Eurovision 2021 Austria profile: ‘Amen’ by Vincent Bueno

Austria in Eurovision

Austria debuted in Eurovision back at the second edition of the contest in 1957, and since the introduction of the semi-finals in 2004 have qualified for the grand final on seven out of twelve occasions.

Austria has provided Eurovision with two wins in their history: their first all the way back in 1966 with Udo Jürgens’ ‘Merci, Chérie’, and then more recently in 2014 with Conchita Wurst’s ‘Rise Like a Phoenix’.

2021 entry: Vincent Bueno – ‘Amen’

• Semi-final: Vincent Bueno will compete in semi-final 2 in 5th position in the running order

• My Eurovision Scoreboard fan ranking: 36th out of 39 entries

• Odds to win ranking: 24th out of 39 entries

• Odds to qualify ranking: 10th out of 17 entries

(rankings as of 8 April 2021)

About the artist

35-year-old Vincent Bueno, an Austrian singer of Filipino descent based in Vienna, first came to fame as the winner of Austrian Eurovision broadcaster ORF’s ‘Musical! Die Show’ (‘Musical! The Show’) back in early 2008.

During his time in the musical competition, Vincent performed well-known hits in Grease’s ‘Greased Lightnin’’, The Phantom of the Opera’s ‘The Music of the Night’, and Marry Poppins’ ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialiodcious!’, amongst others. He won the competition in a landslide, receiving almost 70% of the televote.

Following his win in ‘Musical! Die Show’, Vincent forayed into the Filipino music scene, where he appeared on ‘All-Star Sunday Afternoon Party’, a lengthy weekly variety show.

Vincent is also no stranger to the Eurovision Song Contest, having competed in the Austrian national final in 2016 with the song ‘All We Need is That Love’, and provided backing vocals for Nathan Trent’s ‘Running On Air’ in Kyiv the next year.

Vincent has now released four albums over the course of the last twelve years, his debut of which peaked at number 55 on the Austrian music charts.

He was internally chosen for Eurovision 2020 with his song ‘Alive’, and was internally selected again for the 2021 contest.

About the song

‘Amen’ is written by Tobias Carshey, Ashley Hicklin, and Jonas Thander.

Songwriter Ashley Hicklin has a history with the Eurovision Song Contest, having written songs from Belgium (‘Me and My Guitar’, ‘Mother’), Spain (‘Universo’), and Lithuania (‘Run with the Lions’), while Jonas Thander has worked alongside global superstars Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift.

Lyrically, ‘Amen’ is a song comparing the bitter end of a relationship with a funeral, an almost polar opposite from his entry for the previous year’s entry.

The dark themes behind the song are held in parallel with the music video, which also holds in itself a positive ending. As the music video continues, Vincent breaks free of the box he spends most of the performance in.

Aussievision podcast Austria episode

Check out the Aussievision podcast review and rank episode including comments from the team. Listen via:

Apple

Spotify

Podcast Addict: https://podcastaddict.com/episode/121626986 or Google