Austria has been represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 58 times since its debut in . The country has won three times, in , and . The Austrian participating broadcaster in the contest is (ORF). Vienna was the host city on all three occasions the contest has been held in Austria, in , , and .
Austria has finished last in the contest final seven times (1957, 1961, 1962, 1979, 1984, 1988, and 1991) and finished last in the semi-final in 2012. "Nobody but You" by Cesár Sampson achieved Austria's eighth top five result and third-best result of the 21st century at the contest, finishing third.
Having finished sixth at the contest and fourth in , Udo Jürgens, one of few Eurovision performers to have competed in three consecutive contests, won at his third attempt in 1966 with the song "". This was Austria's only top three result of the 20th century, as well as its first win. Austria won for a second time in 2014, with "Rise Like a Phoenix" by Conchita Wurst, setting a then-record for longest gap between winning entries at 48 years. The country would go on to win most recently in 2025, with "Wasted Love" by JJ.
Participation (ORF) is a full member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), thus eligible to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Austria.
History ORF finished last at its debut in the contest in 1957, before Liane Augustin gave the country the first of its eight top five results in , with fifth. Having finished sixth in and fourth in , Udo Jürgens won the contest at his third attempt in 1966. This would be Austria's only top three result of 20th century. The country's best result over the next 46 years (1967–2013) would be fifth place, which it achieved with The Milestones in , Waterloo and Robinson in and Thomas Forstner in . Austria has finished last in the final a total of seven times, in 1957, 1961, 1962, 1979, 1984, 1988, 1991. The country also finished last in the semi-final in 2012. Austria's best result of the 1990s was four tenth-place finishes, in , , and . Austria's best result of the 2000s was Alf Poier's sixth-place in , which was Austria's best placement since 1989.
After a three-year absence, ORF announced on 28 July 2010 that Austria would return to the contest in , where the country reached the final for the first time since 2004, finishing 18th.
Austria achieved its second victory in the contest at the contest, with Conchita Wurst winning with 290 points. In a complete reversal of fortunes in 2015, following a tie-break rule Austria was placed 26th and scored nul points along with Germany (27th), it became the first country since the United Kingdom in 2003 to score no points at the final. Because of this, Austria became the first host country to receive nul points. Austria qualified for the final for the next three years, finishing 13th in 2016, 16th in 2017, and in 2018, when "Nobody but You" by Cesár Sampson finished third. Three more non-qualifications followed in 2019, 2021, and 2022. Teya and Salena returned Austria to the final in 2023, finishing 15th, followed by Kaleen finishing 24th in 2024, before JJ achieved Austria's third contest win in 2025.
Absences Austria has opted out of participation in several contests. The first of these was the 1969 contest, which was staged in Madrid. As Spain was ruled at that time by Francisco Franco, Austria chose to boycott the contest.
The following year, Austria was again absent. This was due to the unprecedented result in 1969 in which four songs tied for first place, a result which prompted several other countries to opt out as well.
From 1973 to 1975, Austria stayed away as well. The exact reason for this is unclear, however the scoring system in use at one of these contests, which allowed all entrants a guaranteed number of points, may have been a factor.
The country was ineligible to compete in 1998 and 2001, as it had not achieved sufficiently high placings in the five previous years.
Prior to the 2006 contest, Austria announced that it would not enter a performer in protest at their poor results in previous years, arguing that the musical talent of the performers was no longer the determining factor in success at the event. The country returned for the 2007 contest in Helsinki, but came second to last in the semi-final. National broadcaster ORF cited the 2007 result, as well as declining interest in the contest among Austrian viewers, as the reason Austria would not return to the contest in 2008. ORF programme director Wolfgang Lorenz also hinted that Austria may withdraw from the contest indefinitely, stating "ORF has no desire to send more talent out of Austria to a competition where they have no chances...Should the situation change, we'll be happy to take part again". Despite withdrawing, the final of the 2008 contest was shown on ORF.
In 2008, the EBU introduced two semi-finals to the contest, hoping that spreading countries out by random draw would prevent the kind of bloc voting that had warded Austria off. Additionally, juries were reintroduced to determine 50% of each country's result in 2009 (albeit not in the semi-finals, in which all but one of the qualifiers were decided entirely by televote). However, Edgar Böhm, director of entertainment for ORF, said that the semi-final format "still incorporates a mix of countries who will be politically favoured in the voting process" and "that, unless a clear guideline as to how the semifinals are organised is made by the EBU, Austria will not be taking part in Moscow 2009". ORF decided not to participate in the 2009 contest, but did broadcast the final as in 2008. The EBU announced that they would work harder to bring Austria back to the contest in 2010, along with former participants Monaco and Italy. It was, however, confirmed that Austria would not participate in the 2010 contest in Oslo. In July 2010, the chairman of ORF, Alexander Wrabetz, stated that Austria would return for the 2011 contest, due to it being held in its neighbour Germany. In 2011, Austria reached the final for the first time since 2004.
