He’s the blue eyed boy representing Austria at the Eurovision Song Contest 2017. But Nathan Trent isn’t just relying on his good looks or the Eurovision preview party circuit to catapult his feel good track “Running on Air” up the scoreboard. 

In addition to scheduled appearances at Eurovision In Concert and the London Eurovision Party, Austrian broadcaster ORF recently announced that Nathan will reach out to Europe with a series of weekly covers.

He published a shortlist of 10 songs, asking Eurovision fans to vote for their favourites. With a selection including “Euphoria”, “Amanecer” and “Satellite”, fans were spoilt for choice. But in the end they made their decision…on three of the songs at least.

“I’m Alive” by Albania’s Elhaida Dhani, “L’essenziale” by Italy’s Marco Mengoni and “J’ai Cherché” by France’s Amir were runaway favourites, each picking up more than 10% of all votes cast. But 2015 winner “Heroes” and runner-up “A Million Voices” tied for fourth place.

Nathan placed his faith in destiny and decided to flip a coin on his Instagram page. Just like at Eurovision itself “Heroes” came out on top. The first cover will be released on Wednesday April 5 and the three others will follow, taking us all the way to Eurovision fortnight in Ukraine.

What songs did our readers think Nathan should cover?

Y’all had similar views to the folks voting on ORF’s page! “I’m Alive”, “J’ai Cherché” and “L’essenziale” all made the top 3 in our poll too, although Amir and Marco swapped places from the actual results.

You also picked a Eurovision winner for your fourth choice, but it wasn’t Swedish hunk Måns Zelmerlöw. Maybe you had Nathan’s underwear on your mind, or maybe you wanted Nathan to take you to the moon and back. Whatever your motivation, you ranked Lena’s “Satellite” as your fourth favourite cover song option.

Edurne ranked 5th in our poll, “A Million Voices” 6th, Conchita Wurst 7th, Loreen 8th, Måns 9th and Guy Sebastian finished dead last with just 7% of all votes cast.

Full results of Nathan Trent covers poll

  1. “I’m Alive” (477 votes, 15%)
  2. “J’ai cherché” (441 votes, 14%)
  3. “L’essenziale” (350 votes, 11%)
  4. “Satellite” (322 votes, 10%)
  5. “Amanecer” (319 votes, 10%)
  6. “A Million Voices” (295 votes, 9%)
  7. “Rise Like A Phoenix” (280 votes, 9%)
  8. “Euphoria” (278 votes, 9%)
  9. “Heroes” (248 votes, 8%)
  10. “Tonight Again” (240 votes, 7%)

Which cover are you most excited to see? Do you think other songs should have been available? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and on our app!

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16 Comments
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Kris
Kris
7 years ago

😳 it didn’t work 🙁

Kris
Kris
7 years ago

@Fikri
Thanks 8)

fikri
fikri
7 years ago

@m_k: lol thanks! that’s pretty cool!

@kris: that’s great! about the smilies try googling “wordpress smilies” 😉

Cri
Cri
7 years ago

You should sing L Essenziale by Marco Mengoni!

Justin K.
Justin K.
7 years ago

I really wanted to hear him do that primal-sounding line from “Amanecer,” haha. It’d be an interesting way to showcase his voice, and we would have got to listen to him sing in Spanish.

Looking forward to the covers though!

Theo
Theo
7 years ago

He’s so cute and he’s good singing famous Eurovision songs. Unfortunately, he’s own song “Running on air” won’t become a classic, it’s on the same pattern as Ireland 2016 (Nicki Byrne)…just a happy pop song, and that’s it. Nothing more, nothing less. Austria won’t qualify this year, and not because the song is bad, coz it isn’t bad. But it’s not good, either. And the battle is fierce, there are so many outstanding songs in the 2nd semifinal, starting with Bulgaria, (ranking high on betting odds, too) and continuing with Serbia, Macedonia… Hungary and Belarus are presenting something different, in… Read more »

Kris
Kris
7 years ago

@Fikri @Stupid_Uk…Law cheer up!!
Julia has been internally selected for ESC 2018 🙂

Also @Fikri how to get the crying emoji here?? :/

Concheetah
Concheetah
7 years ago

I love Nathan! Hope he qualifies to the final!

Stupid Ukraine Laws
Stupid Ukraine Laws
7 years ago

I’m crying myself :'(

Colin
Colin
7 years ago

I can’t wait to hear covers and best of luck to Nathan. 🙂

Donna Vey
Donna Vey
7 years ago

@Angus:

Thanks for sharing this positive ESC news story 🙂

M_K
M_K
7 years ago

@ fikri

Here’s a cute comparison. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1Mu_e2RO1I 🙂

[I know that this is technically off-topic but I have a feeling that we do need some distraction today]

fikri
fikri
7 years ago

@m_k: oh i didn’t know that. i always assumed the accent should sound similar.

@stupid ukrainian laws: stopppp. you’re making me cry. 😥

Stupid Ukraine Laws
Stupid Ukraine Laws
7 years ago

@Fikri
Will he cover ‘Flame is burning’ or not?

M_K
M_K
7 years ago

@ #boycottkyiv2017

The accents are actually different. One can tell the difference between an Austrian speaking English and a German speaking English the same way one can tell the difference between an Austrian speaking German and a German speaking German (at least a native speaker can). 🙂

#boycottkyiv2017
#boycottkyiv2017
7 years ago

aww i really wanted him to sing “satellite”. probably with heavy german accent for comedic purposes.