The singer Cesár Sampson was born in Linz, 1983. He grew up in a family where music belonged to the daily life, as his mother is a pianist, singing teacher and choreograph. In the age of 17 Cesár joined Kruder & Dorfmeister, Sofa Surfers, Louie Austen on tour. The self described cross over artist is specialized in R’nB and 80’s pop.

Introduction

• Participant(s): Cesár Sampson
  
• Song: "Nobody But You"
  
• Writer(s): Sebastian Arman, C. Sampson, Joacim Persson, Johan Alkenäs, Borislav Milanov
  
• Composer(s): Sebastian Arman, C. Sampson, Joacim Persson, Johan Alkenäs, Borislav Milanov

For another time the Austrian broadcaster ORF has made an internal selection instead of a national final. It seems that the general enthusiasm has decreased a little bit after being a host country in 2015. The choice felt to Cesár Sampson, a quite unknown singer in his home country.

Cesár Sampson is mainly working behind the scenes as a songwriter and producer for the Symphonix team. This team consists of Joacim Persson, Borislav Milanov and Johan Alkenäs, who were also being responsible for the great success of the Bulgarian entries in the past two years. So these might be good preconditions for the Austrian entry this year.

The singer Cesár Sampson was born in Linz, 1983. He grew up in a family where music belonged to the daily life, as his mother is a pianist, singing teacher and choreograph. In the age of 17 Cesár joined Kruder & Dorfmeister, Sofa Surfers, Louie Austen on tour. The self described cross over artist is specialized in R’nB and 80’s pop. In the meantime Cesár has also worked as a social worker with disabled people.

Cesár also gained valuable Eurovision experiences. As he was the backing singer for Bulgaria two years in a row, once with Poli Genova in 2016 and one year later with Kristian Kostov.

The Austrian entry 2018 is “Nobody But You” is not a love for a special person, but for God. “And I get no sleep, I’m in too deep, I can’t let you leave” are fragments of the lyrics. The song has something special and a deep emotion. The powerful soul voice of the handsome singer has is a great combination and will bring him many points. Let’s hope the song will be welcomed by the listeners to bring Austria in a good position in Lisbon.

History

• Debut: 1957
• Participations: 51
• Victories: 2
• Finals: 46 (6 since 2004)
• Top 10: 22
• Chances for Top 10: 43%
• Chances for Final: 55%

For Austria it’s the 51st time in the Eurovision Song Contest. Thanks to Conchita Wurst, Austria could be the winning country for a second time. Vienna was a wonderful host city in 2015. The Vienna ESC 2015 was truly magical and showed the city and the country in the best possible light.

In the very beginning in 1957, the Austrian debut song “Wohin, Kleines Pony” by Bob Martin made the last place in Frankfurt. This should not be taken as bad omen, as there were quite a lot of successes over the years. 46 times the Grand Final could be reached and at least Austria could get a Top10 position for 22 times.

The biggest moments for Austria were of course Udo Jürgens’ entry “Merci Chérie” in 1966. To our all regrets Udo Jürgens passed away in 2015. He started a very successful career, not only in Austria and Germany, even beyond. He composed more than 1000 songs and released 50 albums and sold more than 105 million albums. Sadly Udo Jürgens passed away in early 2015. Luckily he was able to witness the second Austrian victory “Rise Like A Phoenix” by Conchita Wurst in Copenhagen 2014.

This was a truly revival of the “Sleeping Beauty Austria”. Firstly criticised in its own country, later celebrated as hero - Conchita has shown what tolerance and freedom really means to the entire world. Conchita also become a kind of icon for the gay and lesbian community and stands for equal rights. After her victory she travelled around the world, has been invited to TV shows in Australia and performed in the UN headquarters in Vienna.

Austria has mainly participated on a regular basis, but in recent years they even paused due to unsuccessful entries in the early 2000’s. But the Austrians came back with more enthusiasm and new energy. Nadine Beiler sang “The secret is love”, she has qualified for the grand final in Düsseldorf and made the 18th rank with a stunning performance, the host country Germany awarded this with 12 points! The old twist between Germany and Austria regarding the voting has smoothened.

Author: Torsten BergEmail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Publisher, Editor, Journalist

About me:
My first Eurovision Song Contest I watched behind the walls of the former GDR in 1987. This was even possible at that time! Since then I am following the ESC every year on TV. In 2004 I had the chance to watch it live in Istanbul. Due to the fact that Jens and Bernd have collected many interviews, photos, etc. the idea came up to show all this contest to the public. We founded the website eurovisionlive.com and we have been one of the first to offer the medium internet for the Eurovision Song Contest.