The ghost of Edgar Allan Poe has taken over Eurovision. ‹ Literary Hub

May 12, 2023, 12:36pm

It’s this little American’s first time watching the Eurovision Song Contest (streaming on Peacock), an activity I never thought would overlap with Lit Hub dot com… until Austria performed at last night’s semi-finals with their (already TikTok famous) song “Who the Hell Is Edgar?”—a banger, according to some (me) about being possessed by the ghost of Edgar Allan Poe. Imagine my surprise to see Poe’s withering visage looming over two very cool Austrian pop singers, and their Poe-Poe-Poe’ing entourage.

POE POE POE POE POE! 🇦🇹 #Eurovision pic.twitter.com/f9XzTBRlzI

— Eurovision Song Contest (@Eurovision) May 11, 2023

The duo, Teya & Salena, have said their inspiration “draw[s] on their experiences as female songwriters in an industry that all too often doesn’t give women enough credit for their hard work and expertise.” (Later in the song, they also critique Spotify’s $0.003 royalty rate.) As iNews points out, they’re not the first to be possessed by Poe; the song “channels a group of young female spiritualists who wrote poetry ‘from Poe’s spirit’ during the 1850s and 1860s—believing they really had been possessed by the late writer.”

You can watch the official music video below, and see Austria perform in the Eurovision finals (where they’re expected to be a top contender) on Saturday.