Unstoppable! Eurovision Song Contest Highlights at the Museum

Apolitical? Hardly. While political messages are officially banned at the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), they still manage to find their way on stage—in ways that are sometimes loud, sometimes subtle. After all, even entertainment on this scale is also always a story about its own time.

With the ESC coming to Vienna, the House of Austrian History (hdgö) turns its attention to this phenomenon with a wide-ranging programme—at the museum and online. From 25 March to 11 October 2026, the main exhibition New Times. Austria since 1918 includes a new display: Unstoppable! Eurovision Song Contest Highlights at the Museum. This features objects that have made Austrian ESC history: the stage design for JJ’s song “Wasted Love”, Conchita Wurst’s iconic dress, and pictures of the grand prix de la chanson, held in 1967 amid the imperial pomp of the Neue Hofburg palace. The display shows the close connections between the song contest and changes in politics, identities and society over the years.

The web exhibition Protests, Scandals, Politics. 70 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest offers a glimpse behind the curtains of this international stage. With a feast of acoustic and visual highlights, it shows not only how people are “united by music”, as the official ESC slogan proclaims, but also how the contest reflects conflicts, debates and social upheavals. Our website also lets you dig deeper: the Encyclopedia of Contemporary Austrian History contains several entries on the history of the ESC.

Your ticket to the hdgö gets you discounted admission to the exhibition United by Queerness at QWIEN—and vice versa. The cooperation will run from March 25 to May 24, 2026.

Founding Director hdgö: Monika Sommer | Curator: Stefan Benedik, Florian Wagner | Exhibition Design and Graphics: Nora Pierer | Exhibition Coordination and Text Management: Anna Bausch | Editing: Eva Meran | Proofreading: Karolin Galter, Tanja Jenni | English Translation: Joanna White | Managment of Loan Agreements and Rights: Tanja Jenni | Conservation and Restoration: Linda Kral | Object Photography: David Tiefenthaler | Communication: Ildiko Füredi, Johanna Miller,  Bettina Zöttl | Social Media: Louise Beckershaus, Katharina Kraus | Arthandling, installation, production: Vienna Arthandling | Graphics Production: e.h. montagen | Media Productions: 7reasons | Lighting Design: Helen Farnik | Production Web Exhibition: Andreea Dosa

With special thanks to: 

Christine Ehardt (University of Vienna), Caitlin Gura (Jewish Museum Vienna), Anja Lenhart (ORF), Martin Majnaric (ORF), Konrad Mitschka (ORF), Ulrike Polnitzky (ÖNB, Picture Archives and Graphics Department), Marco Schreuder (Curator, „United by Queerness“), Christopher Steiner (ORF), Renée Winter (Department of Contemporary History, University of Vienna)