Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026

Austria is set to be represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 with the song "Tanzschein", written by Benjamin Gedeon, Elias Stejskal and Ella Stern, and performed by Gedeon under his stage name Cosmó. The Austrian participating broadcaster, Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF), organised the national final Vienna Calling – Wer singt für Österreich? to select its entry for the contest. In addition, ORF will also be the host broadcaster and will stage the event at Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, after winning the previous edition with the song "Wasted Love" by JJ.

Prior to the 2026 contest, Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Austria fifty-seven times since its first entry in 1957.^[1] It had won the contest on three occasions: in 1966 with the song "Merci, Chérie" performed by Udo Jürgens, in 2014 with the song "Rise Like a Phoenix" performed by Conchita Wurst, and in 2025 with the song "Wasted Love" performed by JJ.^[1] Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004 contest, Austria had featured in only ten finals. Its least successful result had been last place, which it had achieved on eight occasions, most recently in 2012.^[1] It had also received nul points on four occasions; in 1962, 1988, 1991, and 2015.

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. ORF confirmed its intentions to participate and host the 2026 contest immediately after the 2025 final on 18 May 2025.^[2] From 2011 to 2013 as well as in 2015 and 2016, ORF 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. In 2014 and since 2017, ORF has held an internal selection to choose the artist and song. On 2 August 2025, the broadcaster announced that its entry for the 2026 contest would be selected through a national final.^[3]

Vienna Calling – Wer singt für Österreich? ("Vienna Calling – Who sings for Austria?") was the national final organised by ORF to select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2026. The event took place on 20 February 2026 at the ORF Center in Vienna, hosted by Alice Tumler and 2018 Austrian representative Cesár Sampson, and broadcast on ORF 1 as well as streamed online via the broadcaster's streaming platform ORF ON and the Eurovision Song Contest's official YouTube channel with commentary in English by Emily Busvine.^[4][5][6] The first part of the national final was watched by 457,000 viewers in Austria with a market share of 25%, while the second part was watched by 470,000 viewers in Austria with a market share of 30%.^[7]

Twelve songs competed in the competition where the winner was selected by public voting and a 43-member expert jury panel.^[8] The jury results created an overall ranking from which points from 1–8, 10 and 12 were distributed to the top ten entries. Viewers were able to vote via telephone or SMS and the overall ranking of the entries was also assigned scores from 1–8, 10 and 12. After the combination of the jury and public votes, the entry with the highest number of points was selected as the winner.^[9][10]

ORF invited all interested artists to submit their songs to the broadcaster between 4 August 2025 and 15 October 2025.^[11][12] Music experts Eberhard Forcher and Peter Schreiber (who have both been working together on the selection of the Austrian entries since 2024) also nominated an additional 60 to 70 artists to submit songs and organised a songwriting camp in June 2025 where 18 songs were created for the selection.^[13][14] The broadcaster received over 500 submissions at the closing of the deadline, which were reviewed by a team of ORF editors and music professionals consisting of Forcher, Schreiber and Cesár Sampson.^[15][16] 30 entries were shortlisted for a live casting round on 22 and 23 November 2025, and the twelve artists and songs selected to compete in the national final were revealed on 15 December 2025.^[15][17] On 18 December 2025, Tamara Flores withdrew and was replaced by Sidrit Vokshi.^[18]

Key:   Entry withdrawn   Replacement entry

The final took place on 20 February 2026. Twelve songs competed where the combination of votes from a jury panel and a public vote selected "Tanzschein" performed by Cosmó as the winner.^[19] In addition to the performances of the competing entries, a panel consisting of Caroline Athanasiadis, 2007 Austrian representative Eric Papilaya and 2025 Eurovision winner JJ provided commentary on the songs; JJ also performed his winning song "Wasted Love" and his new single "Shapeshifter".^[20]

The Eurovision Song Contest 2026 will take place at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, Austria, and will consist of two semi-finals held on the respective dates of 12 and 14 May and the final on 16 May 2026. All nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Four" (France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete in the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progresses to the final. As the host country, Austria automatically qualifies to compete in the final on 16 May 2026, but is also required to broadcast and vote in one of the two semi-finals. This was decided via a draw held during the semi-final allocation draw on 12 January 2026, when it was announced that Austria would be voting in the second semi-final. Despite being an automatic qualifier for the final, the Austrian entry will also performed during the semi-final.^[22]