Eurovision 2026: Meet Austria’s COSMÓ and his song Tanzschein

We profile the 2026 entry from Austria including details on the artist, song, how it was chosen, odds, fan reaction and how the nation has fared at Eurovision.

With 57 Eurovision Song Contest appearances under their belt, Austria have competed in 50 finals and have won the contest three times. Austria made their debut in 1957 with their first win coming in 1966 with Udo Jürgens on his third tilt at the crystal microphone with Merci, Chérie. It took 48 years to achieve their second win with Conchita Wurst in 2014 and their song Rise Like a Phoenix.

Last year sopranist JJ won the Eurovision Song Contest with song Wasted Love over Israel and Estonia. This will be the third time that Austria will host the Eurovision Song Contest, Vienna has been the host city each time. Austria has previously hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in 1967 and 2015.

Flying the flag for the host nation at Eurovision 2026 in Vienna is COSMÓ with his song Tanzschein.

You can find out more about COSMÓ and his song below!

2026 entry: COSMÓ – Tanzschein

• Austria will perform in the second semi-final.

• My Eurovision Scoreboard ranking: 28th

• Odds to win ranking: 32nd

(Rankings as of 21 April 2026)

Note: As the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2025, they have automatic qualification for the final.They have drawn position 25 in the final, therefore Austria will close the competition.

About the artist

COSMÓ- short for “cosmopolitan”, is the alter-ego of Budapest born musician Benjamin Gedeon. His inspiration for his stage-name came from his interest in the universe and his openness to the world. Gedeon grew up in Halbturn, Burgenland which is located in eastern Austria. His father is German and his mother is Hungarian Gedeon was born in 2006 and attended music school from the age of four, he started piano lessons two years later. Gedeon commenced singing lessons when he was 13 and started writing and producing his own music shortly afterwards. He now resides in Vienna and is taking vocal lessons from an opera singer in Graz

Gedeon is a product of The Voice Kids: Austria where he reached the finals in his second attempt in 2022. He first competed in 2020 where he was eliminated in the second round. He has toured with his Voice coach- Álvaro Soler and formed his band The Thumbs in 2023. In 2021, Gedeon won the podium.jazz.pop.rock... competition for young musicians from Burgenland with his self-composed jazz song Fall into Your Arms. He performed the same song in the Burgenland Song Challenge in 2023.

Benjamin Gedeon's self-composed song Fall into Your Arms which won the podium.jazz.pop.rock... competition in 2021.

Gedeon has released two EPs From My Room and Lieber tanz ich weiter. The former contains a cover version of Australian-New Zealand band Crowded House’s classic song Don't Dream It's Over.

Benjamin Gedeon's cover version of Don’t Dream It’s Over which appears on his EP From My Room.

Gedeon’s COSMÓ persona is relatively new as he created it in 2025. In regards to his distinctive blue star, Gedeon wanted to incorporate something “cool” to signify COSMÓ so a star shape was chosen. He chose blue as it is his favourite colour.

Quote- “The Eurovision Song Contest is a big dream of mine. As a child, I watched Conchita Wurst win on TV – and then last year, JJ won. Those were moments full of adrenaline and pure joy for me.”

About the song

Tanzschein translates as “Dance Licence”. The inspiration for the song came from when Gedeon and his friends visited a nightclub for the first time. They had high expectations and were excited but were disappointed when they saw that everyone was dressed in black and no one was dancing. He wanted to change that and see people dancing and having fun again. He wanted to give everyone a “dance pass”.

Gedeon collaborated with Elias Stejskal and Ella Stern. Both are newcomers to Eurovision. Stejskal is a songwriter and musician who primarily works on pop, rap, and electronic music projects. He also co-wrote We Are Not Just One Thing for fellow Vienna Calling – Who Will Sing for Austria? contestant Bamlak Werner.

Ella Stern is a singer-songwriter who divides her time between Vienna and Hamburg and is an up-and-coming name in the German indie/pop music scene. She recently gained popularity on TikTok with her songs leider not and Bild wie Monet,

How was COSMÓ chosen for Eurovision

COSMÓ won his ticket to Eurovision by winning Vienna Calling – Wer singt für Österreich?. This was the first time the Austrian broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF) has held a national final since 2016. ORF received over 500 submissions, these were then reviewed by ORF and music professionals and 30 entries were shortlisted for a live casting round in November 2025. From this 12 artists and songs were selected to compete in the national final. These were announced on 15 December 2025.

Vienna Calling – Wer singt für Österreich? was held on 20 February 2026 and was hosted by television presenter Alice Tumler who also hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in 2015 and 2018 Austrian representative Cesár Sampson. A 43 member jury and a public vote was used to determine the winner. Points were allocated using a 1–8, 10 and 12 scoring method. COSMÓ received 10 points from the jury and 12 points from the public with a total of 22 points giving him a winning margin of two points over Lena Schaur who finished on 20 points.

Austria will perform in the second semi-final of the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest on 15 May 2026 in Vienna. They will perform in position 25 in the final.

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