Austria was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 with the song "Rise Like a Phoenix", written by Charlie Mason, Joey Patulka, Ali Zuckowski, and Julian Maas, and performed by Thomas Neuwirth under the drag stage persona Conchita Wurst. The Austrian participating broadcaster, (ORF), internally selected its entry for the contest. The broadcaster announced Wurst's selection in September 2013, with the song presented to the public in March 2014. Wurst had risen to fame after taking part in an Austrian talent show in 2011 and attempting to represent .

After a promotional tour of several European countries, Austria was seen as one of the countries most likely to qualify for the grand final. In the second of the Eurovision semi-finals "Rise Like a Phoenix" came first of the 15 participating countries, securing its place among the 26 other countries in the final. In Austria's on 10 May, "Rise Like a Phoenix" became the sixty-second song to win the Eurovision Song Contest, receiving a total of 290 points and full marks from thirteen countries. This was Austria's second win in the contest, having in , 48 years prior; this is the longest gap between two Eurovision wins of a country to this day.

After the show, the song went on to chart in several European countries, reaching number one in Austria and the UK Indie Chart, as well as reaching the top 10 in a further 10 countries. Wurst's appearance in the contest brought about both criticism and praise: by some of the more socially conservative sections of European society her victory in the contest was condemned as a promotion of LGBT rights; conversely the international attention received by Wurst's victory firmly established her among the LGBT community, leading her to take an active role in promoting tolerance and respect, and resulted in several invites to perform at several European pride events, as well as performances at the European Parliament and United Nations Office at Vienna.

Background Prior to the 2014 contest, (ORF) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Austria forty-six times since its first entry in , winning the contest with the song "" performed by Udo Jürgens Following the introduction of semi-finals for the , Austria had featured in only two finals. Its least successful result has been last place, achieved on eight occasions, most recently . Austria has also received nul points on three occasions; in , and .

As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, ORF organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. From 2011 to 2013, ORF had set up national finals with several artists to choose both the song and performer to compete at Eurovision for Austria, with both the public and a panel of jury members involved in the selection. For the 2014 contest, ORF held an internal selection to choose the artist and song. This method had last been used by ORF in 2007.

Before Eurovision Internal selection

ORF confirmed its intentions to participate at the 2014 contest on 6 September 2013. On 10 September 2013, the broadcaster announced that they had internally selected Conchita Wurst to represent Austria in Copenhagen. Wurst is the drag stage persona of Tom Neuwirth, who in 2007 finished second in the third season of Austrian talent show Starmania, behind Nadine Beiler, who represented . Neuwirth went on to join the boy band Jetzt Anders! along with other contestants from Starmania in 2007, which disbanded later that year. Following this, Neuwirth, who uses masculine pronouns when referring to himself but feminine pronouns to describe Wurst, developed his new drag persona and appeared on ORF's talent show Die große Chance (The Big Opportunity) as Wurst in 2011, achieving sixth place. Wurst went on to compete in the for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 with the song "That's What I Am", qualifying for the second round and finishing second with 49 percent of the public vote.

ORF confirmed in October 2013 that the song to be performed by Wurst at the contest would also be chosen internally. On 18 March 2014 at an ORF press conference in Vienna, the song "Rise Like a Phoenix" was announced as the Austrian entry for the contest. The song was written by Charlie Mason, Joey Patulka, Ali Zuckowski and Julian Maas, and was selected by Wurst and her team from more than 100 submissions from national and international composers and producers nominated by ORF. Wurst's first live performance of the song was on 22 March 2014, during an episode of Dancing Stars, the Austrian version of international franchise Dancing with the Stars.

Controversy The selection of Wurst caused some controversy in Austria and the rest of Europe. A Facebook group which amassed approximately 38,000 members protested the decision by the publicly funded broadcaster ORF, to internally select the country's Eurovision act without a public vote. In an interview with Austrian newspaper Kurier, Wurst defended her internal selection by ORF, noting that the broadcaster had the sole responsibility of making decisions regarding the contest and that the of Eric Papilaya received no backlash from the Austrian public. Wurst also claimed that the criticism from the group surpassed protest against her as the selected artist and instead "displayed homophobic statements and discrimination", and she vowed to "continue fighting against discrimination" in response to the Facebook group.

