The Xtra Files: We Review Austria’s ‘Running on Air’ by Nathan Trent!

Welcome to The Xtra Files, our new series which will give you an insight into what the team at escXtra think of your favourite entries into this year’s contest! Today, we review Austria.

Now that all the songs have been released, we are able to review each and every one of them. Our honest and brutal reviews will keep you entertained until the rehearsals start in May! We will also each give a score out of 10 for every entry, and create an escXtra leaderboard of the entries! You can see our preview reviews here.
Today, it is the turn of the Austrian entry, ‘Running on Air’ by Nathan Trent, to be reviewed by Luke, Matteo, Nathan, Ryan, Simon, and Sophie. Let’s get started!

The Reviews

Luke

I’m not sure what I was expecting from Nathan, but certainly more than this. The song is cute, but it doesn’t go anywhere and is rather bland. This is like Ed Sheeran meets Michael Buble, with charisma as hot as the icy mountains surrounding him. Nathan needs to up his game quickly!

Matteo

Too safe for me, he’ll probably scrape through with his puppy looking appearance. It’s one of those songs you wouldn’t skip if you were listening to the album, but you wouldn’t play it on purpose, would you?

Nathan

Nathan is clearly a competent vocalist and the staging will, presumably, be simple. Don’t expect ZOË levels of support this year but Austria should make the final with this inoffensive guitar pop track. It’s on trend enough to stand out to a younger voter too.

Ryan

Nathan’s strong and clear vocals shine here and he’s certainly benefited from being able to co-write his own track which he wouldn’t have been able to do had he continued in the German selection process. The music video is totally stunning as well, the whole entry is utterly charming and heartwarming!

Simon

Nathan’s song is one of those perfectly lovely songs that will sound nice to viewers of all ages and nationalities, but will give none of them a reason to vote for it.

Sophie

I really like listening to ”Running on Air” – it’s easygoing and catchy and just makes me feel good. But I’m afraid it will be a little lost on the big stage, unfortunately. I’d be happy to hear this on the radio and on my personal playlist anytime, though.

Scores

Dimitris	5	Rodrigo	7
Hlynur	6	Ryan	9
Katarina	7.5	Sagheer	4
Luke	4.5	Simon	4
Matteo	7	Sophie	8
Nathan	6.5	Wivian	7
Nick	8	Yassia	8.5

When we remove the top score of 9 and the lowest score of 4, the average score for Austria is 6.58.
(Removing the top score and the lowest score helps to make the average score more reliable and less affected by outliers.)

Leaderboard

Austria reaches 8th place in our leaderboard with a score of 6.58.

1. Belarus – 7.75
2. Australia – 7.25
3. Serbia – 7.08
4. Switzerland – 6.96
5. Denmark – 6.83
6. Armenia – 6.80
7. Hungary – 6.79
8. Austria – 6.58
9. Moldova – 6.58
10. Norway – 6.33
11. Latvia – 6.25
12. United Kingdom – 6.00
13. The Netherlands – 5.33
14. Albania – 5.21
15. San Marino – 3.92

Tomorrow, we will review Ukraine.
Do you agree with our reviews of Austria? What are your thoughts on Nathan Trent’s ‘Running on Air’? Let us know in the comments!