The Eurovision experience begins within minutes of touching down at Vienna International Airport. I pause my headphones just in time to hear the pilot acknowledge the competition in German—cheers from ecstatic gaggles of pals come from the front of the plane.
As the aphorism attributed to Austrian satirist Karl Kraus goes, “The streets of Vienna are paved with culture, the streets of other cities with asphalt.” What would Beethoven think of Romania’s 2026 entry, Choke Me, I wonder, as I pass the Theater an der Wien. Something tells me the composer might have vibed with Dara’s Bangaranga, though—the Bulgarian track flutters between melodic hooks and Arabian-esque dance breaks at neck-break speed.
Playlist rolling on, I assume more of a strut to Antigoni’s Jalla (Cyprus’s entry, which, admittedly, has graced the Spotify playlist for weeks) and am transported to the superclub by the earth-shaking trance breaks of Felicia’s My System, Sweden’s entry.
As Vienna’s blessed with sunshine after a spout of exceptionally bad weather that forced the Eurovision Village at Rathausplatz to evacuate just days before, I take to the streets for another unique musical adventure. Exiting Hotel Motto, I’m confronted by an euphonious classical rendition of Francesco Sartori’s Con te partirò—the melody to Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman’s Time to Say Goodbye, also—from Mariahilfer Straße, one of the capital’s best-known shopping streets. I set off towards the Kunsthistorisches Museum, opened in 1891 by Emperor Franz Joseph I and now home to masterpieces by the brushstrokes of Titian, Rubens, and Pieter Bruegel.
Sartori’s contemplative masterpiece rings in my ears before—a bin! A bright orange bin on Babenbergerstraße catches my eye. “Schmeiss Like a Phoenix,” it reads, honoring Conchita Wurst’s winning song from 2015, beside a logo of “Vienna, 12 points.” As I later realize, all of the dustbins in the areas surrounding the Eurovision action have had a vivid facelift. It’s working, if the pristine streets are anything to go by. Although this may be a result of Austrian values and respectful attendees, I can’t see lyrics from Katrina and the Waves’ 1997 winning entry, Love Shine a Light, on dustbins deterring Soho Square’s punters flinging their dogends into the night.
