Country Austria Language German Lyricist(s) Werner Böhmler | Artist(s) Marty Brem Composer(s) Werner Böhmler Conductor Richard Österreicher | |
"Wenn du da bist" ("When You're Here", although it can also be rendered "When You're There", but this is not in keeping with the other lyrics) was the Austrian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1981, performed in German by Marty Brem (who also represented Austria the previous year as a member of Blue Danube). The song is a love ballad, in which Brem compares how he feels when his lover is with him with how he feels when she is not.
The song might not be seen as especially memorable among similar entries, but the performance was somewhat unusual. As in 1980, Brem was wearing a leisure suit and a tie, though this time they were somewhat tidier and his hair more kempt. He was accompanied by four female dancers, one of whom also served as a support singer during some parts of the song. Two of the dancers were wearing old-fashioned cocktail dresses, roughly matching Brem's outfit, the third had a costume resembling that of an oriental belly dancer, and the singer was wearing an American football helmet, a swimsuit with the number 7 and socks resembling those used by aerobics practitioners. While Brem was performing the song in a usual ballad fashion, the dancers wandered around the surrealistic set performing a very strange dance routine.
The song was performed first on the night (followed by Turkey's Modern Folk Üçlüsü & Ayşegül Aldinç with "Dönme Dolap"). At the close of voting, it had received 20 points, placing 17th in a field of 20. The song was succeeded as Austrian representative in the 1982 Contest by Mess singing "Sonntag".