Victoria Swarovski and Michael Ostrowski Lead Eurovision Hosts in Vienna
Victoria Swarovski and Michael Ostrowski served as eurovision hosts for the first ESC semi-final in Vienna, but their opening run drew criticism for a bumpy, wooden presentation. The pair inherited a hard standard after Basel’s Sandra Studer, Hazel Brugger and Michelle Hunziker, and their first warm-up never fully cleared that bar.
Vienna Opens With A 4.5
The show earned a 4.5 score, which matches the mixed reaction that followed the first semi-final. That reaction landed even as the night opened with an intro about a gay couple who watched the ESC together for decades until one partner died, before the surviving man sat at the piano and played “L'amour est bleu” by Vicky Leandros.
Vicky Leandros opened the evening, while Victoria Swarovski also handled a note-explainer at the university to spell out the ESC grading system. The setup gave the hosts room to guide viewers through a complicated format, but the criticism focused on the way the two worked together rather than on the mechanics of the show itself.
Go-Jo And The Green Room
Michael Ostrowski later joined Australia’s previous year participant Go-Jo for a joint number in the Green Room segment. That added a performance credit to an otherwise uneven first outing, though the article still described the interplay between the two hosts as too bumpy.
Watson.ch went further, saying, “Austria put on a mediocre, old-fashioned show.” It also captured the verdict more bluntly with, “That's not 12 points - more like 4.”
Thursday And Saturday Ahead
The second semi-final takes place on Thursday, and the Grand Final follows on Saturday. For Austria’s hosts, that leaves little room to reset the tone: the job now is to make the remaining broadcasts feel sharper than the first, because the opening night already set the comparison point.
