| Year: | 2024 |
| Country: | Austria |
| Preselection: | Internal selection |
| Entrant: | Kaleen |
| Song: | We Will Rave |
| Sf Result: | Qualified (9th, 46 points) |
| Final Result: | 24th, 24 points |
Austria participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 in Malmö, Sweden, with "We Will Rave" performed by Kaleen. The Austrian broadcaster German: [[Österreichischer Rundfunk]]|i=no (ORF) internally selected the country's representative for the contest.
See main article: Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest. Prior to the 2024 contest, Austria had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty-five times since its first entry in .[1] The nation had won the contest on two occasions: in with the song "French: [[Merci, Chérie]]|i=no" performed by Udo Jürgens and in with the song "Rise Like a Phoenix" performed by Conchita Wurst.[1] Following the introduction of semi-finals for the, Austria had featured in only eight finals. Austria's least successful result had been last place, which it had achieved on eight occasions, most recently in .[1] Austria had also received nul points on four occasions; in,, and .
The Austrian national broadcaster, German: [[ORF (broadcaster)|Österreichischer Rundfunk]]|i=no (ORF), broadcasts the event within Austria and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. In and since, ORF had held an internal selection to choose the artist and song to represent Austria at the contest. On 14 June 2023, ORF's program director Stefanie Groiss-Horowitz confirmed the broadcaster's intentions to participate at the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest and to continue to internally select their representative.[2]
In July 2023, ORF scouts Peter Schreiber and (who had worked on the selection of Austrian entries since) started making open calls for interested artists to contact them by 30 September 2023,[3] [4] receiving more than sixty entries by that date.[5] An expert committee, headed by Forcher, shortlisted fourteen artists, who were invited to the ORF headquarters in Vienna in order to shoot videoclips for their songs[6] [7] [8] and were ultimately assessed by a 25-member jury and six Eurovision Song Contest fan clubs at an audition round.[8] In early September 2023, ORF's head of entertainment Martin Gastinger had commented on the possibility of holding a national final or a public online vote among the shortlisted finalists rather than a fully internal selection;[4] [9] however, this was later reconsidered for "legal reasons", with the selected performer planned to be announced in December 2023;[7] this was ultimately not the case and the announcement was scheduled for 16 January 2024,[8] during the German: Ö3-Wecker show on Hitradio Ö3.[5] The selected artist was revealed to be Kaleen; she had previous experience in the contest, having worked as a stand-in singer, dancer, creative director and choreographer for various countries since 2018. Her competing entry, "We Will Rave", was released on 1 March;[10] written by Anderz Wrethov, Jimmy Thörnfeldt, and, it had been anticipated that it would be a "techno-inspired pop track".[11] [12] [13]
As part of the promotion of her participation in the contest, Kaleen attended the PrePartyES in Madrid on 30 March 2024, the London Eurovision Party on 7 April 2024, the Eurovision in Concert event in Amsterdam on 13 April 2024, the Nordic Eurovision Party in Stockholm on 14 April 2024 and the Copenhagen Eurovision Party (Malmöhagen) on 4 May 2024.[14] [15] [16] [17] She also performed at a special "farewell party" in Vienna on 22 April 2024, organised and streamed online by ORF and Eurovision fansite Wiwibloggs,[18] [19] and she performed at the Eurovision Village in Malmö on 7 May 2024.[20]
The Eurovision Song Contest 2024 took place at the Malmö Arena in Malmö, Sweden, and consisted of two semi-finals held on the respective dates of 7 and 9 May and the final on 11 May 2024. All nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) were required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete in the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. On 30 January 2024, an allocation draw was held to determine which of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show, each country would perform in; the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot.[21] Austria was scheduled for the first half of the second semi-final.[22] The shows' producers then decided the running order for the semi-finals; Austria was set to perform in position 6.[23]
In Austria, all the shows were aired on ORF 1,[24] with commentary by Andi Knoll,[25] and the final on FM4, with commentary by Jan Böhmermann and Olli Schulz.[26] [27] In a joint meeting held in Munich in September 2023, ORF and German-language broadcasters ARD for and SRF for renewed their plans to cooperate on the broadcast of Eurovision-themed programmes German: ESC{{snd and German: ESC{{snd in 2024, as they did for the 2023 contest;[28] [29] the shows are hosted by Barbara Schöneberger.[30]
Kaleen took part in technical rehearsals on 29 April and 2 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 8 and 9 May.[31] Her performance of "We Will Rave" at the contest is directed by Dan Shipton and choreographed by herself alongside Lukas McFarlane.[32] [33]
Austria performed in position 6, following the entry from and before the entry from .[23] At the end of the show, the country was announced as a qualifier for the final.
