Five reasons why Teya and Salena can (easily!) make it to the song contest final

Rarely have we been so optimistic about an ESC semi-final. Most recently, it was Cesár Sampson, who was born in Linz, who survived the qualification with “Nobody But You” and was allowed to compete in the grand finale – that’s five years ago. Since then, the Austrian viewers have been waiting for a sense of achievement at the Song Contest. This year, however, experts and fans are certain: Austria will be able to reach the final. If our interpreters Teya and Salena don’t make any blunders on Thursday evening in the “M&S Bank Arena” in Liverpool, they are almost certain to compete in the main competition on Saturday.

Here are five reasons why:

1. The betting odds

A look at the forecasts can make Austria’s delegation in Liverpool confident. Our contribution “Who The Hell Is Edgar” is clearly in first place in the betting odds for the second semi-final. The fan portal eurovisionworld.com compares the odds of the largest betting providers and comes to the conclusion that our country will qualify for the final with a 91 percent probability. Numerous fan videos on TikTok also have the Austrian song on the favorites list. Perfect starting position for Teya and Salena.

The song contest week in Liverpool started on Sunday with an opening concert:

2. The song

The song “Who The Hell Is Edgar” is not only catchy (“Poe, Poe, Poe, Poe….”), it also spreads an important message. The two artists who co-composed and wrote the song process their experiences as female songwriters in a male-dominated world. The song is about Edgar Allan Poe, who ghost-wrote himself into your mind as the inspiration for the lyrics. “It’s a song that was created for pure fun and with which we want to announce our message. That women should and must support each other,” said Teya in the OÖN interview. Song contest expert Marco Schreuder was enthusiastic about OÖN: “I’m extremely positively surprised, also about the courage to send such a refreshingly different song to the ESC.” He is very confident that a good placement will emerge in the end: “If it ignites, I trust them with everything – including a big surprise,” said the operator of the ESC podcast “Merci Cherie”, who grew up in Bad Ischl.

You can read what ESC expert Marco Schreuder thinks of our contribution here in an interview:

3. The dance

When Teya and Salena sing and dance on the big ESC stage on Thursday evening, the local audience can also join in in front of the TV sets. The short choreography is easy to learn – the singers show how it’s done in the video:

4. The performers

The singing duo Teya & Salena consists of the 22-year-old Viennese Teodora Spiric and Selina-Maria Edbauer, 24, from Styria. Both have known each other for two years when they took part in the ORF casting show “Starmania”. Teya tried to buy an ESC ticket for Austria or Serbia in 2020, but failed at the time. Her colleague Salena made it to the third round of “The Voice of Germany” in 2017 and tried in 2019 as a candidate for the Austrian ESC contribution. Concerns that both could not be up to the challenge of ESC vocally should therefore be unfounded. How good their song “Who The Hell Is Edgar” sounds live, the TV audience could hear recently when Teya and Salena performed on “Dancing Stars”:

5. The competition

The fact that Austria is in the second semi-final should also benefit us – despite the “unlucky number” 13 as the start number. The hurdle for qualifying should not be quite as high as in today’s first semi-final, where big favorites Sweden, Finland, Norway and Israel compete for the ESC victory. Our competitors on Thursday evening are: Denmark, Armenia, Romania, Estonia, Belgium, Cyprus, Iceland, Greece, Poland, Slovenia, Georgia, San Marino, Albania, Lithuania and Australia. Ten countries can each qualify for the final on Saturday. The defending champion Ukraine and the “Big Five”, Germany, Great Britain, France, Spain and Italy are firmly established there.

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