Meet Auri The Eurovision 2026 Mascot And The Weird History Behind It

Eurovision 2026 has a mascot. Austria’s broadcaster ORF has unveiled Auri for Vienna, complete with a heartfelt message about unity and togetherness… and a design that is shaggy, loud, and instantly memeable. 

To make sense of Auri, we zoom out into the history of Eurovision mascots: the iconic EuroCat, Eurobird, Italy’s forgettable Leo the drone, and Switzerland’s 2025 Lumo that went viral for all the wrong reasons. If you love Eurovision lore, Eurovision branding, and the odd little traditions that fans never truly forget, this one’s for you.

Subscribe for the upcoming Eurovision 2026 round-ups, share this with your most chaotic Eurovision friend, and leave a review if it made you laugh or gasp. What’s your mascot ranking: EuroCat, Auri, Lumo, or something else?

#eurovision #eurovisionsong contest #eurovisionpodcast #eurovisionaustralia #eurovisionfunny

Transcript

Wait, We Have A Mascot?

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Wait, hang on. What do you mean we've got a mascot? We don't have a mascot. We do we we do what we we do. We we we we do. We have a we have a mascot? Since when do we have a mascot? Oh, since the okay, so we have a uh we have a mascot. Do you have a picture of the oh my LDL? Hello, and welcome back to the Deus Pois Podcast. Welcome back, you beautiful bastards. I do apologize for not being around for the last couple of weeks. I had a bit of a high pressure situation. One of my cats, Mr. Marshmallow, was booked into the vet. He'd had a bit of a sore mouth. So he was booked into the vet. He went, had his vaccinations, and was booked in a couple of days later to have a dental clean. So, as a usual fretful mother, I took Mr. Marshmallow at 7:30. I beat the vet to the vet practice. Took him in, left him to have his teeth cleaned, waiting for the call to say everything had gone okay. Didn't come, starting to freak out. About one o'clock, I get a call from the vet. That's it. The tooth cleaning is cancelled because before they do any kind of knockout treatment, which they have to do when they clean cats' teeth because otherwise the cats get a bit stabby stabby stabby. They're not sitting still for it. They do a blood test, and his white blood cells were desperately low. So they they're like, everything's you know, all his vitals, everything, it's shot to shit. So, you know, is it okay if we do more blood tests? And I'm like, yes, of course you do more blood tests to figure out what's going on. In fact, I'm just annoyed you haven't already done the blood tests and then called me. I'm a hysterical cat mother. I am now in a state of terror. I can deal with anything. If it was me, I'd be like, suck it up, Princess, get back to work. But it's the cat. I'm a delicate flower. So they run off to run more tests. I make the mistake of getting online and Googling causes in cats for low white cells. Of course, don't do that. It turns out Google MD for cats is just as bad as Google MD for humans. I.e. you've either, according to the internet, you've either got cancer, leukemia, ebola, or you're already dead. The vet calls me back later to inform me sadly that Mr. Marshmallow has feline FIV. Essentially, it's HIV in cats. It's pretty much just like human HIV, except cats transmit it. It's like a it's like the zombie virus. They transmit it through deep bites. It's in the saliva. I start freaking out, crying. Oh I remember I'd been reading online about FIV and FIP, and I mean, why make them sound so similar? And one of them usually after diagnosis, the lifespan is about two years. The other one, cats go on to live a healthy life. I get it all mixed up in my mind. I think she said the bad one, and I am thinking the absolute worst. I'm just thinking, Dead by God, dead by dawn. It turns out, no, thankful, well, it's not thankfully, but compared to it's not the worst one. He has the FIV. So I go to the vet, I cr oh my god, the vet practice was so amazing. Why I just stood there crying in their office for like half an hour as they just print out more and more articles and journals and just give me all the pamphlets. So we're running out more tests to figure out what's going on at the moment because just like HIV, basically he is gonna have moving forward, no immune system. So we gotta treat whatever is making his blood sad at the moment. And the vet assures me that he can have a long, normal life as long as we take a few steps to keep him safe and well. Essentially, we have to treat him like a 60, 17th century member of the aristocracy. He has to stay inside, not have any stress, good quality food. He already gets that anyway, but essentially twice a year moving forward, I now have to take him to the vet just so they can do blood work, so we can keep on top of anything and keep him happy and healthy for years to come. In the meanwhile, I was sent home and asked to collect a sample of his urine. Have you ever tried to collect a sample of cat urine? It has been barbaric. It has not gone to plan. The tray was peed on, my washing machine was peed on, the floor was peed on, I was peed on. Nobody warns you about this when you become a cat, mum. There's none of this in the brochures. So now I have to lug the urine sample. And Mr. Marshmallow and my other cat, Toca, we are taking for more blood tests on Thursday. Mr. Marshmallow is doing more blood tests. We can see if there's been an improvement in his white blood cells and Toca, that is my other cat, the love of my life. The soulmate, we are just testing to ensure