# Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest 2025

Austria will be represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 with the song "Wasted Love", written by Johannes Pietsch, Teodora Špirić, and Thomas Thurner, and performed by Pietsch himself under his stage name JJ. The Austrian participating broadcaster, Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF), internally selected its entry for the contest.

## Background

Prior to the 2025 contest, Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Austria fifty-six times since its first entry in 1957. It had 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 had featured in only nine finals. Its least successful result had been last place, which it had achieved on eight occasions, most recently in 2012. It had also received nul points on four occasions; in 1962, 1988, 1991, and 2015.
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. ORF confirmed its intentions to participate at the 2025 contest on 7 September 2024. 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, a method which was continued to select its entry for the 2025 contest.

## Before Eurovision
### Internal selection

ORF collaborated with music experts Eberhard Forcher [de] (who had worked on the selection of the Austrian entries since 2016) and Peter Schreiber on its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2025, with all interested artists being invited to submit their songs between 3 July 2024 and 15 September 2024. Artists were also able to apply without a song but were required to submit audio samples or reference songs from them alongside their applications. In addition to the open submission, a songwriting camp with several artists and composers was held in Vienna to create songs for the selection. In October 2024, it was reported by Austrian media that eight entries from seven artists, including Dodo Muhrer who previously represented Austria at Eurovision in 2015 as part of The Makemakes, as well as Johannes Pietsch, Kayla Krystin, Nnoa and Philip Piller, had been shortlisted following a live casting round at the ORF studios.
On 30 January 2025, "Wasted Love" performed by Pietsch, under the stage name JJ, was announced by ORF as the Austrian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 during the radio show Ö3-Wecker, aired on Ö3. Written by JJ alongside Teodora Špirić (who represented Austria in 2023) and Thomas Thurner, "Wasted Love" was selected from the eight shortlisted entries by a panel of 30 local and international music industry and Eurovision experts as well as 30 international OGAE fan club representatives from five countries and the ORF Eurovision Song Contest Team. The presentation of the song took place on 6 March 2025 during Ö3-Wecker.