As we all know , Austria won the 2025 edition of the Eurovision Song contest in Basel, with JJ and “Wasted Love”. Which means that next year, we will be travelling to somewhere in Austria for the 2026 edition of our beloved contest. JJ’s victory in Basel was the third victory for Austria at the contest , with previous wins being in 1966, with Udo Jurgens and “Mercie Cherie “and again in 2014 when Conchita Wurst took victory for the nation with “Rise like a Phoenix ” in Copenhagen, Denmark.

With this in mind, we at Eurovision Ireland, decided it would be interesting to create a series , looking back over the years at previous Austrian acts and how they fared in the contest , in the years that Austria have taken part . Today, in Part 5 of our series, we will look at the years 1971, 1972 and 1976 ( Austria took a break from the contest in the years 1969,1970 .1973,1974.1975 and there would be further times in the future where they would do this .)

1971 Marianne Mendt “Musik”

Marianne Mendt trained in Jazz and was a singer and jazz player with the group The Internationals, throughout Europe . She was selected by the Austrian broadcaster ORF to represent her country with the song “Musik”.It was the only song to date to be performed using the Viennese German dialect . Unfortunately, Marianne was drawn to perform first in the running order and only managed to achieve 16th place out of 18 entries . Now 79 years of age , she is still performing at concerts and jazz festivals in Austria .

1972 The Milestones “Falter im Wind”

Milestones were an Austrian rock band between 1968 and 1975.They were selected by ORF to perform at the 1972 contest in Edinburgh, UK .They finished 5th out of 18 entries.When the group split in 1975, three of the members went on to perform with other groups who would also perform at Eurovision in future years.

1976 Waterloo and Robinson “My Little World”

Waterloo and Robinson with “My Little world ” are probably one of the better known of Austria’s earlier entries. They were a duo consisting of Johann Kreutzmeyer ( Waterloo) and Josef Krassnitzer ( Robinson).They represented Austria after the nation had taken a 3 year break again and came a credible 5th place at the contest in The Hague , Netherlands. Which was won by the Brotherhood of Man for the UK. The duo tried to represent Austria again in 2004 but lost out to Tie Break who went on to perform at the Grand Final in Istanbul, Turkey .My Little World remains one of the performances fondly remembered and included in Eurovision memory compilations.

In part Six of our series on past Austrian participants, we will focus on the years 1977,1978 and 1979.You can see Part One, covering the years 1957,1958 and 1959 HERE , Part 2 covering the years 1960.1961 and 1962 HERE and Part 3 covering the years 1963, 1964,1965 HERE .Part 4 , covering the years 1966, 1967 and 1968 HERE .In the meantime , let us know what you think about Austria at Eurovision by either leaving us a comment in the comments box , or you can find us on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky and X ..

Author: Sarah Rudman

Source : Wiki Fandom.

Visual Source : You Tube