Austria - Michaela Sowden

Vincent Bueno and Amen

Vincent Bueno was internally selected as Austria's representative in 2020 , however , due to COVID was unable to perform in Rotterdam. Luckily Austria and ORF decided to let him participate in 2021. On 10th March his song Amen was released on Ö3 Wecker and shortly afterwards officially on YouTube, mind you it was leaked a day earlier.

It is a midtempo folk pop ballad , different from his last years song Alive., and in my opinion a much better song. Vincent stated in his press conference that he spent the past year professionally to find the perfect song at both national and international level. He further said that the song found him, and I do believe that. Amen is much better song than Alive, which left me wanting. Vincent conveys the emotion of inner struggle/ death of a relationship really well. He likened the end to a death and a funeral and feels like he had been buried. While it may seem, he is singing about a relationship that is ending , it is much more than that. Vincent stated that for him it was more about an inner struggle with you own strengths and weaknesses. The line “is this what you wanted" achieves both the emotion of inner struggle as well as that of the end of a relationship. It certainly tugged at my heartstrings. I really do like this song and was surprised at its quality. I would give it 12 points.

I hope the staging will do the song justice. It will be choreographed by Austrian Marvin Dietman, who was behind Conchita's staging in 2014 and Cèsar's in 2018. Interestingly he will also stage Cyprus' entry Elena Tsagrinou's El Diablo. I do hope it all comes together for Vincent on the night.

https://youtu.be/1sY76L68rfs