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Zoë: in the footsteps of Conchita

Austria has selected its latest act for Eurovision 2016.

Published: 13 February 2016 19:33 CET
Zoë: in the footsteps of Conchita
Photo: ORF/Milenko Badzic

In the TV show Wer singt für Österreich? (Who sings for Austria?) on Friday night, ten acts were vying for the chance to represent Austria in Stockholm later this year. 

The public and jury selected the 19-year-old Zoë as the final winner.  She is the daughter of Christof Straub, who plays guitar in the band Papermoon.

The decision was made by TV viewers and an expert jury, consisting of Conchita Wurst, madita, and Julie Frost.  The fourth juror was made up from a combination vote of several local Austrian media experts.

Austrians have been huge fans of the Eurovision Song Contest since it was won by local talent Conchita Wurst in 2014.

Unusually, the song Loin d'ici is sung by Zoë in French.  The Eurovision Song Contest is the world's largest song competition, watched by an estimated television audience of nearly 200 million people.  

The 2015 contest was held in Vienna, and was won by a Swedish act, Måns Zelmerlöw with the song Heroes.

EUROVISION

Sweden among favourites after leaping through to Eurovision final

Cornelia Jakobs, Sweden's entry to the Eurovision Song Contest, burst into tears and jumped onto presenter Mario Acampas, after shooting through to the final on Thursday night.

Published: 13 May 2022 08:09 CEST
Sweden among favourites after leaping through to Eurovision final

Jakobs was emotional at the press conference after her victory, telling the story of her progress from an “largely unknown” indie artist to the Eurovision stage. 

“There are a lot of feelings right now in this little body, an extremely large amount of feelings that can’t really fit in, so they’re exploding,” she said, before beginning to cry. “But I’m so happy and overwhelmed by all the support I’ve got from all these fantastic countries.” 

When the time came to pick lots for which half of the final she would appear in, she leapt onto Mario Acampas, the presenter asking questions at the press conference, wrapping her legs around his waist and clasping herself tightly to his torso. 

He then walked her over to the bowl where the lots were lying. 

“I want you to choose the second half,” she said to him. “Imagine that I have a pistol here and on the count of three I’m going to shoot you if you don’t choose.”

He refused to pick for her so she took one herself and got the second half. 

Jakobs, with her song, “Hold me closer”, was the clear favourite to go into the final, and will go through alongside Finland’s The Rasmus, and his song Jezebel, Serbia’s Konstrakta with “In corpore sano”, as well as entries from Belgium, Czechia, Azerbaijan, Poland, Estonia, Australia, and Romania. 

You can see her performance on Thursday in the video below. 

In the final, she will meet the other favourites, which include Ukraine, Italy, and the United Kingdom. 

The final will be shown on Sweden’s state broadcaster SVT at 9pm on Saturday. 

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