Friday 10 March 2023

AUSTRIA 2023

The Austrian song was revealed on March 8th via the premiere of the official music video on youtube and it's first play on Radio Ö3. On 31 January, ORF announced during the radio show Ö3-Wecker, that they had internally selected Teya & Salena to represent Austria in Liverpool. Their song is called "Who the hell is Edgar?"

Teya and Salena - Teodora Špirić and Selina-Maria Edbauer - met in 2021 when they were both contestants on the long running Austrian talent show Starmania. Salena had previously been on The Voice of Germany and was part of Samu Haber's team. Co-incidentally both of them had applied to represent Austria at ESC before their meeting. Teya made a submission under the name Thea Devy in 2020 with "Judgement Day". When this bid failed she then submitted this same song to the Serbian selection and came 10th in their national final with "Sudnji dan". Salena applied in 2019 with the song "Behind the Waterfall".

The song starts with a spoken intro before the beat clicks in. The bassline is quite funky but still straightforward. The verse is very staccato almost spoken then a rather spiritual, almost choral, section comes in before the repetitive 'Poe Poe Poe' chorus. This runs straight into the next verse where the girls' voices seem to be stronger, maybe even slightly angry, and the delivery certainly is more punchy. Once more the chorus comes in followed by the choral part again but this time still with the backing track behind it. This then makes way for a slightly sinister bridge with the repetition of the numbers. Finally the chorus and choral part are sang together before a final choral refrain and a farewell remark of the title of the song. 

This song is just plain madness. The lyrics are fun, if not slightly barmy, the video is bordering on absurd but the refrains are so very catchy. The song is quirky and rather unexpected which could throw a lot of people off but will also keep some people's attention from start to finish, for good or for bad! The hooks are so easy to catch and the use of a person's name - who most people will have at least heard of - is a clever trick. Whether on not people pick up on the digs about the music industry, the mechanics of song writing and the inability for artists to survive on the paltry remuneration from streaming services, it is a song that works on numerous levels.
On the other side there are concerns about the way this could be performed live. Will they bring in any of the themes in the video or will it be something brand new? How are they going to sing his live? Will they actually be able to sing the chorus? Will they have live backing singers? I would hope, after the floods of positivity after the video reveal, that some aspects of this are involved e.g. the typewriter (I can imagine the words being types on the backdrop), the 70s outfits at the start or even some of the additional cast members. The dance routine is a must to stay! This song has been eagerly awaited and I feel like this song is going to big, in particular this song is made for tiktok. No matter how successful this song may by in Liverpool, this will happily be revisited every year henceforth.

ARTIST - Teya & Salena
SONG - Who the hell is Edgar?
WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Selina Edbauer, Ronald Janeček, Pele Loriano, Teodora Spiric

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