he hasn't transferred the FIV virus to her. Again, it's through biting. Luckily, the two of us, I mean, sure, they slap hands. There's a lot of dramatic eh. But it's not exactly Mike Tyson worthy. It's more bun fight in a glitter factory as they slap paws against each other. So I have been completely obsessing over that, so I do apologise for the delay. But now his health is back on track, and I have refound the will to live. Let's jump into Eurovision 2026. If you came, motherfucker. That was the wrong button, but woo! So while I have been obsessing about my little furry life mascots, I thought it's appropriate that this week we should have a look. Because I don't know where you've been. Oh, and I will say to everyone, I know some people don't want to hear anything about any of the songs or music of Eurovision. Don't worry, there is no discussion of any of the songs that will be appearing in Eurovision 2026. This is a conversation just about the mascot. I'm sorry, what you're probably saying, Liz, Liz, Lizzie, Lizzie Lizzie Lou, sweet Lizzie Lou. It's Eurovision. We don't have mascots. Well, turns out Eurovision 2026. Yes, we do. And what a mascot it is. We're gonna talk about that mascot and the history of mascots at Eurovision. What we've never had mascots at Eurovision. Oh yes, we have, and a couple we've actually had quite recently, but I guarantee you've either purged them from your mind or completely forgotten them the second that they flew out of your brain, and rightly so. Broadcaster ORF has released an official mascot for Austria and the 70th Eurovision song contest. The mascot is called Uri Auri Auri Auri A U R I. His pronouns he him. The broadcaster tell us that Uri is a symbol of unity, creativity, and the power of shared experience, and he'll be welcoming the delegations and fans from around the world to the Austrian capital, conveying and instilling openness, respect, and the joy of togetherness. But does this come across in the design? Look, I'm gonna be honest, I think if you put this forward in your application to join the Muppets, you'd be denied. Look, it's very much a person in look, there was obviously a sale on cheap faux, shaggy fur at the store. Definitely a person in a furry onesie. Their head, oh my god, it looks like is that a m- is that like a microphone for a nose? You know, the floomy part that goes over the microphone? And he is wearing headphones. From front on, he kind of it looks like he's the just for the other podcasters out there, the audacity system. It's an editing system. He's got the earphones, he kind of looks like Audacity. He is blue and pink with purple hands and yellow headphones and a big tuft of yellow hair and a purple nose. To note, he is not wearing any pants, but he is wearing knee-high socks and white trainers, as well as a crossover clutch. Look, there's definitely a lot coming on. The blue, the purple, the pink, the shaggy, and then okay, the hair at the top, it is bright yellow. It literally, I think this could be a nod to Jedwood. It is sticking up exactly like the Jedwood fro. I'm gonna be honest, if you turn him upside down, it just looks like a unicorn taking a piss. And I don't mean all of the unicorn, just it's wang. It's a unicorn wang having a pee. Look, there I said it. I've seen it and now I can't unsee it. Austria not just content with installing a new furry paralysis dream on the rest of us, they are going to take Uri on a tour across Austria. Together with author Yvonne Lasina Biar. He will be sitting families and children all across the country. Encouraging story time. He will feature in the broadcaster's children's programming. The poor bastard in the suit also has to compete in the suit in the Austrian marathon. It looks like they're actually gonna make some poor bastard run the entirety of the Vienna City Marathon with 50 pounds of faux fur and a clutch. Well, maybe that's why he's got the sneakers and socks. Good luck to him. Oh I don't want to be gross, but you do know that a lot of marathon runners just shit themselves while they're running. They just shit their pants and it dribbles down their leg and they carry on. Sweet Jesus, I hope they have more than one suit. Can you imagine being the poor dude? He's gotta get in there on Monday. The broadcaster said Ari will be encouraging children to partake in all manner of cultural enterprises as well as luring them into the world of Eurovision. As Austria grooms the next generation. Nope, that's that's not the wording to use. Austria introduces children to nope, no, nope, that's not the headline either. Auri will also be available around all of the Eurovision events in Vienna, already available for a souvenir photo for the police records. Okay, I'll stop. That's not what Auri will say. Oh, just stop, stop! But Auri, you may be shocked to discover, really, is about the fifth major mascot that we've had at Eurovision. Obviously, besides Alexander Ryback. I mean, we have the Ryback. That's our mascot. We don't need more, but there's really been about sort of five major mascots that actually go all the way back to 1990 with the EuroCat. Yeah. I just feel like we should just start clicking in time. Yeah. Eurocat, zigzat Dow. So I'm kind of torn about where I should start. If I should start back with EuroCat in the 1990s, an icon, and still I think fair to say the most beloved of all the icons, in juxtaposition with the sleep paralysis demon of 2025, known as Limo. Eurocat was the first official mascot in the history of the Eurovision song contest for the whole contest in Zagreb. He