It’s Tuesday, and that means it’s time for us to travel back to the decade of love, peace, and disco fever. Today, it’s Sophie’s turn to introduce you to another song from the 70s.
Germany 1975: Joy Fleming – Ein Lied kann eine Brücke sein (17th place)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWcFWGOm12A
Apparently, this song was the inspiration for this year’s Eurovision theme as it is about how “a song can be a bridge”. With Joy Fleming’s powerful soul voice the German entry of 1975 really hits it off with me and I think it would have deserved a better result than placing 17th.
I got to know about Joy Fleming in 2004 when she was a jury member of the German national final “SSDSGPS” to help picking out Max Mutzke to represent Germany. Back then, I didn’t even know that she had once participated in the contest herself (Shame on me, but there was a time when I was not that into Eurovision yet. I can’t even imagine how my life must have been like back then. Sad and boring, I assume.) Anyway, Joy Fleming seems to be one of the many people that can’t really seem to get away from Eurovision once they got into it – like all of us basically. After her participation in 1975 she competed in the national final three more times, but never made it to the final again.
What I think is astonishing is that in the national final of 1975 Fleming competed against the ESC experienced Mary Rose and Katja Ebstein who both have had quite some successes in the years before (both made it to 3rd place). Still, Joy Fleming was selected to represent Germany and, well, let’s just say, didn’t make it to place 3. Another entry of the national final, however, became a lot more famous then Fleming’s song in the German speaking area. I’m speaking of “Er gehört zu mir” by Marianne Rosenberg, a true classic and an everlasting part of my personal road trip playlist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47ErFV9csgM