Participation overview + Table key 1 First place 2 Second place 3 Third place ◁ Last place ◇ Entry selected but did not compete † Upcoming event
Year Artist Song Language Final Points Semi Points Bob Martin "" German 10 ◁ 3rowspan="31" colspan="2" Liane Augustin "" German 5 8 Ferry Graf "" German 9 4 Harry Winter "" German 7 6 Jimmy Makulis "" German 15 ◁ 1 Eleonore Schwarz "" German 13 ◁ 0 Carmela Corren "" German, English 7 16 Udo Jürgens "" German 6 11 Udo Jürgens "" German 4 16 Udo Jürgens "" German 1 31 Peter Horten "" German 14 2 Karel Gott "" German 13 2 Marianne Mendt "" German 16 66 The Milestones "" German 5 100 Waterloo and Robinson "My Little World" English 5 80 Schmetterlinge "Boom Boom Boomerang" German, English 17 11 Springtime "Mrs. Caroline Robinson" German 15 14 Christina Simon "" German 18 ◁ 5 Blue Danube "" German 8 64 Marty Brem "" German 17 20 Mess "" German 9 57 Westend "Hurricane" German 9 53 Anita "" German 19 ◁ 5 Gary Lux "" German 8 60 Timna Brauer "" German 18 12 Gary Lux "" German 20 8 Wilfried "Lisa Mona Lisa" German 21 ◁ 0 Thomas Forstner "" German 5 97 Simone "" German 10 58 Thomas Forstner "" German 22 ◁ 0 Tony Wegas "" German 10 63 Tony Wegas "Maria Magdalena" German 14 32 colspan="2" Petra Frey "" German 17 19 rowspan="2" colspan="2" Stella Jones "" German 13 67 George Nussbaumer "" German 10 68 6 80 Bettina Soriat "One Step" German 21 12 colspan="2" rowspan="5" Bobbie Singer "Reflection" English 10 65 The Rounder Girls "All to You" English 14 34 Manuel Ortega "Say a Word" English 18 26 Alf Poier "" German 6 101 Tie Break "" German 21 9 colspan="2" Global.Kryner "" English, Spanish colspan="2" rowspan="2" 21 30 Eric Papilaya "Get a Life – Get Alive" English 27 4 Nadine Beiler "The Secret Is Love" English 18 64 7 69 Trackshittaz "" German colspan="2" rowspan="2" 18 ◁ 8 Natália Kelly "Shine" English 14 27 Conchita Wurst "Rise Like a Phoenix" English 1 290 1 169 The Makemakes "I Am Yours" English 26 0 colspan="2" Zoë "" French 13 151 7 170 Nathan Trent "Running on Air" English 16 93 7 147 Cesár Sampson "Nobody but You" English 3 342 4 231 Paenda "Limits" English colspan="2" 17 21 Vincent Bueno ◇ "Alive" ◇ English ◇ colspan="4" Vincent Bueno "Amen" English colspan="2" rowspan="2" 12 66 Lumix Pia Maria "Halo" English 15 42 Teya and Salena "Who the Hell Is Edgar?" English 15 120 2 137 Kaleen "We Will Rave" English 24 24 9 46 JJ "Wasted Love" English 1 436 5 104 Cosmó "Tanzschein" German 24 6 colspan="2" align="center" colspan="7" align="center"
Hostings
YearLocationVenuePresenterViennaGroßer Festsaal der Wiener HofburgErica VaalWiener StadthalleArabella Kiesbauer, Alice Tumler, Mirjam Weichselbraun and Conchita WurstVictoria Swarovski and Michael Ostrowski
Awards Marcel Bezençon Awards
YearCategorySongPerformer(s)Composer(s)Host cityPress Award"Rise Like a Phoenix"Conchita WurstCharley Mason, Joey Patulka, Ali Zuckowski, Julian Maas Copenhagen
Related involvement Conductors YearConductorMusical DirectorNotesCarl de Groofrowspan="10" Willy Fantel Franck PourcelRobert Stolz Franck PourcelBruno UherErwin HalletzJohannes Fehring Gianni FerrioHans HammerschmidJohannes FehringRobert Opratkorowspan="25" Erich KleinschusterChristian KolonovitsRichard OesterreicherHarald NeuwirthRichard OesterreicherLeon IvesChristian Kolonovits Hermann WeindorfMichael F. KienzlMischa W. Krausz
Heads of delegation YearHead of delegation–Stefan Zechner
Commentators and spokespersons Between the and contests, every contest was commentated by Austrian radio journalist and actor Ernst Grissemann, with the exception of the and contests. Grissemann admitted to future German commentator Peter Urban in 1995 that he only stayed for the dress rehearsal and then provided the Austrian commentary live from the ORF studios. After 1998 Grissemann stepped down from the commentary and was replaced by Andi Knoll. Austria has also broadcast the contests which it did not compete in, except for the contest.
+ Television and radio commentators and spokespersons Year Television Radio Spokesperson Channel Commentator(s) Channel Commentator(s) ORF rowspan="7" colspan="2" rowspan="39" rowspan="12" Hanns Joachim Friedrichs rowspan="2" FS1 Emil Kollpacher rowspan="2" rowspan="2" Ernst Grissemann rowspan="2" FS2 rowspan="3" rowspan="18" FS1 FS2 FS1 Max Schautzer FS2 Ernst Grissemann FS1 Barbara Stöckl Ernst Grissemann ORF 1 FM4 Stermann & Grissemann Andi Knoll Dodo Roscic colspan="2" rowspan="7" ORF 1 (Final) ORF 1 ORF 1 (Final) rowspan="3" ORF 1 colspan="4" Andi Knoll Hitradio Ö3 (All shows) (Final) Kati Bellowitsch Andi Knoll (All shows) Stermann and Grissemann and (Final) colspan="2" rowspan="8" Andi Knoll Kristina Inhof Kati Bellowitsch Philipp Hansa ORF 1 colspan="4" ORF 1 Andi Knoll colspan="2" Philipp Hansa FM4 (final) Kurdwin Ayub, Florian Alexander, Hannes Duscher and Roland Gratzer Jan Böhmermann and Olli Schulz
Photo gallery
Notes and references Notes
References
Works cited