Following days of frankly barmy online speculation, after an Austrian Eurovision delegation head posted details of a fever dream in which he landed a fabulous act for 2023, only to wake and find he didn’t, ORF has named the act carrying Austrian hopes to Liverpool.
22-year-old Viennese Teya and 24-year-old Styrian Salena will represent ORF at Eurovision 2023, as just announced on Ö3-Wecker. Their ‘uptempo’ song will be presented on March 8th – international women’s day. For the Austrian entry they have worked with Pele Loriano (Sister, Run With the Lions, Amen, and Répondez-Moi) and Rony Janecek (guitarist/producer of the Czech band John Wolfhooker).
Starmania
The pair met as contestants on the talent show “Starmania 21”. Teya is no Eurovision newcomer, having previously failed in both the Austrian and Serbian ESC preliminary rounds. And Salena also lost out in a bid to sing for Austria in 2019.
Since then, ORF claims – in possibly the least optimistic press release going – the pair have been attending songwriting camps and working on their singing skills. Teya gained her first stage experience as a saxophonist in a jazz orchestra, while Salena has been busy busking in the Viennese underground.
It’s like the Austrians want to lower expectations – but at least it’s not the AI robot so many Twitter users predicted, so there’s that.