AUSTRIA

The Austrian entry was released on February 27th via Spotify although it was officially played on radio station OE3 and the video realised via youtube on February 28th  Back in December it was announced that Nathan Trent had been internally selected as their participant. He will be singing a self-penned song called “Running on Air”.

The video harks back to the old-school Eurovision videos which were more like a tourism package. The video is set in the beautiful mountains, lakes and snow of Austria and there are lots of shots of him trekking the environment and , of course, many shots of him running. The video has a very thin narrative and certainly nothing that might help us second guess his stage show. However having watched a number of his performances and videos online I have a better idea of the kind of performer he is. He has a modern look (possibly a cross between Justin Timberlake and Justs Sirmais and looks more Australian than Austrian!) and is quite a good dancer – although this song does not lend itself to this. Most of the songs and performances he has online have been quite RnB inspired and soulful, but his entry, again, does not really fit into this strength.

The song is a summery, acoustic guitar-led, mid-tempo number. His voice suits the song really well and the range of the song seems well within his ability. It certainly wouldn’t feel out of place on mainstream radio as it has a kind of Jack Johnson/Bruno Mars kind of feel. The lyrics thankfully stay away from the tired old rhymes one might be used to and the chorus ends with the title name. The only issue with this is during the 2.30 interlude the start of the chorus is repeated more than the end.

This is a very nice radio song. But there is so much that disappoints me about this. The pace is a little too slow for my ears and after a short while feels quite plodding. Plus there is no build up and no direction, it starts and just plateaus until the end. I am not sure if anything visual will help with this but the video gives few clues. I personally have grown quite tired of this very early on.  However I will give this some benefit of the doubt as semi final 2 is very sketchy for entries. If more ballads show up, it might have a chance but if more uptempo numbers join the list, I think it will miss out.

ARTIST – Nathan Trent

SONG – Running on Air

MUSIC - Nathan Trent, Bernhard Penzias

LYRICS - Nathan Trent, Bernhard Penzias