Austria participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 with the song "Woki mit deim Popo" written by Lukas Plöchl and Manuel Hoffelner. The song was performed by the duo Trackshittaz. The Austrian broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF) organised the national final Österreich rockt den Song Contest in order to select the Austrian entry for the 2012 contest in Baku, Azerbaijan. Ten songs competed in a televised show where a public vote first selected the top two entries to proceed to a second round of voting. In the second round, "Woki mit deim Popo" was selected as the winner after gaining 51% of the votes from a public vote. This was the first time that the Austrian song was performed entirely in the Mühlviertlerisch dialect at the Eurovision Song Contest.
Austria was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 22 May 2012. Performing during the show in position 16, "Woki mit deim Popo" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Austria placed eighteenth (last) out of the 18 participating countries in the semi-final with 8 points.
Background
Prior to the 2012 contest, Austria has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest forty-four times since its first entry in . The nation has won the contest on one occasion: in with the song "" performed by Udo Jürgens. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the , Austria has featured in only two finals. Austria's least successful result has been last place, which they have achieved on seven occasions, most recently in . Austria has also received nul points on three occasions; in , and 1991.
The Austrian national broadcaster, (ORF), broadcasts the event within Austria and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. ORF confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest on 23 September 2011. From 2002 to 2005, ORF set up public national finals with several artists to choose both the song and performer to compete at Eurovision for Austria. For the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest, ORF held an internal selection to choose the artist and song to represent Austria at the contest. In 2011, the broadcaster returned to selecting the Austrian entry through a national final. Along with their participation confirmation, the broadcaster announced that the Austrian entry for the 2012 contest would be selected through a national final.
Before Eurovision
Österreich rockt den Song Contest
Österreich rockt den Song Contest (Austria rocks the Song Contest) was the national final that selected Austria's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012. The competition took place on 24 February 2012 at the ORF Center in Vienna, hosted by Mirjam Weichselbraun and Robert Kratky with Andi Knoll hosting from the green room. The show was broadcast on ORF eins as well as streamed online via ORF's official website and the official Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.tv. The first part of the national final was watched by 543,000 viewers in Austria with a market share of 20%, while the second part was watched by 709,000 viewers in Austria with a market share of 36%.
Competing entries
Nine of the ten artists were nominated by the radio channel Ö3, while a tenth act was chosen through a wildcard selection. For the wildcard selection, ORF invited all interested artists to submit their songs to the broadcaster between 1 December 2011 and 31 December 2011. The broadcaster received over 100 submissions at the close of the deadline, which were reviewed by the Ö3 team. The nine nominated artists were revealed on 1 December 2011 during the radio show Ö3-Wecker, aired on Ö3, while "How Can You Ask Me?" performed by Mary Broadcast Band was revealed on 9 January 2012 as the winner of the wildcard selection. On 29 January 2012, ORF announced that "Crazy Swing" performed by !DelaDap had been disqualified from the national final as the song had been performed before 1 September 2011. The band would remain in the competition but with the song "Don't Turn Around" instead.
Final
The televised final took place on 24 February 2012. Ten songs competed in the first round where the top two were selected by a public vote to proceed to the second round. The top two were "That's What I Am" performed by Conchita Wurst and "Woki mit deim Popo" performed by Trackshittaz. In the second round, public televoting selected "Woki mit deim Popo" performed by Trackshittaz as the winner. Viewers were able to vote via telephone or SMS. "Woki mit deim Popo" became Austria's first entry in the contest to be performed entirely in the Mühlviertlerisch dialect.