Last night, ten hopeful candidates helped kick off Germany’s national selection process for Eurovision 2012.  Much like the process that helped launch Lena Meyer-Landrut into stardom two years ago (has it really been two years already?), “Unser Star für Baku” will put singers through their paces as they sing covers during a number of heats, quarterfinals, and semifinals, before culminating in a Final (where we’ll likely hear the possible songs for the ESC) on February 16th.  Read the rest of this entry →

After an exciting final, we finally know which song Lena Meyer-Landrut will be presenting on the home stage in Düsseldorf…

…drumroll please?

And the winner is “Taken By a Stranger“, written by the American songwriting team of Gus Seyffert, Nicole Morier, and Monica Birkenes.  (Incidentally, last year’s winning song for Germany, “Satellite”, was written by an American/Danish team.)  This surprisingly understated electropop number was a huge favorite among the German audience and foreign Eurofans alike, although it’s not without its detractors.  I think it plays into Lena’s quirky style quite nicely!  It’s interesting to envision the stalker-ish images that come up in “Taken By a Stranger” next to the puppy-love sweetness of “Satellite”…

As I’ve mentioned earlier, the German broadcasters are pretty stringent on what gets to stay up on YouTube, so you might have to check out the official network webpage for the National Final performances of “Taken By a Stranger” and runner-up “Push Forward”.

(Update: Found one!)
 

Today, Lena presented the final six candidates for her Song for Düsseldorf (also, the final six cuts on her new album, “Good News”, which is being released on February 8th…nice timing, PR people!).  After another entertaining show (including a parade of adorable outfits on Miss Meyer-Landrut), we’ve got the top three songs that will be moving on to the Finals on February 18th.

Qualifying to the next round and joining “Taken By a Stranger“, “Maybe“, and “What Happened to Me” in the finals:
“A Million and One” written by Stavros Ioannou & Errol Rennalls
“Push Forward” written by Daniel Schaub & Pär Lammers (who also wrote “Maybe”)
“Mama Told Me” written by Stefan Raab & Lena Meyer-Landrut (who also wrote “What Happened to Me”)

Eliminated in this round were:
“Teenage Girls” written by Viktoria Hansen, Lili Tarkow-Reinisch and Yacine Azeggagh
“At All” written by Aloe Blacc
“A Good Day” written by Audra Mae, Todd Edgar Wright and Scott Simons

Now, some rumblings have been coming up recently claiming that if either of Raab’s songs goes to Eurovision, that he should step down as host, likely to be replaced by Hape Kerkeling.  No further confirmation of this has come up, either from the EBU or the German broadcasters, so I honestly doubt that he will be forced to recuse himself as host.  Furthermore, when Belgrade hosted Eurovision back in 2008, host Željko Joksimović was the author of “Oro”, Serbia’s entry that year, with no major outcry or claims of malfeasance.  But, of course, we’ll see what happens!

As we all know, last year’s winner Lena Meyer-Landrut will be defending her title on home soil this year, and Stefan Raab is at the helm of the National Selection once more.  This time around, Lena will be competing against herself; the twelve songs up for the golden ticket are the twelve cuts off of her new album, “Good News” that will be released on February 8th.

Image source http://escdaily.com/articles/7456

On Monday, we heard the first six of those tracks, with three of them moving on to the next round.
1) “Good News” (written by Americans Audra Mae & Ferras Alqaisi)
2) “Maybe”(written by Germans Daniel Schaub & Pär Lammers)
3) “I Like You” (written by American Rosi Golan & Northern Ireland-born Johnny McDaid)
4) “That Again”(written by…surprise surprise…Stefan Raab)
5) “Taken By A Stranger” (written by Americans Gus Seyffert, Nicole Morier, Monica Birkenes)
6) “What Happened to Me”(written by Lena and Stefan)

Normally, I’d place a link to YouTube videos of each of these songs, but Germany’s broadcaster is pretty stringent about copyright violations, and many of these videos have been taken down (or will be in the near future).  The best place to check the songs out is on the official “Unser Song für Deutschland” website here.

