As we all know , Austria won the 2025 edition of the Eurovision Song contest in Basel, with JJ and “Wasted Love”. It has now been announced that we will be travelling to Austria’s capital city, Vienna , 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 8 of our series, we will look at the years 1983,1984 and 1985.

1983 Westend -“Hurricane”

In 1983, Westend won the right to represent Austria at the Eurovision Song contest in Munich, through a National Final organised by Austrian broadcaster ORF .They finished a respectable 9th place out of 20 participating countries. The contest was won by Luxembourg when Corinne Hermes sang them to victory with “Si la Vie est cadeau “

1984 Anita “Einfach Weg”

Austria appeared at Eurovision 1984 in Luxembourg city, Luxembourg , being represented by Anita , with “Einfach Weg”.Once again the entry was selected by a National Final . Sadly, Anita finished 19th and last with just 5 points! The contest was won that year by Sweden, with the Herreys singing them to victory with “Diggi -loo diggy -ley”.

1985 -Gary Lux “Kinder dieser Welt”

Gary Lux had previously represented Austria in 1983 with West end and in total represented the country 6 times .He had been backing singer for Anita the previous year in 1984 , then after his 1985 stint, came back in 1987 with “Nur noch Gefuhl “. Then in 1993 h e was backing singer for Tony Wegas , singing Maria Magdalena and finally in 1995, again a backing singer for Stella Jones , singing “Die Welt drecht sich verkehrt”. In 1985, with “Kinder , Dieser Welt”, Gary finished 8th with 60 points. The winner in 1985 was Norway with Bobby Sox and the now much loved ” La det Swinge”.

And that concludes our look back at 1983, 1984 and 1985.

In part nine of our series on past Austrian participants, we will focus on the years 1986,1987 and 1988 .You can see Part 1, covering the years 1957,1958 and 1959 HERE , Part 2 covering the years 1960.1961 and 1962 HERE ,Part 3 covering the years 1963, 1964,1965 HERE .Part 4 , covering the years 1966, 1967 and 1968 HERE .Part 5 covering 1971,1972 and 1976,HERE . Part 6 covering the years 1977,1978 and 1979 HERE .Part 7 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

Visual Sources. ESC LIVE music , Eurovision Calling ( YouTube ).