#29 – Austria
“Halo“
LUMIX featuring Pia Maria
Songwriters: Anders Nilsen, Gabriele Ponte, Luca Michlmayr, Rasmus Flyckt, Sophie Alexandra Tweed-Simmons
The Kirkham Report welcomes you to my coverage of the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest! From April 3 to the end of the contest on May 14, I’ll be here with all the latest ESC news and info, and of course, that means I’m also bringing you all the info on each song this year ranked in order of my personal preference from bottom to top. I’ll give the reasons for my personal rankings, and some background info on the song, artist, songwriters, and such. Again, these are MY opinions, and I realize that the ESC fan community is a rabid one, and rarely everyone agrees with everyone else, so as they say, your mileage may vary.
There are 40 countries participating this year, up from 39 in 2021 – Armenia and Montenegro return to the contest after taking 2021 off, while Russia has been excluded this year due to their incursion on the sovereign state of Ukraine; Belarus was disqualified in 2021 for three years because of rules violations on their song entry, that runs through 2023.
In at #29 this year is the official entry from Austria, “Halo” by LUMIX featuring Pia Maria. It is performed in English, and will be performed 13th at the first semifinal on May 10. Austrian broadcaster ORF uses an internal selection committee to choose their selection for the contest each year.
Nineteen year old Luca Michlmayr is one of the youngest competitors in this year’s contest. As the DJ known as LUMIX, he has already had a number of national hits since launching his career at the tender age of 15. 18 year old Pia Maria Außerlechner has never been involved in a live appearance quite on the scale of Eurovision; in fact, she’s a trained makeup artist, but has been writing songs since she was 16. Together, they hope to pull off a win.
What I’m thinking about this song…despite their tendency to have a rabid fan base for their songs, and this year is no exception, Austria has failed to wow me since I started watching ESC in 2016. And it’s the same this year. The song is good, and I would probably play it if I were a DJ, club or radio, but there’s nothing spectacular about it – it doesn’t stand out any more than other standard Eurodance fare. And while it’s probably going to get through to the finals, although NOT definitely – Pia Maria has been having difficulties with live performances due to her inexperience with using IFB earpieces – I don’t think the fan base is large enough to put it in the top ten overall…we’ll have to wait and see.
Austria made its Eurovision debut on the contests’ first birthday in 1957 and has participated 53 times as of 2022, missing years here and there for various reasons. They have two Grand Final championships that were a whopping 38 years apart – 1966’s “Merci, Cherie” by Udo Jurgens and 2014’s instant Eurovision Classic “Rise Like A Phoenix” by Conchita Wurst. But every good side has its bad side too…they have finished dead last in the contest a whopping EIGHT times, with four of those times with the dreaded “nul” points – 1962, 1988, 1991 and 2015, a most “nul” points record they share with Norway. Last year, Vincent Bueno failed to make the cut with his song “Amen“; we’ll see what happens this year.
Here’s the official music video for “Halo” – check it out…
Join The Kirkham Report throughout the next few weeks as I bring you the 2022 entries, and more, plus after and during the countdown, the latest updates on this year’s ESC and all the craziness that surrounds this contest every year! Because of some personal issues, I am WAYYY behind right now on the countdown, but I promise I will be caught up in time to conclude my countdown next Sunday!
Be sure to check out and like my Spotify Playlist Channel “Euro-Visionaries” – it’s filled with hours and hours of ESC competitors, songs, covers, and Junior Eurovision tunes as well from the beginnings of the contest right up through the present day – if you’re an ESC fan, you’ll LOVE my channel!
Catch all the official EuroVision action at their official Website at http://eurovision.tv and on their official YouTube channel!
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