Austria: Potential Artists For “Vienna Calling – Wer singt für Österreich” Revealed

Austria will select its Eurovision 2026 entry via a national selection, for the first time since 2016.
The selection show will be “Vienna Calling – Wer singt für Österreich”

While the submission window is still open, around 80 artists have already submitted an entry to the selection process.
The preparation, as well as the artists’ proposals, is led by ORF’s Eurovision Scout Team, composed of Eberhard Forcher, Peter Schreiber, and Cesár Sampson (who represented Austria in Eurovision 2018).

While the submission window is still open, according to the Austrian broadcaster ORF, around 80 artists have already applied to the selection process.
Giving an interview to Ö3, Cesár Sampson revealed that a mixture of well-known and emerging artists have applied to the selection process.

Potential Artists

Based on the Austrian media and especially Klein, some names of potential artists have been mentioned:

Berenice – The singer submitted a powerful ballad in English
Krystof – The singer submitted a song, composed by Christof Straub (Austria Eurovision 2016 composer)
Visions of Atlantis – A metal symphonic band. They have already competed in 2 internal selections in the past.
Candlelight Ficus – A punk band. They have already competed in an internal selection in the past.
Lena Schaur – The winner of “Soundcheck 2025” (music reality show in Austria).
Die Südsteirer – The band suggests a fusion of folk and entertaining music.
The Mountain Crew – A Schlager band, that combines entertaining music with European beats
Lydia Kelovitz – The singer competed in the German Pop Idol in 2020.
POLKAGOTT – A synth-folk band
Egon7 – A pop band

“Vienna Calling – Wer singt für Österreich” – The Regulation

The submission window will close on October 15th, 2025.
The final will be held on Friday, February 20th, 2026.
12 artists will compete in the national final.
The results will be based on a combination of jury vote and public vote.
There’s no language restriction.
Performers must be at least 16 years old.
The songs must be original, and mustn’t be released before September 1st, 2025.
The maximal song duration is 3 minutes.
No more than 6 people will be allowed on stage.
The songs must be performed with live with instrumented combined in the playback.
Songs created with AI will be banned.
The full rules can be found here

ORF Program Director Stefanie Groiss-Horowitz commented:

“The Eurovision Song Contest 2026 in Vienna is the largest event to be held in Austria next year. Our stated goal is to involve and inspire the entire country. Now that the question of where the Eurovision Song Contest will take place has been clarified, it’s time to decide who will represent Austria. We want to make this decision together with our audience – everyone can have their say, and all artists can apply to participate starting now.”