Germany:
Alexa Feser – Das Gold Von Morgen
Laing – Wechselt Die Beleuchtung
From one disaster to another. We don’t really need to say much about the German selection anymore: Andreas Kümmert won with 78% of the votes and then withdrew, basically giving his ticket to poor Ann Sophie. Her Black Smoke went by unnoticed in Vienna and, like The Makemakes, finished in a hopeless last place without a single point. Ouch.
There’s one thing that Germany have been forgetting since 2008: They have a language that works in songs. When Roger Cicero didn’t do as well as expected in 2007, it was the end for German in Eurovision. Amazing national final songs in German all failed to beat horrendous competition: Hinterm Ozean by Carolin Fortenbacher didn’t beat No Angels with Disappear and the now dissolved band Unheilig with Wir Sind Alle Wie Eins inexplicably lost out to Elaiza’s Is It Right. The Germans have a fear of German. I hate that fear, so I’m being stubborn here and I’m just going to present you with two entries Germany could’ve sent over Ann Sophie.
Starting with my obvious choice, I’m picking the ballad with possibly the best lyrics of the entire season. Alexa’s songwriting skills are out of this world and she’s a real treasure to Germany’s music scene. Her ballads and uptempo songs all have brilliant lyrics and her voice is truly unique. She looks great on camera and just gave a really good performance with her second song of the night, Das Gold von morgen. In her song, Alexa speaks about how life can be a bitch, but when you just keep looking for happiness, you’ll find it. Eventually. Some lesson to learn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_o8naQvtqE
But, like with Austria, I’d like to go out of the box as well. I will, however, stay with my annoyance at Germany forgetting they actually have a language. This girl group was the biggest surprise for me when the songs came out. I never rated them much, thought they were weird and just not appealing to me. When they turned up on bikes going all sweaty during a performance about biceps and triceps, I was done. Why did they have to appear in a national final and even make it to round two? Ugh. And then their second song happened. Laing came up with a hauntingly interesting song, Wechselt Die Beleuchtung, a song with lights and costumes as the prime features on stage. A truly remarkable and interesting performance that could’ve left Europe with a big ‘What the actual *** did we just witness?’ Perfect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLJj0TQshxY
