| Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eurovision Song Contest 2022 | ||||
| Participating broadcaster | Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF) | |||
| Country |  Austria | |||
| Selection process | Internal selection | |||
| Announcement date | Artist: 8 February 2022 Song: 11 March 2022 | |||
| Competing entry | ||||
| Song | "Halo" | |||
| Artist | Lumix feat.Pia Maria | |||
| Songwriters |
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| Placement | ||||
| Semi-final result | Failed to qualify (15th) | |||
| Participation chronology | ||||
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Austria was represented at theEurovision Song Contest 2022 with the song "Halo", written byAnders Nilsen,Gabriele Ponte,Luca Michlmayr, Rasmus Flyckt, andSophie Alexandra Tweed-Simmons, and performed by Michlmayr himself under his stage nameLumix, featuringPia Maria. The Austrian participating broadcaster,Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF), announced on 8 February 2022 that it had internally selected Lumix and Pia Maria to compete at the contest, while "Halo" was presented to the public on 11 March 2022.
Austria was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 10 May 2022. Performing during the show in position 13, "Halo" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Austria placed 15th out of the 17 participating countries in the semi-final with 42 points.
Prior to the 2022 contest,Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF) had participated in theEurovision Song Contest representing Austria fifty-three times since its first entry in1957.[1] It has won the contest on two occasions: in1966 with the song "Merci, Chérie" performed byUdo Jürgens and in2014 with the song "Rise Like a Phoenix" performed byConchita Wurst.[2][3] Following theintroduction of semi-finals for the2004 contest, it has featured in only seven finals. Austria's least successful result has been last place, achieved on eight occasions, most recently in2012.[4] It has also receivednul points on four occasions; in1962,1988,1991, and2015.[5]
As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, ORF organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. The broadcaster confirmed its intentions to participate at the 2022 contest on 20 October 2021.[6] From2011 to2013 as well as in2015 and2016, ORF 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. In2014 and since2017, ORF has held an internal selection to choose its artist and song.
Artists were nominated by the ORF Eurovision Song Contest Team, which collaborated with music expert Eberhard Forcher who worked on the selection of the Austrian entries since2016, to submit songs to the broadcaster. On 9 November 2021, Forcher revealed that four entries had been shortlisted with a final decision to be made in late January 2022, however, this was later delayed to late January 2022.[7][8][9] The four shortlisted artists (marked in bold the table below) were revealed byESC Kompakt on 13 January 2022.[10][11]
On 8 February 2022, "Halo" performed by Lumix featuringPia Maria was announced by ORF as the Austrian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 during the radio showÖ3-Wecker, aired onÖ3.[12][13] "Halo" was written by Lumix himself together withAnders Nilsen,Gabriele Ponte, Rasmus Flyckt andSophie Alexandra Tweed-Simmons, and was selected from two entries reported to have ultimately been considered: "Das Meer" performed by Anger and "Halo" performed by Lumix and Maria.[14][15] The presentation of the song took place on 11 March 2022 duringÖ3-Wecker.[16]
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During the promotional pre-parties for Eurovision, Pia Maria received criticism for vocal issues in the live performances of "Halo". It was later confirmed that her vocal struggles were due tolong COVID, as well as the vocalist's inexperience within-ear monitors. The Austrian delegation hired a vocal coach to work with Pia Maria to prepare for the contest, and the backing track for "Halo" wastransposed into a lower key for future pre-parties.[18]
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According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (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. TheEuropean 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 25 January 2022, an 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 first semi-final, which was held on 10 May 2022, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.[19]
Once all the competing songs for the 2022 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 13, following the entry fromDenmark and before the entry fromIceland.[20]
In Austria, all shows were broadcast onORF 1, with commentary byAndi Knoll and onFM4, with commentary by Kurdwin Ayub, Florian Alexander, Hannes Duscher and Roland Gratzer.[21][22][23][24] The Austrian spokesperson, who announced the top 12-point score awarded by the Austrian jury during the final, wasPhilipp Hansa, who previously also announced the points for Austria in 2021 and 2019.
Lumix and Pia Maria took part in technical rehearsals on 1 and 5 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 9 and 10 May. This included the jury show on 9 May where the professional juries of each country watched and voted on the competing entries.
The Austrian performance featured the duo on stage with a giant circular keyboard along with a DJ set. The predominant colour in the Austrian performance was red with jets of pyrotechnics towards the end of the performance. For the contest, Pia Maria performed the song one key lower in order to attain easier vocal results.[25]
At the end of the show, Austria was not announced among the top 10 entries in the first semi-final and therefore failed to qualify to compete in the final. This was Austria's third consecutive non-qualification to the grand final having last appeared in 2018. It was later revealed that Austria placed fifteenth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 42 points: 36 points from the televoting and 6 points from the juries.
Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Austria during the first semi-final. 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.[26] The exact composition of the professional jury, and the results of each country's jury and televoting were released after the final; the individual results from each jury member were also released in an anonymised form.[27][28] The Austrian jury consisted of Die Mayerin, Simone, Tina Naderer, Wolfgang Lindner, andThorsteinn Einarsson.[27][28] In the first semi-final, Austria finished in fifteenth place out of seventeen entries, marking the country's third consecutive non-qualification from the semi-finals. Over the course of the contest, Austria awarded its 12 points toArmenia (jury) andUkraine (televote) in the first semi-final and to theUnited Kingdom (jury) and Ukraine (televote) in the final.[29][30]
| Score | Televote | Jury |
|---|---|---|
| 12 points | ||
| 10 points | ||
| 8 points | ||
| 7 points | ||
| 6 points | ||
| 5 points |  Armenia | |
| 4 points | ||
| 3 points |  Italy | |
| 2 points |  Greece | |
| 1 point |  Latvia |  France |
|
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The following members comprised the Austrian jury:[27][28]
| Draw | Country | Jury | Televote | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Juror A | Juror B | Juror C | Juror D | Juror E | Rank | Points | Rank | Points | ||
| 01 |  Albania | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 15 | 16 | 9 | 2 | |
| 02 | Latvia | 14 | 14 | 7 | 3 | 13 | 10 | 1 | 16 | |
| 03 |  Lithuania | 6 | 15 | 13 | 11 | 9 | 12 | 7 | 4 | |
| 04 |  Switzerland | 9 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 8 | 3 |
| 05 |  Slovenia | 13 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 12 | 15 | 12 | ||
| 06 |  Ukraine | 7 | 5 | 11 | 14 | 11 | 11 | 1 | 12 | |
| 07 |  Bulgaria | 11 | 12 | 10 | 13 | 14 | 13 | 15 | ||
| 08 |  Netherlands | 8 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 6 | 5 |
| 09 |  Moldova | 12 | 11 | 15 | 12 | 16 | 14 | 2 | 10 | |
| 10 |  Portugal | 2 | 9 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 10 | 1 |
| 11 |  Croatia | 4 | 6 | 6 | 10 | 7 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 6 |
| 12 |  Denmark | 5 | 7 | 2 | 6 | 10 | 6 | 5 | 14 | |
| 13 | Austria | |||||||||
| 14 |  Iceland | 10 | 10 | 12 | 4 | 8 | 9 | 2 | 11 | |
| 15 | Greece | 3 | 3 | 8 | 9 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 13 | |
| 16 |  Norway | 15 | 2 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 7 |
| 17 | Armenia | 1 | 4 | 1 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 12 | 3 | 8 |
| Draw | Country | Jury | Televote | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Juror 1 | Juror 2 | Juror 3 | Juror 4 | Juror 5 | Rank | Points | Rank | Points | ||
| 01 |  Czech Republic | 15 | 10 | 11 | 17 | 21 | 15 | 21 | ||
| 02 |  Romania | 23 | 18 | 24 | 24 | 22 | 25 | 11 | ||
| 03 | Portugal | 2 | 9 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 19 | |
| 04 |  Finland | 16 | 19 | 23 | 21 | 20 | 22 | 13 | ||
| 05 | Switzerland | 9 | 15 | 9 | 7 | 11 | 10 | 1 | 16 | |
| 06 | France | 17 | 24 | 22 | 25 | 24 | 24 | 14 | ||
| 07 | Norway | 8 | 4 | 12 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 5 |
| 08 | Armenia | 3 | 7 | 3 | 8 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 15 | |
| 09 | Italy | 18 | 12 | 4 | 3 | 9 | 8 | 3 | 8 | 3 |
| 10 |  Spain | 10 | 5 | 8 | 10 | 13 | 9 | 2 | 10 | 1 |
| 11 | Netherlands | 5 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 12 | |
| 12 | Ukraine | 7 | 14 | 21 | 22 | 17 | 14 | 1 | 12 | |
| 13 |  Germany | 22 | 17 | 16 | 12 | 4 | 11 | 9 | 2 | |
| 14 | Lithuania | 11 | 20 | 20 | 14 | 15 | 17 | 18 | ||
| 15 |  Azerbaijan | 21 | 25 | 10 | 23 | 10 | 16 | 25 | ||
| 16 |  Belgium | 25 | 23 | 14 | 13 | 16 | 20 | 23 | ||
| 17 | Greece | 6 | 6 | 7 | 9 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 22 | |
| 18 | Iceland | 14 | 16 | 13 | 11 | 7 | 12 | 24 | ||
| 19 | Moldova | 13 | 22 | 19 | 20 | 23 | 21 | 4 | 7 | |
| 20 |  Sweden | 4 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 14 | 4 | 7 | 5 | 6 |
| 21 |  Australia | 19 | 13 | 17 | 15 | 19 | 18 | 20 | ||
| 22 |  United Kingdom | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 12 | 3 | 8 |
| 23 |  Poland | 24 | 11 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 19 | 7 | 4 | |
| 24 |  Serbia | 20 | 21 | 25 | 19 | 25 | 23 | 2 | 10 | |
| 25 |  Estonia | 12 | 8 | 15 | 16 | 12 | 13 | 17 | ||