ORF, the Austrian national broadcaster has announced today that Andi Knoll and Kati Bellowitsch will play a key part in the forthcoming  2015 Eurovision Song Contest. The Austrian duo are both well known personalities on home soil and have been appointed by the Austrian broadcaster to play a pivotal role in the contest.

Host Insignia Ceremony and Semi-final Allocation Draw

Kati Bellowitsch and Andi Knoll will embark on their Eurovision journey on Monday 26 January when they will have the honour of hosting the 2015 Eurovision Insignia Handover Ceremony and Semi-final Allocation Draw at Vienna’s City Hall (Rathaus). The couple will be involved in the forthcoming contest in more than one way!

ORF’s Eurovision Commentator and Austrian Spokesperson

Andi Knoll will be ORF’s commentator once more and will comment the 3 Eurovision Song Contest shows on 19, 21 and 23 May for the Austrian audience, whilst Kati will be Austrian spokesperson during the voting on Saturday 23 May and will announce the Austrian votes from Rathausplatz. It will be the 5th time Kati will be announcing the Austrian votes during the Eurovision Song Contest, her first time was in 2011 in Dusseldorf. Eurovision fans will remember her from 2014 when she wore a knitted beard whilst she announced the Austrian votes!

Welcome Reception, Opening Ceremony and Red Carpet

The duo will also have the honour of welcoming Europe to the 2015 Welcome reception on Sunday 17 May at the Wiener Rathaus (Vienna City Hall), they will be hosting the Opening Ceremony and welcoming the 39 delegations to the party. They will also interview the 39 acts on the red carpet and inside the Rathaus (Vienna City Hall). The Opening Ceremony will be webscast live on eurovision.tv and aired live on ORF 1.

Press conferences

Kati will be having a super busy schedule as she has been appointed to conduct the Eurovision Song Contest press conferences next May. She will be seen conducting  around 40/80 press conferences scheduled to be held in the Press Center , where a total of 1700 accredited journalists are expected to work during the 2 Eurovision weeks. She is all set to Build Bridges between the 39 competing acts and the strong army of international journalists during the press conferences, thus bringing the artists and journalists closer.

ESC Live Show- The Glass Room

ORF will be airing a series of special shows at 20:15 CET aired ORF 1 titled ESC Live.  The shows will kick off on Monday 18 May and will run every day until Saturday 23 May. ESC Live is targeted to the Austrian audience in order to bring them up close to the event and take the action from the Wiener Stadthalle direcly to their houses. A special Glass Room Studio will be erected for the occasion at the Wiener Stadthalle where Andi Knoll will bring the audience closer to event. Kati will be the outdoor host of the show, bringing in the latest news, stories and interviews from the Eurovillage, Euroclub and backstage stories and exclusive features. The audience will be able to view artist interviews, backstage snippets whilst VIP guests and competing artists will be visiting the GLASS STUDIO.

Andi and Kati’s Eurovision Agenda.

• 26/01- Hosting the Host Insignia Ceremony
• 26/01- Hosting the Semi-final Allocation Draw
• 11/05-23/05- Kati will conduct Eurovision press conferences
• 17/05-  Hosting the Opening Ceremony at the Rathaus
• 18/05-23/05- ESC Live Show with Andi and Kati from the Glass Studio at Wiener Stadthalle/Rathausplatz/ Euroclub
• 19/05- Andi Knoll- commentator Semi-final 1
  
• 21/05- Andi Knoll- commentator Semi-final 2
  
• 23/05- Andi Knoll- commentator Grand final
  
• 23/05- Kati will announce the Austrian votes during the voting in the Eurovision final

The 2015 Eurovision Song Contest is scheduled to be held at the Wiener Stadthalle on 19, 21 and 23 May in Vienna, Austria.

Stay tuned to ESCToday.com for the latest news on Austria and the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest.