Eurovision 2016: Austria

Austria has chosen the musical version of a kitten calendar picture

I have to hand it to Austria, when watching their national final, Wer singt für Österreich?, I was not bored.    The program, presented back on February 12th, didn't fall back on the usual Eurovision tropes.

I still don't know the musical genre this song belongs to

AzRaH   "The One"

The music just calls out to be played over and over again.  Is it jazz?   Is it rock?   I don't know.   I just wish the singer's nerves hadn't gotten the best of her, because boy is it hard to listen to.   Go search out the recorded version of the song.  

I'm also amazed by the provocative nature of this song:

Bella Wagner   "Weapons Down"

I really never expected a song like this to be presented in a national final, much less come in third.  The song is about a standard Eurovision topic--peace--but the song style and presentation were meant to unsettle.   That is something that is rarely seen at Eurovision and I have great respect for Wagner as an artist and the Austrian jury for ranking this so highly.   

But when all the votes were tallied, this is the song that won

Zoe    "Loin d'ici"

Yep.  It's in French.   And she is dressed up like a Disney princess.  Zoë is nineteen years old, but the styling of the song makes her look much younger, and like Iceland's entry last year, it's something I I actively dislike   The combination of the pretentiousness of the use of French and preciousness in the presentation of this song make me cringe.  As is, I cannot see anybody wanting to vote for this unless they were young girls unlikely to be allowed to vote in the semifinals because it's past their bedtime.

I wish I could be kinder to Austria's choice, but when it cam from a contest that had such interesting music and this was the song chosen, I can't help but be a bit disappointed.