Victoria Swarovski and Michael Ostrowski opened the first ESC semi-final in Vienna with a show that drew smiles, but not much more. The Austrian pair were charming enough, but their wit, mischief and timing were still judged well short of the standard set by the Swiss hosts in Basel.
That gap was the story of the night. One review called Austria’s effort a “mediocre, old-fashioned show” and said the warm-up was not yet convincing, while another summed up the performance more bluntly: “That’s not 12 points - more like 4.”
The first semi-final had its moments. At the start of the show, an intro told the story of a gay couple who had watched the ESC together for decades until one partner died. Vicky Leandros then opened the evening with “L’amour est bleu,” giving the broadcast an immediate sense of occasion before Swarovski stepped in to explain the ESC grading system in a university-style note-explainer.
Ostrowski later joined Go-Jo for a number built around the confusion between Austria and Australia, a bit of staging that was meant to be playful and broad enough for an international audience. It was the kind of moment Eurovision often rewards when the tone lands. Here, it simply added to the sense that the hosts were still searching for the right balance.
That matters because the pair were not being measured in a vacuum. They followed Sandra Studer, Hazel Brugger and Michelle Hunziker, whose show in Basel set a very high bar, and the comparison was never going to be kind. The contrast was especially sharp because the first semi-final in Vienna was supposed to build momentum for the rest of the week, not prompt viewers to look back at the last show and wonder why this one felt flatter.
The second semi-final takes place on Thursday, and the Grand Final follows on Saturday. For Swarovski and Ostrowski, that leaves little time to turn a merely serviceable opening into something closer to the sparkle Eurovision expects. Right now, the verdict is simple: they have room to improve, and plenty of it.
