1977: "Boom Boom Boomerang" — Schmetterlinge

After La, la, la (1968) and Boom Bang-a-Gang (1969), the 1975 winner was a song titled Ding-a-Dong. In 1977, the band Schmetterlinge hoped to win with Boom Boom Boomerang. It was singer Beatrix Neundlinger’s second appearance at the ESC—in 1972, she competed with the band Milestones. Schmetterlinge had come to prominence in 1976 with Proletenpassion (Passion of the Proletariat)—an oratorio about the history of the labour movement, which premiered at the Vienna’s Arena . The band positioned itself as left-wing and anti-capitalist. Not having a record deal made the ORF’s offer all the more tempting: Schmetterlinge would write a song for the contest and, in return, the Ariola record label would release a recording of the Proletenpassion.

The song opens with the lines: “Music is love for you and me—music is money for the record company”. The costumes were double-sided: from the front, the performers wore beige with a red heart on their chests; from the back, they looked like they were wearing a dark suit with banknotes in their hands. The singers also wore masks on the backs of their heads. These looked like cigar-smoking men and were meant to represent music industry bosses. Before the introduction of public voting in 1998, points were awarded by juries of music industry experts. This protest song directed against the music industry finished in second-to-last place, with 11 points.