Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022
Austria is scheduled to participate 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 (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. Background. Prior to the 2022  contest, Austria has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty-three times since its first entry in . The nation has won the contest on two occasions: in with the song "" performed by Udo Jürgens and in with the song "Rise Like a Phoenix" performed by Conchita Wurst. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the , 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 . Austria has also received "nul points" on four occasions; in , , and . The Austrian national broadcaster, (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 to as well as in and , 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 and since , 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 , to submit songs to the broadcaster. In November 2021, Forcher revealed that four artists had been shortlisted: an electronic duo from South Tyrol and active in Vienna, an electro-swing and EDM band with a female singer, a funk band from Styria, and a DJ and producer with a female singer. A final decision was to be made by December 2021 but later delayed to late January 2022. The 24 artists involved in the selection were revealed on  4 February 2022 and consisted of: On 27 January 2022, it was reported that two entries had ultimately been shortlisted: "'" performed by Anger and "Halo" performed by Lumix. 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 ', aired on Ö3. "Halo" was written by Lumix himself together with Anders Nilsen, Gabriele Ponte, Rasmus Flyckt and Sophie Alexandra Tweed-Simmons. The presentation of the song took place on 11 March 2022 during "". 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 has been placed into the first semi-final, to be  held on 10 May 2022, and has been 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 and before the entry from .