# Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022

Austria participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 in Turin, Italy, with the song "Halo" written by Anders Nilsen, Gabriele Ponte, Luca Michlmayr, Rasmus Flyckt and Sophie Alexandra Tweed-Simmons. The song was performed by Lumix, which is the artistic name of DJ and producer Luca Michlmayr, featuring Pia Maria. On 8 February 2022, the Austrian broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF) announced that they had internally selected Lumix and Pia Maria to compete at the 2022 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.

## Background

Prior to the 2022 contest, Austria has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty-three times since its first entry in 1957. The nation has 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. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004 contest, Austria has featured in only seven finals. Austria's least successful result has been last place, which they have achieved on eight occasions, most recently in 2012. Austria has also received nul points on four occasions; in 1962, 1988, 1991 and 2015.
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 2022 Eurovision Song Contest on 20 October 2021. From 2011 to 2013 as well as in 2015 and 2016, 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. In 2014 and since 2017, ORF has held an internal selection to choose the artist and song to represent Austria at the contest.

## Before Eurovision
### Internal selection

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 since 2016, 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. The four shortlisted artists (marked in bold the table below) were revealed by ESC Kompakt on 13 January 2022.
On 8 February 2022, "Halo" performed by Lumix featuring Pia Maria was announced by ORF as the Austrian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 during the radio show Ö3-Wecker, aired on Ö3. "Halo" was written by Lumix himself together with Anders Nilsen, Gabriele Ponte, Rasmus Flyckt and Sophie 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. The presentation of the song took place on 11 March 2022 during Ö3-Wecker.
Competing artists :
* Anger [de]
* Benny König
* Candlelight Ficus
* Christl
* DelaDap
* Der traurige Gärtner
* Diego Federico
* Fred Owusu
* Freude
* Gary Lux
* Lumix
* Matthias Nebel
* Max the Sax [de]
* Miblu
* Popmaché
* Poxrucker Sisters [de]
* Rian
* Rydell
* Selina Maria (Sålina)
* Serenity
* Sladek
* Slomo
* Teodora Špirić
* Visions of Atlantis

### Promotion

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 to long COVID, as well as the vocalist's inexperience with in-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" was transposed into a lower key for future pre-parties.

## At Eurovision

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. 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 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.
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 from Denmark and before the entry from Iceland.
In Austria, all shows were broadcast on ORF 1, with commentary by Andi Knoll and on FM4, with commentary by Kurdwin Ayub, Florian Alexander, Hannes Duscher and Roland Gratzer. The Austrian spokesperson, who announced the top 12-point score awarded by the Austrian jury during the final, was Philipp Hansa, who previously also announced the points for Austria in 2021 and 2019.

### Semi-final

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.
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.

### Voting

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. 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. The Austrian jury consisted of Die Mayerin, Simone, Tina Naderer, Wolfgang Lindner, and Thorsteinn Einarsson. 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 to Armenia (jury) and Ukraine (televote) in the first semi-final and to the United Kingdom (jury) and Ukraine (televote) in the final.

#### Detailed voting results

The following members comprised the Austrian jury:
* Die Mayerin [de] – Singer-songwriter, psychologist
* Simone – Musician, songwriter, represented Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest 1990
* Tina Naderer – Singer, producer
* Wolfgang Lindner – Drummer, composer, songwriter
* Thorsteinn Einarsson – Musician, singer-songwriter