was designed by illustrator Josko Manusk, a world-renowned illustrator, who definitely bought some crazy Croatian charm with his humanized cat. Now the Eurocat was look in some pictures he's sort of more pink, but on the screen, and in the stuffed toys that were made of the Eurocat, it was more like a light purple. He had dark strikes, large wonky eyes, wrinkled whiskers, two prominent fangs with a big nose with little dots all over it. Okay, it's really kind of interesting because he sort of walked around on two feet like Garfield. His ears are more sort of floppy and up like a dog. As is the nose. It's more of a prominent sticking out dog beak. Nozzle, nose, what's the word? Snout! It's more of a dog snout than a cat. This little mischievous fellow was supposed to bring a sense of fun to the contest. As the contrast tried to move away from, I guess, some of its more formality and just really reinforcing the fun and the joy of Eurovision. Now Eurocat actually appears all throughout the broadcast of 1990. He's sort of in and presents the postcards for each country before the performers. Like I think in the Swiss one, he sits down at a cafe and a cafe comes out and pours him a fancy glass of milk and he drinks it. To introduce France, he works his way down a catwalk and then flash, flash, flash with the pictures. You see him in a lot of novelty, sort of French outfits. Yes, I think there's a beret and a baguette in there somewhere. The one, I believe it's for Luxembourg, is hilarious. The EuroCat comes out and essentially just unfolds a giant map of Europe and then EuroCat pulls out a magnifying glass and sort of holds it up with one eye to the map to try and find Luxembourg. Comedy gold! I actually found there is a video online where someone has actually put together most of the moments from EuroCat as it's presenting the postcards. And what I'll actually do is I will put a link up so you can go see the EuroCat in action. For many people who remember him, EuroCat is considered the icon, the original is still the favorite of all the logos. And if you go to events with Euro fans, there are still, you can trade, you can find Eurovision pins that feature EuroCat. And I looked up and it was like, oh, obviously, they're some of the ones that are worth the most money now. And then I looked up on one site and it said it was$35, which I'm sure is expensive for pins, but that's great because then that's something that we can still actually is a reasonable amount of money. I'm sick of all this stuff. It just seems everything from my childhood now is too expensive to actually buy a piece of and enjoy. So I'm actually I'm hella excited that you can still find a EuroCat pin for$35, proving even after all these years, EuroCat is there for the common man EuroCat forever. I actually also found on another site a picture where someone actually has an original vintage plush of the EuroCat from 1990, which they had put up for auction. It wouldn't tell me how much it sold for. The site looked highly suspicious, so I did not log in or to see the rest of the pictures. So, but I will put a picture up for the EuroCat doll. It is completely insane, and it is now on my bucket list to one day own an original Eurocat. It is insane, and when you look at it, honestly, there's no way you're gonna look at it and be like, hmm, yep, that's definitely a cat. No, no chance, no, you when did LSD reach Europe? I have a feeling 1990 by the look of this picture. Two years later in 1992, Sweden presented to the world Eurobird. Obviously, when you've got a theme and it's working, stay with it. Typical Sweden, once they figured out the methodology, they do not waver from that winning technique. The Eurobird is just that. It's a bird, although they say basically they took the inspiration from several different local indigenous birds to Sweden. So they combine sort of seven birds into one, sort of a white bird, blue feathery hair, a big he's wearing a very posh sort of blue set of pants. Actually, I don't even think they're pants, I think they're riding Jodpas with very tailored, let's say 1920s dancing shoes with the tuxedo jacket. Look, picture if Donald Duck, instead of remaining his whole life in Disneyland, had decided as a young, as a young bird, to move to Europe for a grand tour, become openly gay, and begin work in the theatre. That's how I would describe the look of Eurobird. But this bird, the Eurobird like the EuroCat, obviously is also very human like in its appearance and movement. And just like EuroCat, Eurobird would sort of pop up in the postcards. But whereas the Eurocat was like Sort of the lead star of the postcards. The Eurobird had more of a support role, and so they would have the postcard, and then he may appear to sort of turn the page over from the postcard to do the transition to the live performance. He was also seen at some stage on screen almost as if he was the orchestra conductor leading the orchestra. At the time, Eurobird was rather unfortunately known and nicknamed as the Diggaloo Thrush. To be honest, I think the Diggaloo Thrush had been around for a few years. And I mean who hasn't said that to someone who's going to the Eurovision? Bye! Enjoy the Eurovision. Make sure you don't get the Diggaloo Thrush. Always wear a condom. Look, I'm not saying it's the most unfortunate name for a mascot ever. Or that the Eurobird was less than impressive. Or people were too traumatized by all the Diggaloo thrush jokes. But look, pretty much mascots disappeared for the next 20 years after the Eurobird, so. It would actually take another 30 years before we had another mascot at Eurovision. And this one, blink, and you'll miss it. I'm gonna say it, you probably vaguely have a memory at the back of your mind, but you completely forgot him as soon as it was over. Leo. Leo the drone. What the hell? This was, of course, when we went to Italy after Maniskin's hugely fictional winning number. Now, if you can't remember, Leo the drone was just a little digical cap Digical? Digital character that was seen flying through the postcards taking you on a journey across Italy. Either you don't remember him or you do and you find him very annoying and you completely blocked him from your mind. He appeared nowhere really other than the postcards and was a bit eh, I think that's the way people would describe it. It wasn't really a vent to talk on. He didn't capture hearts like EuroCat. But my word, people had no idea how good it was to have an effectual, harmless Leo the drone. Until 2025 arrived, and we were presented with Lumo. Of course, in 2025, after Nemo's win with the Nemo's win with the code, we went all the way to Switzerland. And as a thank you, Switzerland presented us with Lumo. It quickly became a viral sensation, shall we say? But not for his cuteness or lovability. Not for the way of touching hearts that EuroCat did, but no, Lumo became infamous for being quite frankly terrifying. The official description from the host broadcaster described Limo as quote, a joyous ambassador and quote, a living symbol of the magic of music. The public, however, were not so enthused about the hellish abomination that was before them. Think of a monster's beating heart with ginormous eyes and a bad twig. Ah, and with arms and legs, so that it could crawl into your room and touch you while you slept. It was created by student Lynn Bruna. If you're still wondering where to send your hate emails. I think they were going with that sort of Japanese anime philosophy that if you give anything big eyes, it's cute. But the thing is, not everything with big eyes are cute. There's a lot about the design, which is also terrifying. And look, I'm not the only one to think so. In 25, Stuart Heritage wrote an article about Nemo, and this is the actual title of the article. Quote, the love child of Mick Hucknell and Crazy Frog. Is Eurovision's Lumo, the worst mascot ever. Stein exclamation mark. I have to actually read the first part of this article after the title. This is fabulous. So this is Stuart Heritage describing Lumo the 2025 Eurovision mascot. Meet the song contest's first ever mascot A sentient heart with a bizarrely sexy mouth that looks like the result of the chat GBT prompt. Please ruin my day. Why oh why has this happened? Exclamation mark. Oh point on the doll where Limo touched you. So he goes on to give a little more information. He then says the press release says that Luma will walk the streets of Basil come Eurovision time. Previously this sort of thing has been done via billboards, but clearly the organizers don't think that went far enough. A billboard can't follow you around, squealing and leaping like the most hellish anxiety dream of your life. A billboard can't terrify you while you are walking home from a night out. A billboard and I'm truly sorry for putting this mental image into your head, but it is undeniable. It resembles the drunken one night stand between McHucknell and the crazy frog. McHucknell, of course, being the lead singer of Simply Red. Large, bad, red, uncontrollable hair. And to be honest, it's part of like the human survival dynamic. Like there's that deep part in our brain back from when we were cave people. What looks like friend? What looks like foe? And what looks like it is gonna eat the ass out of our corpse. Disaster. Now we have Ourrie. Look, he's definitely not as bad as Nemo, but he's definitely not as endearing as the EuroCat. Look, why do we suddenly need mascots? I don't want to be cynical, but I mean Eurovision has had one of its largest financial contributors withdraw this year. Perhaps they needed to. Perhaps this is the Eurovision version of Rattling the Can to try to get a few extra dollars from us. I mean, I mean, to be 100% honest, if you need a mascot for Eurovision, all you need is a giant cocktail glass and a fit man and arsless chaps. Either side of Alexander Ryback. Boom! There you go. 100% on board for that. But thanks for joining me as we took this unusual little journey to the world of mascots. Whether we needed or wanted them. I'll also be putting up some pictures on my Instagram of the mascots just to haunt your dreams. Thanks for listening. I will be back soon. We have so much more to discuss, plenty of news. We're gonna do some round up of the acts, have some comments on the stage coming up very soon. I'm currently editing it. We have a very special couple of episodes where we bring back the amazing, the sexy. He doesn't need to be talented because he looks good with his shirt off. Sam Tarling and Bucket Bob as we take a look and a review of some of the past Eurovision performers and the songs that they have released in 2025 and 2026, just to tide us over until the new Eurovision gets here. So join us in a few days. And just remember, kiss your cats, hold them tight, stay protected, stay protected so you don't get that diggolo thrush. And always, and I mean always, check under the bed for Nemo. I also I actually vent Nemo. Or Lemo, I don't know, maybe he's lurking under there. Just give him a woo hoo hoo! Get out of there, Lemo! Get out! Get out of here, you crazy mascot!