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| Sadly, when people think about Austria, they think about Julie Andrews. |
This isn't the case with Austria, which has participated in forty-five contests since their debut. That means that watching and ranking the songs was more tedious than I thought it would be.
And because there are so many songs, I've decided to split the post into three parts--starting with the bottom twenty in my ranking.
26. "Woki mit Dein Popi" Trackshittaz 2012
27. "Nur in der Wiener Luft" Eleonore Schwarz 1962
28. "My Little World" Waterloo & Robinson 1978
29. "Zusammen geh'n" Tony Wegas 1992
30. "Mrs. Caroline Robinson" Springtime 1976
31. "Wenn du da bist" Marty Brem 1981
32. "Warun nur warum?" Udo Jürgens 1964
33. "One Step" Bettina Soriat 1997
34. "Boom Boom Boomerang" Schmetterlinge 1977
35. "Einfach weg" Anita 1984
36. "Merci, Chérie" Udo Jürgens 1966
37. "Für den Frieden der Welt" Petra Frey 1994
38. "Du bist Musik" Blue Danube 1980
39. "Warum es hunderttausend Sterne gibt" Peter Horton 1967
40. "Hurricane" Westend 1983
41. "Lisa Mona Lisa" Wilfried 1988
42. "Du bist" Tie Break 2004
43. "Wohin Kleines Pony" Bob Benny 1957
44. "Der K und K Calypso aus Wein" Ferry Graf 1959
45. "Get A Life - Get Alive" Eric Papilaya 2007
There's a lot that I could write about, I think the most obvious is the song I've ranked at 36.
Udo Jürgens "Merci, Chérie" 1966
Udo Jürgens won the 1966 contest with this plaintive ballad, one that I personally detest. I've listened to it once or twice, and when I here it in clips of winning songs, I'm just confused. It is a song of the time, but for whatever reason, it's always turned me off.
But my own personal distaste, I have to say that Jürgens is a consummate singer and musician. He performed the song well, and that's why he won the contest is 1966. It's just not to my taste, and can't be nowhere near the worst.
Below Jürgens, most of the songs can be divided into two groups, the weird novelty song (which Austria has a taste for more than most countries) and boy band groups.
The boy band phenomenon is always difficult, because if they're on key and the mikes are balanced, it's really effective, but when it's not, you get something like this.
Westend "Hurricane" 1983
I still can't understand why this song came in ninth...
And it's rather self evident why a novelty song like "Der K und K Calypso aus Wein" ranked so low.
Ferry Graf "Der K und K Calypso aus Wein" 1959
Did it get taken seriously back in 1959? Not really, but now it's unintentionally hilarious.
But in listening to all of the songs, the one that has to rank the lowest is this little number.
Eric Papilaya "Get A Life - Get Alive" 2007
Austria left the contest for a number of years after this song sank like a stone in Helsinki, getting only four points in the semifinal and convincing the Austrian broadcaster ORF to not participate in the contest for a number of years.
The song isn't bad, but the staging is completely disastrous. I am all for AIDS awareness but the fact that weird chicken-people dancers came out of a marabou AIDS ribbon is beyond tacky. It also contrasted with the sparkly silver hoodie and the filmstrip background. It just didn't congeal in a way that goes beyond tacky and into mild offense.
It might have been saved had Papilaya had a bit of charisma, but he was completely upstaged by the disaster going on behind him. In my opinion it's the worst song Austria's sent.
And that's it for the bottom twenty... Stay tuned for songs ranked from 24 to 6 in my next post.
It might have been saved had Papilaya had a bit of charisma, but he was completely upstaged by the disaster going on behind him. In my opinion it's the worst song Austria's sent.
And that's it for the bottom twenty... Stay tuned for songs ranked from 24 to 6 in my next post.
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