The winners on Monday, determined purely by a public vote, were:
“Maybe”
“Taken By a Stranger”
“What Happened to Me”

We’ll hear the final six songs on February 7th, and the Finals will conclude on February 18th.

Ok, folks…this just got real!

Every year, the country that has the honor of hosting the Eurovision Song Contest gets to put their personal stamp on the event.  Through branding and design, the nation has the opportunity to make Eurovision their own!  Last year’s theme for Oslo was “Share the Moment”, which carried through not only in the advertising, but through the whole contest itself.  The “postcards” used to introduce artists showed groups of fans gathering together in the nation’s capital or largest city, and the interval act was described as the “World’s Biggest Flash Mob”, involving dancers throughout Europe, as well as in the Telenor Arena itself.  It was incredibly sweet, and I felt like it really embraced the ideals that the ESC stands for.

The official logo and motto for the 2011 Contest has just been revealed:

According to the Eurovision.tv website, “The theme refers to the great emotions which music can evoke – and which belong to the distinctive character of the Eurovision Song Contest: enthusiasm, heart beating, excitement, love and passion.  There are no limits to these emotions, there are no language barriers. The theme also refers to the fact that every song has its individual rhythm.”  It also alludes to Lena saying “I heart you!” to her fans and supporters during an interview…ain’t she cute?

We also have the official confirmation of this year’s hosts: Anke Engelke, Judith Rakers, and Stefan Raab.  Anke is an experienced television and radio personality born in Canada, and Judith is a well-known news presenter and writer.  As lovely as Anke and Judith may be, however, Stefan Raab may the true star of the show.  He’s basically the German Mister Eurovision (or, should I say Herr Eurovision?), as he wrote the songs performed in 1998 and 2004 (you can see him as the conductor and lead guitarist, respectively, in the two performances), performed the unforgettable song from 2000, and set up the popular (and obviously fruitful) preselection for 2010, “Ünser Star für Oslo (Our Star for Oslo)”, the competition that picked Lena and “Satellite” to represent Germany.  In Oslo, he acted as Lena’s nearly-omnipresent mentor.  Raab doesn’t just sit at home and obsess about Eurovision all day long, however; this jack-of-all-trades also hosts the wildly successful “TV Total”, a comedy/variety show.  He’s also the originator of the Bundesvision Song Contest (an all-German song competition), as well as the International Wok Racing Championship.  I kid you not.

Between the 42 countries competing in this year’s event, the obvious passion that Stefan Raab has for Eurovision, and his propensity towards the ridiculous and hilarious, I have a feeling that Düsseldorf 2011 will truly be one for the ages.

And I’m thrilled to say that I’ll be there!

Ok, remember what I said a few entries back about Finland being the country that would try anything once, even if their adventurous song choices didn’t normally translate to success on the scoreboard?  Well, they might have been taking their lessons from Germany.  Despite a total of 53 entries since 1956, they’ve only chalked up a single victory, in 1982.  While many of their entries have tended towards traditional “schlager“-pop (with composer Ralph Siegel behind the helm of 14 entries between 1974 and 2003), Germany has occasionally veered towards the offbeat, unexpected, and even hilarious (even if the hilarity wasn’t quite intended).

Possibly the most famous of these ESC-based German Freak-Outs was “Dschingis Khan“, served up back in 1979.  Believe it or not, this actually made it to 4th place in Jerusalem, and the band (conveniently also named “Dschingis Khan”) lives on in internet-based infamy.  Check out their song “Moskau”, especially with misheard lyrics (not quite safe for work or children, depending on how sensitive they are…).  The weirdness continued the next year with Katja Ebstein’s “Theater“, with its heavy use of singing mimes (although, isn’t that a bit of a contradiction?).  Odder still, ESC voters lapped it up, and “Theater” came in second place that year.