Following the semi-final, Austria was drawn to perform in the second half of the final,[34] and performed last in position 26 as the 25th act, following the entry from .[35] During the dance break, a battery failure on the Steadicam caused a 3.8-second freeze frame.
Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Austria in the second semi-final and in the final. Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting in the final vote, while the semi-final vote was based entirely on the vote of the public.[36] The Austrian jury consisted of Pia Maria Ausserlechner, Philipp Emberger, Anna-Sophie Heibl, Simone Lewarth and Annemarie Reisinger-Treiber.[37] In the second semi-final, Austria placed 9th with 46 points, while in the final, Austria placed 24th with 24 points. Over the course of the contest, Austria awarded its 12 points to the in the second semi-final, and to and in the jury vote and televote in the final respectively.[38] [39]
The spokesperson for the Austrian jury at the final was Philipp Hansa.[40]
Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent. Each jury, and individual jury member, is required to meet a strict set of criteria regarding professional background, as well as diversity in gender and age. No member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently.[41] The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.
The following members comprised the Austrian jury:[37] [42]
| + | ||||
| Draw | Country | Televote | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Points | |||
| 01 | 12 | |||
| 02 | 14 | |||
| 03 | 9 | 2 | ||
| 04 | 3 | 8 | ||
| 05 | 6 | 5 | ||
| 06 | ||||
| 07 | 8 | 3 | ||
| 08 | 5 | 6 | ||
| 09 | 7 | 4 | ||
| 10 | 13 | |||
| 11 | 10 | 1 | ||
| 12 | 15 | |||
| 13 | 4 | 7 | ||
| 14 | 2 | 10 | ||
| 15 | 11 | |||
| 16 | 1 | 12 | ||
| + | |||||||||||
| Draw | Country | Jury | Televote | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Juror A | Juror B | Juror C | Juror D | Juror E | Rank | Points | Rank | Points | |||
| 01 | 12 | 5 | 14 | 20 | 7 | 12 | 17 | ||||
| 02 | 5 | 10 | 6 | 5 | 11 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 7 | ||
| 03 | 11 | 4 | 20 | 15 | 12 | 13 | 7 | 4 | |||
| 04 | 23 | 12 | 21 | 11 | 14 | 19 | 20 | ||||
| 06 | 10 | 16 | 16 | 10 | 18 | 18 | 2 | 10 | |||
| 07 | 14 | 11 | 5 | 17 | 16 | 14 | 18 | ||||
| 08 | 4 | 20 | 9 | 16 | 3 | 8 | 4 | 14 | |||
| 09 | 8 | 13 | 12 | 8 | 4 | 10 | 2 | 12 | |||
| 10 | 13 | 18 | 7 | 2 | 19 | 9 | 3 | 9 | 2 | ||
| 11 | 20 | 14 | 24 | 25 | 15 | 22 | 15 | ||||
| 12 | 18 | 8 | 22 | 14 | 8 | 16 | 13 | ||||
| 13 | 16 | 22 | 13 | 24 | 13 | 20 | 23 | ||||
| 14 | 19 | 25 | 11 | 21 | 1 | 11 | 1 | 21 | |||
| 15 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 17 | 2 | 10 | 10 | 1 | ||
| 16 | 21 | 19 | 25 | 18 | 24 | 24 | 6 | 5 | |||
| 17 | 15 | 24 | 17 | 9 | 6 | 15 | 11 | ||||
| 18 | 17 | 15 | 23 | 6 | 21 | 17 | 24 | ||||
| 19 | 6 | 3 | 10 | 4 | 20 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 3 | ||
| 20 | 22 | 23 | 15 | 23 | 23 | 23 | 16 | ||||
| 21 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 12 | 3 | 8 | ||
| 22 | 25 | 21 | 19 | 22 | 22 | 25 | 22 | ||||
| 23 | 2 | 7 | 4 | 19 | 5 | 3 | 8 | 1 | 12 | ||
| 24 | 24 | 17 | 18 | 13 | 25 | 21 | 19 | ||||
| 25 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 3 | 9 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 6 | ||
| 26 | |||||||||||