Alf Poier

Who is Alf Poier?

Alf Poier is an Austrian artist and stand-up comedian.

Born in Judenburg in Styria, he started doing cabaret in 1995 in Graz, and has won several prizes for his work, including the Salzburger Stier in 1998, the Deutscher Kleinkunstpreis, Prix Phanteon, German Comedy Awards in 2000, the Austrian Österreichischer Kabarettpreis in 2002 and the Austrian Ybbsiade in 2009.

In 2003, Poier participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 and secured 6th place with his entry Weil der Mensch zählt. The song, and his stage act, were a parody of the contest's excesses.

Although his result was considerably better than most of the pre-contest predictions, Poier spent several hours mischievously telling anyone that would listen that his 'low' placing was an outrage, that Europe had demonstrably shown itself to have no musical taste, and that he wasn't sure if the shame would permit him to return to Austria. This included an appearance on Liquid Eurovision, shown on the UK channel BBC Three immediately after the 2003 contest ended, where after saying the above he shouted "I hate this contest! F*ck this contest!", causing much laughter from the presenters.