Styrians at the ESC

Conchita and other Song Contest highlights

Tom Neuwirth won the ESC 2014 as Conchita Wurst with the song "Rise Like A Phoenix".

(Bild: AFP)

Ten years ago, Conchita Wurst celebrated her brilliant victory at the Song Contest in Copenhagen. But the bearded diva from Bad Mitterndorf was not the first or the last Styrian to compete in the world's biggest song contest.

The "Conchita sausage sausage" is still selling well at Josef Aichinger's in Bad Mitterndorf: "The greatest demand was of course directly after the song contest victory. Back then, I couldn't produce the sausages fast enough," recalls the butcher. The hype died down, but: "Customers are still asking for the sausages today."

Even Putin gave his mustard to sausage
In 2014, not everyone was happy that Tom Neuwirth from Bad Mitterndorf was supposed to represent Austria with his fictional character Conchita Wurst at the 59th Song Contest in Copenhagen. There were protests in advance against the travesty artist's performance, and even Russian President Putin gave his two cents on the sausage. And many Austrians were also rather embarrassed by Conchita's planned appearance.

But then came the magical night of May 10-11, 2014, when Conchita traveled to Copenhagen as an outsider. With every performance and every interview, Conchita's global stock rose a little more - on the day of the final, she was suddenly considered one of the favorites. After a brilliant performance of "Rise like a Phoenix" and a nerve-wracking scoring ceremony, ORF presenter Andi Knoll uttered the magic words: "Now she's given us the shaft!"

Departing as a supposed laughing stock, "our" Conchita returned as a star and national heroine, fulfilling a dream that Styrians before her had already traveled to the world's biggest music competition with. And several more were to follow.

Styrian won for the Netherlands in 1975
The Styrian song contest history started late: Austria took part for the first time in 1957. In 1975, Getty Kaspers, a native of Styria, won the contest - albeit for the Netherlands. In 1988, Wilfried was the first (prey) Styrian to compete - it was the year in which a still unknown Celine Dion won for Switzerland, Wilfried came last with "Lisa Mona Lisa".

In 2003, Alf Poier gave it a go - the cabaret artist took sixth place with the hilarious "Weil der Mensch zählt". He was followed by Global Kryner (2005) and Pænda (2019) - both with rather moderate success. And last year, Selina-Maria Edbauer, a Styrian, was on stage as part of the duo Teya & Salena - "Who the Hell is Edgar" came 15th!

And the next Styrian could soon follow: Paul Pizzera recently expressed his interest in an interview with "Krone": He wants to submit a song for the Austrian preliminary round in 2025 with the band Aut of Orda. Then it might be (analogously): "Styria: twelve points. Styria: twelve points. Styrie: douze points."

Christof Spörk war 2005 beim ESC

„Die Party der Verlierer war die Nacht meines Lebens“

"The reason for taking part was a tendency towards megalomania," says Christof Spörk. The Styrian musician and cabaret artist took part in the song contest in Kiev in 2005 with his Global Krynern. "In the years before that, we had experienced a great rise. When ORF asked if we wanted to take part in the song contest, I said: why not?"

This was despite the fact that the singer at the time, who had already been a backing singer at the ESC, absolutely did not want to. "But we ignored this warning and did it anyway with another singer." The result: it was over in the semi-finals. "12 points from Slovenia and 6 from Andorra and Germany - that was as good as it got," recalls Spörk. And many of the fans resented the Global Kryner's participation in the ESC: "We hadn't thought that we might lose fans because of it."

"The hype in Austria was over afterwards"
For three years afterwards, he struggled with the early elimination. And even though the Global Kryner remained on stage together until 2013, Spörk says today: "At least as far as the hype in Austria was concerned, the ESC was the beginning of the end for us."

Styrian Christof Spörk is now a very successful cabaret artist.

(Bild: Wolfgang hummer)

Nevertheless, Spörk looks back fondly on the experience: "I had the most legendary party of my life back then with the other losers," he says. And today he is also aware of something else: "The song contest is one of the few events that simply celebrates humanity and peaceful coexistence. This makes the ESC the opposite of all the negative things we are currently experiencing everywhere. Despite all the cynical criticism, this makes it a beautiful and important thing."

Steirerin Pænda trat 2019 an

„In einem Moment hat sich alles verändert“

"It's only been five years, but it feels like half an eternity since I was at the song contest," says Gabriela Horn, alias Pænda. Performing at the ESC was never actually a career goal for the Deutschlandsberg native. "I always had the feeling that my music wasn't mainstream enough, but when I was asked by ORF, I saw the chance to prove my talent," she says.

However, the sudden fame was also a challenge: "Everything changed from one moment to the next. Suddenly everyone on the street recognized me - I had to come to terms with that first," she says.

A semi-final exit was followed by a lull and then a breath of fresh air
She has fond memories of the days at the song contest in Tel Aviv: "Performing a song in front of such a large audience was something special," she says - even if the really big success didn't come: "Of course it wasn't nice to be the penultimate to be eliminated in the semi-final and I also had a short lull in my career afterwards," she recalls. "But my goal remained the same as before: to make music - I never wanted anything else."

Pænda takes off again with a new look - a new song will be released next week

(Bild: Lukas Ploechl)

And the ESC fame has certainly helped: "People know my name and are therefore more likely to listen to my new songs. And I've also met people in the music industry through the song contest who probably wouldn't have worked with me before," she says. She is currently working on new songs - a new single will be released next week.