Eberhard Forcher Interview (Austria‘s Eurovision 2022 Scout for ORF)

Austria's Eurovision scout Eberhard Forcher discusses his approach to helping ORF choose its Eurovision artists. Eberhard takes us through the internal selection process for each of the ESC acts he has been involved in choosing in some capacity -- Zoe, Nathan Trent, Cesar Sampson, Paenda, and Vincent Bueno. There's also a lot of tea about choosing an act for Eurovision 2022. UPDATE: Since filming this earlier in November, Eberhard has told us that ORF is likely to make its decision by the end of January, and that the process is now down to just THREE acts. ORF 1 will install a new Programme Director from January 1, 2022, which makes the process slightly more complicated than in the past. 00:50 Eberhard on his career as a DJ, musician and producer 02:55 His love of Eurovision as a kid...and when Eurovision started to feel boring to him 04:00 The songs that re-ignited his Eurovision passion, including "Euphoria" and "Rise Like a Phoenix" 05:40 The Eurovision 2015 national final and The Makemakes 07:00 The difficulty of scouting for 2016 national final Wer singt für Österreich? 07:50 Zoe and "Loin d'ici" + visiting Stockholm for Eurovision 2016 11:00 Nathan Trent and "Running on Air" 14:00 Nathan getting zero points at Eurovision 2017 15:35 Cesar Sampson and "Nobody But You" 16:10 Troubles getting Russkaja and King & Potter to Eurovision 2019 18:25 Paenda and her team's refusal to make changes to their song "Limits" 20:45 Vincent Bueno and his narrow loss to Cesar Sampson in the 2018 selection 22:00 On inviting Vincent back for Eurovision 2021 and the challenges of getting a song for Rotterdam 26:00 On why "Amen" didn't make the Eurovision final. 26:30 How Eurovision 2021 inspired him and his love of Ukraine's Go_A, France's Barbara Pravi and Italy's Maneskin 28:30 The seven weeks he spent courting Bilderbuch for Eurovision 2022 31:09 Eberhard details the four finalists that remain in the internal selection for Turin 32:00 Act #1: “An electronic duo with origins in southern Tyrol” that lives in Vienna. They have a “very distinctive sound.” 34:25 Act #2: An act that plays “a combination between electro-swing and EDM” with a “charismatic female singer”. 35:10 Act #3: An act from Styria who are a “very cool pop act, but not in the usual average radio-pop idiom.” They’re “very funky, but not too aggressive.” 36:00 Act #4: A young, male DJ-producer with a young female singer. “This guy is the most successful Austrian DJ act ever” with like 80 million Spotify followers and videos with 180 million YouTube clicks. 37:40 The daughter of Gene Simmons of KISS sang the demo of one of the songs in contention 39:40 He's never had such a good selection process as in 2022. "I don't think in Austria you have better acts than I approached this year." 42:30 Why hasn't the perception of Eurovision changed in Austria since Conchita's win? 47:00 When will Austria reveal its Eurovision 2022 act and song? 50:40 Eberhard's most special moment at Eurovision is winning the jury vote with Cesar Sampson