AUSTRIA

The Austrian Final was held on March 13th at the ORF TV Studios in Vienna, hosted by Mirjam Weichselbraun. The winner was chosen in two rounds of voting - in the first round the top 2 was chosen by a mix of televoting (50%) and international juries (50%) while in the second round the winner was chosen solely by televoting. Representing the home crowd will be The Makemakes singing "I am yours".

ORF decided to open up the selection process and scoured the country looking for acts that might make their mark in Eurovision. 16 acts competed and were whittled down quickly to a final list of 6. They then chose 2 songs each as potential Eurovision entries of which one was chosen by an expert jury. This mean each act had one song to perform to the public during the final. To their credit the acts were all very different and all had something that little bit different to offer at Eurovision.

This is a bluesy pop ballad with a 60's feel. The whole thing feels very familiar, the chord sequences are very predictable, as is the build up from piano based verses to more orchestral choruses. Parts of the chorus sound a bit like Coldplay's "The Scientist" .The singer has a great voice and really suits this rocky-blues number although his falsetto at the end of the chorus can seem a bit lacklustre at times.

The Makemakes had had a small bit of success prior to their appearance on " Wer singt für Österreich?" having had 2 top 10 singling in 2012 and 2014. They had also worked as an opening act for Bon Jovi bt were also infamous due to the press rumour that the main singer, Dodo Muhrer, was possibly the illegitimate son of actor Christoph Waltz. It seems as though their small fame and extensive experience made them high contenders for the ticket to Vienna.

I would guess that the final performance we see in Vienna will not be too dissimilar tot he one saw in the Austrian final show. Firstly they need to ditch the candles but keep the burning piano, although I am sure Ralf Gyllenhammar will surely know he had the idea first! The lead singer will need a bit of training of looking into the camera more than just interacting with the audience. I quite like the way the lead singer is styled with the hat and the white jacket but would like to see a bit more style co-ordination with the rest of the band and backing singers. If I could change anything about the song I would probably draw out the ending just a little bit more and make it that little bit more dramatic, they do have about 10 seconds to play with!

This is a bit of a safe song. It's not likely to offend or excite anybody. Either way this will go down with the partisan crowd in the hall. As they don't need to qualify for the final they can afford to take a safe route. I think this is more a song that the juries are likely to rank higher than the televoters. I can see this getting 1-4 points per country and coming just outside the top 10.

ARTIST - The Makemakes

SONG - I am yours

MUSIC - Jimmy Harry, Dominic Muhrer, Paul Estrela, Florian Meindl, Markus Christ

LYRICS - Jimmy Harry, Dominic Muhrer, Paul Estrela, Florian Meindl, Markus Christ