Wurst's selection for Eurovision also sparked outrage outside of Austria; in Belarus, a petition by more than 2,000 people petitioned the Belarusian Ministry of Information to prevent the contest from being broadcast in the country, claiming it to being "a hotbed of sodomy" and an attempt by European liberals to impose Western values on Belarus and Russia. A similar petition of more than 15,000 signatures was also received by the Russian Ministry of Communications and Mass Media from the "All-Russian parenting group", claiming that Wurst "leads the lifestyle inapplicable [sic] for Russians" Wurst also received criticism from the , Aram Mp3, who claimed that her lifestyle was "not natural" and that she should "eventually decide whether she is a woman or a man". Aram Mp3 later apologised and insisted his statements were "a joke". In response to petitions in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine asking for Wurst to be removed from the competition, some of the other 2014 participants gave Wurst their support. Kasey Smith, said that "everyone should be allowed in" to Eurovision and that she "totally disagree[s] with what they are doing. It's homophobia."

Promotion Before her appearance at the contest, Wurst went on a promotional tour, performing in several European countries. Prior to her song selection, Wurst appeared at a Eurovision fan event in Vienna in October 2013 held by the Austrian branch of OGAE, an international organisation of Eurovision fan clubs across Europe and beyond, where she shared the stage with Anne-Marie David, who won Eurovision for . On 28 March Wurst appeared at the 2014 Euroschlager Party, held by OGAE Spain, in Madrid. On 29 March 2014, Wurst was a guest at the "Eurovision Pre-Party Riga" in Latvia, appearing alongside Donatan and Cleo (who would represent ) and PeR (who represented ). Wurst was also one of 26 acts from the 2014 contest to perform during the 2014 Eurovision in Concert, the largest gathering of Eurovision artists outside of Eurovision itself, held in the Melkweg, a popular music venue in Amsterdam, the Netherlands on 5 April 2014. This was followed by an appearance at the London Preview Party alongside 15 other participating entries from 2014, held at the Café de Paris nightclub in London on 13 April. Wurst also took part in several interviews and performances on Irish, Belgian and Dutch television networks. In the run-up to the contest, Wurst asked her fans to take part in a campaign called "Knit for Tolerance", in which they would wear knitted beards in a display of tolerance and respect, also promising that she would take all beards that she received with her to Copenhagen.

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 20 January 2014, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Austria was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 8 May 2014, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.

As part of the contest's graphic design, special postcards were commissioned by the Danish host broadcaster DR to introduce each of the participating countries before the acts took to the stage. For the 2014 contest the contestants were asked to take a photo of their country's flag, made in a creative way. Austria's postcard was the first to be filmed by DR, and was shot at the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna featuring Wurst and her stylist Tamara Mascara creating the Austrian flag out of 70 baroque-style dresses.

Once all the competing songs for the 2014 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Austria was set to perform in position 6, following the entry from Poland and before the entry from . All three shows were broadcast on ORF eins, with commentary by Andi Knoll. ORF appointed Kati Bellowitsch as its spokesperson to announce the Austrian votes during the final.

Semi-final

Wurst took part in technical rehearsals on 30 April and 3 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 7 and 8 May. This included the jury final where professional juries of each country, responsible for 50 percent of each country's vote, watched and voted on the competing entries.

The stage show featured Wurst in a gold mermaid-style dress standing on a pedestal in the middle of the stage. The stage appeared dark at the beginning of the song with minimal lighting, before the lighting rose towards the beginning of the first chorus. The song also began with the camera at the back of the arena before zooming into centre stage to a close-up of Wurst, followed by it flying off again at the beginning of the chorus. The background LED screens displayed flaming rain at the first chorus, followed by flames in the shape of wings, in reference to the phoenix in the title of the song. Pyrotechnic flames also featured at the end of the song. Wind machines were also used during the performance.

At the end of the show, it was announced that Austria had finished in the top 10 and thus qualifying for the grand final; it was the last qualifying country to be announced by the show's hosts, Pilou Asbæk and Nikolaj Koppel. It was later revealed that Austria had won the semi-final, receiving a total of 169 points.

Final