Germany has won the contest for the first time with “Ein bisschen Frieden” by Nicole in 1982. 28 years later in Oslo, Lena has won with “Satellite” for Germany. Therefore, Germany is the host country for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest which is going to be held in Düsseldorf. Germany has been one of the “founding members” of the ESC since the first edition in 1956. Since then, Germany has always participated, beside of 1996, where there was an international preliminary round. There were many good positions, even four #2 songs in the golden 80’s: “Theater” by Katja Ebstein in 1980, “Johnny Blue” by Lena Valaitis in 1981, “Für alle” by Wind in 1985 and “Lass die Sonne in dein Herz” by Wind in 1987. The enthusiasm for the Eurovision Song Contest in Germany changes from year to year. In some years, almost nobody has been talking about the ESC. But there are still phases when the Germans got into Eurovision mood, when Guildo Horn represented Germany in 1998, the whole country was in Eurovision heat. Also years after, there was huge interest in Germany with Stefan Raab in 2000, Max Mutzke in 2004, Texas Lightening in 2006 and Roger Cicero in 2007. Since the second victory for Germany last spring, everybody is talking about Eurovision. Especially Düsseldorf is well prepared, with the big arena, lots of well-known sponsors, the host city is having Eurovision-stamps already, flags everywhere and you can listen radio commercials connected with the ESC. The 40.000 tickets for the final have been sold out within an hour. The German TV ARD has promised an unforgettable event and there will be many TV shows in advance concerning ESC.

Last year’s victory “Satellite” has been a real European hit, which topped the charts in almost every European country and even beyond. This should proof that a good singer with a good song can move mountains – evidence that the Eurovision Song Contest is really up to date and can be played in the radio.

Germany had a different method for finding the right song for Düsseldorf, like last year. Lena has presented 12 songs and the most favourable song has been chosen by televoters. “Taken by a stranger” is an electro-pop song. Something like this has not been presented at the ESC so far. With a special mystic and rhythm in the song, Lena is going to defend her title from last year. This song will be either in the top or bottom of the scoreboard. Good luck Lena!