Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest 1996

Austria held an internal selection to choose their candidate for the 1996 contest. Mischa Krausz was approached to write the Austrian entry for the second year in a row, after having written "Die Welt dreht sich verkehrt" for Stella Jones the year before.[2] Krausz had become friends with blind blues musician George Nussbaumer a few years prior, having collaborated with him on an album in 1994. He knew he would be a good choice for the song, as the head of the Austrian broadcaster suggested they submit a gospel number as their entry and Nussbaumer's voice suited the genre perfectly. His song, "Weil's dr guat got," was written in the Vorarlbergisch dialect of German, spoken in the higher regions of Austria. It was the second Austrian entry to be written in dialect (following 1971's "Musik," which was in Viennese German), with two more to follow (2003's "Weil der Mensch zählt," in Styrian, and 2012's "Woki mit deim Popo," in Muhlviertel).

Austria, like all interested countries save for host country Norway, had to compete in an audio-only preselection round to determine whether or not they would perform in Oslo. They ultimately finished in 8th place, clearing them to participate in the live final along with the other 21 qualifiers. They were drawn to perform sixth in the 1996 final, following Croatia and preceding Switzerland. For the live performance, Nussbaumer was joined at the piano by five backing singers, including the previous year's representative Stella Jones and the following year's representative Bettina Sorrat. Songwriter Mischa Krausz conducted the minimal orchestral arrangement, which mostly featured the rhythm section and the clapping of the rest of orchestra. At the end of the night, Austria finished joint-tenth with Malta, scoring 68 points from the international juries (among them two sets of twelve points from France and Malta). Austria awarded their twelve points to the Netherlands. This was their best finish since 1992 (also tenth place) and would remain their best until 1999 (also tenth place).[3]

Points awarded by Austria (Pre-qualifying round)

12 points	Ireland
10 points	United Kingdom
8 points	Sweden
7 points	Poland
6 points	Malta
5 points	Estonia
4 points	Portugal
3 points	Switzerland
2 points	Spain
1 point	Croatia

Points awarded by Austria (Final)

12 points	Netherlands
10 points	Sweden
8 points	Norway
7 points	Ireland
6 points	Iceland
5 points	Estonia
4 points	Poland
3 points	United Kingdom
2 points	Cyprus
1 point	Portugal