Weil der Mensch zählt

Infobox Single |
Name = "Weil der Mensch zählt"
Artist = Alf Poier
from Album =


Released = 2003(Austria)
Format = CD, Digital Download, ring tone
Genre = Pop; Austropop
Length =
Label = Edel Music
Writer = Alf Poier
Producer =
Certification = Gold
(Austria)
Chart position = * #7 (Austria Top 75)
Last single =
This single = "Weil der Mensch zählt"
(2003)
Next single = "Good Old Europe Is Dying"
(2005)
Misc =Infobox ESC entry
song = flagicon|Austria "Weil Der Mensch Zählt"


caption =
year = 2003
country = Austria
artist = Alf Poier
as =
with =
language =
languages = Steiermarkish
composer = Alf Poier
lyricist = Alf Poier
place = 6th
points = 101
lyrics = [http://www.diggiloo.net/?2003at from Diggiloo Thrush]
clip =
prev = Say A Word
prev_link = Say a Word
next = Du Bist
next_link = Du bist

"Weil der Mensch zählt" (English translation: "Man Is The Measure Of All Things", literally "Because The Human Counts") was the Austrian representative in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003, performed in Steiermarkish (a dialect of German) by Alf Poier.

The song was performed second on the night (following Iceland's Birgitta with Open Your Heart and preceding Ireland's Mickey Harte with We've Got The World). At the close of voting, it had received 101 points, placing 6th in a field of 26.

The song is intended as a sendup of the entire contest (much in the vein of a previous Austrian entry - Schmetterlinge's Boom Boom Boomerang) and its excesses. Lyrically, it is about farmyard animals and their habits, but also features a number of non sequiturs about Adam and Eve and "the African dromedary". The thick accent in which the song is delivered also adds to the humour, as even a native German speaker may find it hard to follow the lyrics at times.

Musically, the song switches tempo from a simple folk melody during the verse to a singalong chorus before featuring loud guitar chords (to which Poier famously danced in his performance), after which the lyrics record Poier grunting in the manner of a rock star.

The performance itself is also memorable, as the animals mentioned in the song were present - in cardboard cut-out form - on stage playing various instruments.

Despite the controversy of Poier's humour, the song has become one of the best-loved Contest entries of recent years.

An English translation can be found on the Diggiloo website. [http://www.diggiloo.net/?2003at] . Here you can also read what the lyrics would be like in standard German.

It was succeeded as Austrian representative at the 2004 Contest by Tie Break performing "Du bist".