Our friends in Austria seem to not quite ‘get’ Eurovision. Yeah, I know they won with some guy called Tom the other year, but there record has been very up and down. Mostly down.
I’ve never quite worked out why, as Austria is the home of some of the best composers the world has ever known. So why have they had minimal success? Is it because they’re out of that golden region of the Nordic lands? Or do their best writers prefer the timpani to the Schlager?
Between Austria’s two wins, their best finish was fifth, which they achieved on three occasions.
Today’s birthday boy Thomas Forstner was the last of those three performers to finish fifth, which he did in 1989. this was a full 25 years BC (Before Conchita). He came back later, but we won’t dwell on that.
Thomas is 47 today.
Frohe Geburtstag, Thomas!