After putting the offbeat on hiatus for a few years, Germany sent Guildo Horn and the Orthopedic Stockings to the 1998 Contest with “Guildo Hat Euch Lieb (Guildo Loves You All)“.  The performance somehow incorporated cowbells, turquoise velvet clothing, and vague molestation of the viewers sitting in the first two rows…and it placed a more than respectable 7th place!  Two years later, German television personality Stefan Raab, who had written “Guildo Hat Euch Lieb”, decided to strike out on his own with “Wadde Hadde Dudde Da?”, which is sort of a nonsensical, baby-talk way to say “Whaddaya Got There?”.  Raab, like Guildo before him, embraced the lunacy of the situation with both arms (and a pair of badass platform boots), and ended up with a 5th place finish, their most recent top-5 placing, in fact.

After Guildo and Stefan, Germany decided to cool it with the outright comedy for a while, but they still experimented with unexpected genres.  In 2006, they selected Australian-born singer Jane Comerford and her band Texas Lightning to bring country music to the Eurovision stage for the first time with their song “No No Never”, coming in 14th place.  They tried Rat-Pack-inspired big band the next year with Roger Cicero’s “Frauen Regier’n Die Welt (Women Rule The World)“, but their scores dipped even lower, coming in 19th.  Last year, Germany decided to blend swing with burlesque and came up with “Miss Kiss Kiss Bang“, a song that was only redeemed by the sporadic appearance of Dita von Teese and her impossibly tiny waist.  Not even a semi-celebrity in a corset could save “Miss Kiss”, and they stayed in 20th place.

So, what do you do when you find yourself languishing in the bottom half of the scoreboard for longer than is comfortable?  Well, Germany called Stefan Raab again, of course!  He helped set up a national preselection process and sat as head of the jury.  After weeks of competition, who got the golden ticket to Oslo?
http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/xcq37t?width=435&theme=denim&foreground=%2392ADE0&highlight=%23A2ACBF&background=%23202226&additionalInfos=1&start=&animatedTitle=&iframe=0&autoPlay=0&hideInfos=0

At first, I wondered what was up with Lena Meyer-Landrut’s accent while she was singing “Satellite”.  After years of listening to German singers in the ESC singing in English, nobody has had an affectation quite like Lena’s.  Then, after hearing the song through, I realized that she was mimicking the sort of British accent you hear from singers like Kate Nash or Lily Allen.  It’s a bit odd to hear Mockney coming out of a girl from Hanover, but Lena pulls it off with such an endearingly adorable awkwardness that it’s hard not to fall for her.  Unlike other recent ESC submissions from Germany, “Satellite” has actually made it to the pop charts in her native country, smashing records for digital downloads.  Within a week of the song’s release, it was certified gold, and made platinum only three weeks later.  She’s also hit #2 in Switzerland and Austria (which is even more impressive considering that Austria isn’t even competing in this year’s Eurovision), and has even cracked the Top 10 on the European Hot 100 Singles charts, which covers 15 nations all over the continent.  On the official Eurovision page on Youtube, Lena leads all of the other ESC preview videos in terms of view count, with over 3.4 million views as of last count.  (In contrast, Serbia’s video, which is in 2nd place, only has about 600,000.)

Keep in mind that before February 2, nobody knew this girl’s name.

As a writer, even as a complete amateur who’s only really writing this blog for her own enjoyment, I feel it’s my duty to stay impartial and unbiased.  That being said, “Satellite” is a fun, catchy, upbeat, simply adorable number that has obviously made a massive impact on the European market already.  Considering that Germany (like France, the UK, Spain, and Norway) already has a pass to the Finals, and that Lena will be performing close to the end of the roster, this might be the one to beat in Oslo. 

I don’t know about you all, but I’m probably going to have this stuck in my head for a while.