Introduction

There has been a lot of media attention in Germany regarding the national selection in Hanover. The winning song “Glorious” by the group Cascada has convinced the TV viewers, jury and radio stations. Among the twelve strong acts, there have been many unknown participants, but also Die Söhne Mannheims, who came 3rd and Cascada, which are more known abroad than in Germany. 

The media has been uttering plagiarism as the song “Glorious” should have too many similarities with the “Euphoria” by Loreen, who has been winning for Sweden last year. This has been thoroughly reviewed by the organizers and by now this approach has not been confirmed. The public has been even more upset by the fact that the voting system was a bit unfair, in particular the radio votes, as the top three votes by every radio station were almost equal. This is due to the fact that everybody could vote at least 9x with one email address and even more with more addresses. Judged by this La BrassBanda from Bavaria would have been the winners. Mary Roos who was the jury president had announced the jury votes and these were totally different. Later one she received unjustified bad critics. All five jury members have voted independently without any influence. At the end Cascada made the race. 

Cascada is one of the most successful German bands recently which exists since 2002 and has been founded by Natalie Horler (the singer), Manuel Reuter and Yann Peifer in Bonn, Germany. The original name of the group was Cascade but it had to be changed due to legal reasons. The band is mainly known abroad and their music stands for Electronic Dance Music, Eurodance and Electro Pop and is touring all around the world. They have released 4 studio albums and had many hits, which reached the charts in 20 countries. With the cover song “Everytime We Touch” Cascade climbed the US Top 10, and also been number one in Great Britain, Sweden, France and the Netherlands.  “Evacuate The Dancefloor” has even been kicking Michael Jackson from the #1 position in UK. Altogether they have sold more than 30 million records and therefore they are one of the most popular dance acts worldwide. Of course Cascada have received several awards e.g. the World Music Award 2007 category “Best Selling German Artist”.

Regarding all the success Cascada can be treated as one of the favourites in Malmö, as they are no newcomers, they are well known and will probably receive a lot of votes. The song “Glorious” is an up-tempo pop song with a strong rhythm and a clear chorus with Natalie’s enormous voice. In the German national selection, she had the best voice, she profits from her experiences on her tours. The band is well known, the song is good, but not overwhelming or extravagant, and a similar song as the former winning entry has never won the contest, so this may reduces the winning chances.

History

Participations: 58

Debut: 1956

Biggest success: 2x 1st place  1982 “Ein Bißchen Frieden” by Nicole, 2010 “Satellite” by Lena Meyer-Landrut, 6x 2nd place “So Geht Das Jede Nacht” by Freddy Quinn 1956, “Im Wartesaal Zum Großen Glück” by Walter Andreas Schwarz in 1956, “Theater” by Katja Ebstein in 1980, “Johnny Blue” by Lena Valeitis in 1981, “Für Alle” by Wind in 1985, “Laß Die Sonne In Dein Herz” by Wind in 1987, 5x 3rd place “Wunder Gibt Es Immer Wieder” by Katja Ebstein in 1970, “Diese Welt” by Katja Ebstein 1971, “Nur Die Liebe Läßt Uns Leben” by Mary Roos in 1972, “Wir Geben ‘Ne Party” by MeKaDo in 1994 and “Reise Nach Jerusalem - Kudüs'e Seyahat” by Sürpriz in 1999, 3x 4th place, 2x 5th place, 3x 6th place, 2x 7th place, 8x 8th place, 3x 9th place, 2x 10th place

For the 58th time Germany will compete in the 58th Eurovision Song Contest this year, so Germany is one of the few countries which competed every year from the first ESC in 1956. In the very first year there were two songs allowed and in 1996 Germany has not been qualifying for the final, that’s why there are 58 entries so far. With such a strong enthusiasm of participating year after year there were only two, but very distinguished winners: Nicole with “Ein bißchen Frieden” in 1982 and Lena Meyer-Landruth with “Satellite” in 2010. A lot of people believed that it needs a miracle for Germany to win again, due to the increasing number of participating countries the competition is getting tougher.

On the other hand Germany belongs to the Big 5 countries – the biggest financiers of the EBU – so therefore these countries get a granted place in the final and they don’t have to qualify anymore. The other Big 5 countries are United Kingdom, France, Spain and Italy. Over the years there have been many good places in the Top 10 like “Theater” by Katja Ebstein in 1980 (2nd), “Johnny Blue” by Lena Valaitis in 1981 (2nd), “Für alle” by Wind in 1985 (2nd) and “Lass die Sonne in Dein Herz” by Wind in 1987 (2nd). A remarkable respect for Ralph Siegel, who wrote 3 songs of them as well as two third places “Wir geben ‘ne Party” by Mekado in 1994 (3rd) and “Reise nach Jerusalem” by Sürpriz in 1999 (3rd).

The general interest in the contest changes from year to year, especially after Guildo Horn’s “Guildo hat Euch lieb” (7th) in 1998 the Eurovision-fever has reached the entire country. In 2010 when Lena entered the contest and finally won it, the atmosphere has reached another height again, Germany loved Lena – young and old, everywhere have been Eurovision parties and there has been a great welcome reception at the Hanover Airport and on the terrace of the Hanover town hall, she has been congratulated by the later German president itself and by thousands overwhelmed fans when she came back.

The year after, Germany could show the rest of the world the latest stage technology and especially how the Germans can celebrate at the 56th ESC in Düsseldorf. The contest was a big success for the city of Düsseldorf (see the article in the news), for the ESC and last but not least - the positive image of Germany as a Eurovision-crazy-country.