Germany 2007

A Little Bit Of History...

Germany have a rather insignificant history at Eurovision winning just once in 1982. Their entries of late have seen very different results. In 1999, 2000, and 2001 they had a string of top ten results, then in 2002 were one of the hot favourites, but failed to impress. 2003 saw Germany enter the wonderful 'Let's Get Happy', but even this failed to do as well as expected. 2004 saw them enter the smoothe number of the night, and they acheived accoringly well, but 2005 saw a great turn in fortunes, gathering all those bad positions up and cumulating them towards a final, horrid position - finishing last. Nonetheless, being a member of the Big 4 it didn't really matter that much, and Germany entered country group Texas Lightning with 'No No Never' in 2006. Hopes were accordingly high - it was a brilliant song, but when it came to the voting Germany seemed to get unduly left behind and they only managed 15th place.

Singer & Song

Roger Cicero Frauen Riegier'n Die Welt

After an inexplicably disappointing result last year, Germany still decided to stick to the same format to select their entry and, in turn, plucked up Roger Cicero, singing swing number ‘Frauen Riegeren Die Welt’ (Women Rule The World). I’m not hugely against swing music, but this is nowhere near as good as Texas Lightning’s number from last year, and I can’t help thinking the decision to sing the German entry in German instead of English is a big mistake, I would fear people may just simply overlook it. The song itself isn’t a bad one and Roger seems to be a sound performer, so this may be another one to sit back and enjoy, rather than pick up the phone and vote for.

Prediction

Grand Final: Near Bottom 17th-19th

Roger is sure to deliver a strong performance, but I'd be surer of a top ten placing if he had chosen to sing the whole thing in English rather than the final part of the song. In light of this, I think it's likely Germany will continue to underachieve when it comes to the voting and finish quite close to the bottom.

Prediction after Semi-Final

Bottom Half/Middle: 15th - 17th

I still think Roger will give a sound performance but that his draw, language barrier, and the lack of support for Germany will hold this back.

Review of Eurovision Performance

If there was one thing special about Eurovision 2007, it was the variety of genres of music on offer. Germany kept to the code with their entry, and sent a Swing number which Roger sang perfectly. The performance was appropriate and the routine sound, but I think Germany faltered solely because of the genre of this one, most others such as Hungary who sent a blues number and Slovenia who sent an operatic one managed to keep things contemporary, something which Germany failed to do, so it was all a little dated unfortunately. As for my prediction, it seems I was slightly optimistic predicting just a few places higher than 19^th where Germany ended up. So I’m close again.