A petition on the specialist website petitononline has been set up in the hope of bringing Austria back to the Eurovision Song Contest circle of countries. The petition has been addressed to Austrian broadcaster ORF.
The petition was set up by Alen Ivanic, with a Swiss email address. Of course, the petition will be popular with Eurovosion Song Contest fans across Europe and beyond that enjoy Austria's music as well as fans of the competition within Austria. A full transcript of the petitioner letter can be found at the end of this article.
Yesterday, esctoday.com spoke to Svante Stockselius to confirm what would happen if Austria was to return and the total number of entrants for 2007 surpassed the maximum number of 40. We have given a series of scenarios and a good debate is taking place in the reactions section of the article. You can read the article by clicking here and have your say on the issue.
The Austrian broadcaster did not participate in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2006 following a string of poor performances in recent years. Austria earlier withdrew from the Eurovision Song Contest. The Austrians deliberately stayed at home in 1969,1970, 1973, 1974 and 1975.
They left the door open for a return by broadcasting the competition despite their failure to participate. Sources at esctoday.com suggest that no final decision has yet been made about participation in 2007:
Last year, ORF gave the following statement regarding their withdrawal from the 2006 event:"We could see again that the musical quality at the Eurovision Song Contest is not the most important factor anymore," says ORF Head of Entertainment", Edgar Böhm. "It's all about performance, outfit and marketing. The concept has become more important than the song itself. With the group Global.Kryner we had exceptionally good musicians in Kyiv. They also have success on the music market and because of their skills they have a big fan community. Our aim is to represent Austria with high-quality music. As we can't succeed with this concept, we won't participate in Athens."
If you would like to see Austria back at the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest, click here to sign the petition.
The Petition:
Dear ORF-Team,
We, the loyal supporter and enthusiastic fans of the Eurovision Song Contest miss the participation of Austria in this joyful event. Sadly you’ve been discouraged by the failure of the participation in Ukraine in 2005 and decided not to take part in 2006. We don’t have any information yet what is planned for 2007. We’d like to motivate you herewith to take part again in this Contest.
Many countries are not much successful throughout many years and still keep on participating. Greece is a perfect example for this. It was mostly placed somewhere in the midfield but then won in 2006 the Eurovision Song Contest after over 30 years of trying. Victory of the Eurovision Song Contests includes many important advantages, such as the tourism publicity.
But you shouldn’t just participate because of the thought of victory. Just participating enables you to join a Europe wide festival and to make publicity for your country and the representative music scene. If Austria should keep on refusing its participation of the Eurovision Song Contest it also refuses a union of Europe. If Austria locks itself out it will be soon forgotten. It is very important not to be discouraged by its failures but to be highly motivated to have a success.
We truly believe in the potential of Austria and ask you with this petition to rethink your future Eurovision Song Contest strategy. The Eurovision Song Contest is an international project and this is why we have also international signatures from different countries to show you the big interest in Austria.
Thank you very much
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
