18: Austria 1999

last year did not compete (relegated)
in 1997 Bettina Soriat performed 'One step' achieving 21st place with 12 points
Austria need 21 points to qualify for the ESC in 2000

Bobbie Singer
'Reflections in your eyes'

Austria did not have a national final; instead their entry was chosen by ORF, their national television station. This was meant to be done in the middle of January, but they didn't get round to it until the 11th of February, which was possibly the fault of too many boozy Austrian chocolate cakes.

Bobbie Singer (website: http://www.bobbiesinger.com/ is 17 and the ESC this year falls directly in the middle of her exams (well, at least it's one way to revise your modern languages). The song's described as a 'happy' one, which suggests the Austrians are having a try at being Belgium this year. 'Reflections in your eyes' is written by Dave Moskin, an American, and is either in the style of Alisha's Attic or very colourless, depending on who you agree with...

Some other songs initially mentioned in connection with the Austrian entry were:

1. 'Remember you', a ballad by Two In One (picture at http://silverserver.co.at/sr/records/4800.htm), an African rapper and an Austrian singer who are very well known in Austria
2. 'Love you today', another ballad by a group called C-BRA (website: http://www.c-bra.com), who consist of four girls: Elke, Kim, Sarah and Valerie. Fans of Sixteen or Natalie Imbruglia (who they sound almost exactly like) were crossing their fingers; certainly they my tip, and would have had quite an amount of my support in Jerusalem, even though they do have an absolutely classic Eurovision name...
3. 'Broken dreams', yet another ballad from yet another girlband, this time Young Free And Single
4. 'Welcome to Vienna', which looked the most likely of the selection. Written by Ewald Pfleger, it was initially submitted to ORF in 1997, but rejected because it was in English. A young singer called Cora might or might not have performed this