo is one of the catchiest tracks of the year, with the song wasting no time in grabbing your attention. Memorable melodies mix with a fast-paced beat, and even though it’s not a revolutionary song, it still feels unique in this year’s lineup. As you would expect with a DJ production, this track is highly produced. This of course led to the question of live vocals. Being such a fast-paced and vocally demanding song certainly makes you wonder whether Pia Maria can handle it. With the entry chosen internally, logic would say that they wouldn’t have been selected if they couldn’t perform the song live – but still there are big doubts.
If the pre-parties are anything to go by, Austria might not deliver the best vocals on the night. I don’t want to place too much weight on these performances, as there can be some issues in the background, but I do hope they can perfect the performance in time for Turin.
Performance and Act
DJ-led tracks historically haven’t had the best luck at Eurovision. It will be interesting to see whether Austria can create a memorable performance. I hope that they use lighting and camera work to their advantage, keeping things dynamic on stage. This is an energetic song that needs a staging to match.
Conclusions
The running order does a lot of favours for Austria this year. The nation is wedged between a number of slower acts, giving it the potential to really stand out. Halo should appeal to the younger audiences, and perhaps more so with the televote than jury. Their qualification will rely on whether the vocals are passable, and I hope they are as this is one of the better tracks in this semi-final.
Rating
8.5/10
Dennis
Song and Vocals
Coming in a block with slow songs from Portugal, Croatia, Iceland, Greece and the weak entry from Denmark, Austria’s dance-track has the potential to make its mark and leave a memory with the voting audience and jury. The song is not very contemporary, but within the dance-genre is more than okay. I hope the live vocals of the lead singer will be good throughout the three minutes, since this is not easy and it requires skills and stamina to perform this song live.
Performance and Act
What the live performance will look like is not known yet, but here lies the biggest risk factor in the Austrian entry for 2022. To stage a ‘dj’-song like this, keep the momentum and interest and not make it repetitive. Other entries in this genre in the past have shown to struggle with this issue and whether the Austrian delegation has the capable people to tackle this, is a big question mark for me.
Conclusions
Austria got a great place in the runner order of the semi final, making it stand out between a couple of slower songs. However, the risk with this ‘dj’-genre at Eurovision is known. A vocalist might fail, because it’s not easy to do these songs live. Or it just doesn’t work in a live televised performance of three minutes. We have seen it happen before and I can’t rule out that Austria might disappoint in this genre as well in 2022.
Rating
7/10
Team Scores
Steef: 5/10
Erik: 6/10
Josh: 8/10
Heath: 6/10
Kaitlin: 4.5/10
Selim: 9/10
Morena: 6.5/10
Average Score: 6.7/10
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