Austria’s big Eurovision 2026 decision night landed – and ORF’s long‑trailed return to a proper national final gave us a gloriously big, bright February Friday night.
The show
After a decade of internal selections, Vienna Calling – Wer singt für Österreich? dragged Eurovision back into Austrian primetime, live from the ORF‑Zentrum in Vienna. Alice Tumler and Cesár Sampson kept things moving with a sense of “we’ve done this before, don’t panic”, while a rotating couch of commentators and guests did what they do best: talk, react (and occasionally over‑react) to twelve Eurovision hopefuls.
The line‑up
Musically, this was a bit of radio pop, a bit of earnest message, some rock, some indie‑adjacent noodling, and the obligatory quota of “what on earth did I just watch?”.
ORF tried to tick every box: German‑language material, English‑language radio entries, and at least one track clearly designed for the TikTok generation rather than the traditional Eurovision fanboy.
How the winner was chosen
Austria went with the tried and tested 50/50 split between jury and televote. A 43‑strong panel – packed with industry faces and a few familiar Eurovision alumni (or Jamala as we call her) – handed out their points, with the public invited to agree or disagree.
Those results you say? Well they were a bit of a mish mash – the jury was announced in full, then the top three (between the jury and televote) were invited onto stage. ORF flashed up the total scores -I had to be quick to press pause to get them!
| Song | Performers | Jury | Televote | Total | Psn |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Superhuman | Anna-Sophie | 2 | 7 | 9 | 6 |
| Wenn ich rauche | Sidrit Vokshi | 0 | 5 | 5 | 9 |
| I brenn | Kayla Krystin | 8 | 6 | 14 | 4 |
| Mescalero Ranger | Reverend Stomp | 3 | 0 | 3 | 10 |
| We Are Not Just One Thing | Bamlak Werner | 4 | 10 | 14 | 3 |
| Das Leben ist Kunst | Philip Piller | 1 | 1 | 2 | 11 |
| Unsterblich | Nikotin | 7 | 4 | 11 | 5 |
| Pockets Full of Snow | David Kurt | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| Julia | Julia Steen | 6 | 2 | 8 | 8 |
| Riddle | Frevd | 5 | 3 | 8 | 7 |
| Painted Reality | Lena Schaur | 12 | 8 | 20 | 2 |
| Tanzschein | Cosmó | 10 | 12 | 22 | 1 |
And here is the performance that made Cosmo the winner…
