The Eurovision Song Contest is a golden opportunity for European countries to showcase themselves to the world. Each country approaches the contest differently: some use it to share political messages while others send their countries’ most laughable pop groups. In 2010, Germany changed its approach to Eurovision. Broadcaster ARD teamed up with Eurovision aficionado Stefan Raab and network ProSieben in hopes of achieving a German Eurovision win. Raab headed preliminary talent acquisition for a revamped, nationally televised competition that mirrored the structure of the Eurovision final (“Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest”). Under the model this revitalization resulted in, Germany could ensure their representative at the Eurovision final would appeal to both critical and popular audiences alike. While Germany’s performances during the period 2010-2014 are diverse in most regards, the absence of racial diversity on stage is important to take note of.
In 2010, Lena, a young white pop artist, earned the opportunity to perform her song “Satellite” (2010) at Eurovision. Upon examination of this song’s lyrics, it can be easily identified as a love song thanks to the presence of metaphor and repetition. Lena uses metaphor in the chorus of the song to express how important her lover is to her: “Like a satellite / I’m in orbit all the way around you”. Satellites revolve around the Earth because of its gravitational pull, and if the Earth were to disappear, all the satellites in orbit would float off into the infinite abyss of space. By comparing herself to a satellite, Lena is saying she feels so deeply about this person that she would feel lost and directionless if they were to disappear from her life. Additionally, Lena employs simple repetition to drive the message home. She sings that chorus three times in total and a verse containing the lines “Love, oh love /… / … / Can’t go a minute without your love” five times.
During Lena’s performance of Satellite, certain visual effects help the song achieve its purpose as a pop hit. Blue rectangular lights were strobed in a way that made the backdrop look like a large crowd taking photographs, adding a feeling of celebrity to the performance. This performance could have come from any country as nothing on stage was recognizably “German”. Lena went on to win Eurovision 2010, the first Eurovision after the remodeling of the German national competition, with “Satellite” and quickly rose to celebrity status in Germany (“Lena Meyer-Landrut”).
After her success at Eurovision 2010, Lena won Germany’s national song competition for a second consecutive year. At Eurovision 2011, the emerging star performed yet another pop song called “Taken by a Stranger” (2011). The song tells the story of a one night stand between a woman and a stranger. At first, the woman has no interest in her mysterious suitor - in the second verse, Lena mentions that the woman “looks annoyed” by the man. However, by the chorus she is asking to be “[spun] round again”, which suggests that she has become infatuated with the stranger while dancing.
While the lyrics of this song tell the whole story, Lena’s performance helps solidify the meaning and make it easier for her audience to understand. At the beginning of the song, a small circle of spotlights illuminates Lena and her backup dancers while the rest of the arena is dark. As the performance goes on, more lights are added to the circle. After Lena sings the line “trip me up and spin me round again” for the third time, the camera pans out to reveal that the circle of spotlights is now rotating around Lena, who is dancing in the center of the stage, giving visual reinforcement to the lyrics.
After the final chorus, the arena is flooded with light, but then a shattering glass effect occurs right before the end of the song and the stadium becomes dark again. During the performance, the amount of light on stage is symbolic of the feeling of togetherness shared by the woman and the stranger. The lights going dark at the end of the performance signifies that the strangers’ night together is over. They have gone their separate ways, becoming strangers once again. “Taken by a Stranger” placed 10th and was Lena’s final Eurovision entry as she chose not to participate in the German selection competition again (“Eurovision Voting & Points”).
In 2012, Roman Lob, a young white male, earned the right to represent Germany with his song “Standing Still” (2012), which is a ballad about lost love that could be considered radio pop. Lob uses the changing of the seasons as a symbol for the phases his relationship is going through. He sings “Winter has come along and Summer’s dead and gone”. In present day, Summer is often associated with fun, nice weather, and sunlight, while Winter is thought of as dark and depressing as people must stay inside to keep warm. Also, the year ends during the Winder. So, in saying this, Lob means the fun part of his relationship where everything was splendid has passed. His relationship is over and now he is feeling blue.
The mood of Roman Lob’s performance is an intimate one. The fact that Lob is accompanied on stage by people playing live instruments builds this feeling of intimacy – the performance truly feels human. Additionally, several warm-colored swiveling spotlights are used to add a dramatic effect to Roman Lob’s performance and further enhance the mood. While Lena’s two performances were bubbly and energetic, Lob’s feels highly personal. He connected with audience members in an honest way that forced them to feel his heartbreak, resulting in an 8th place finish at the 2012 final (“Eurovision Voting & Points”). Lob’s honest, personal ballad was followed up by EDM group Cascada’s less sentimental “Glorious”.
When Roman Lob and Lena were elected, they were previously unknown musical talents. Cascada, the group Germany elected as their 2013 Eurovision representative, was an international success long before they entered the song contest. The high-profile group consists of female vocalist Natalie Horler and DJs Manian and Yanou, all of whom are white. Cascada easily won Germany’s national competition but did not find any similar success at the Eurovision final coming in 21st out of 26 possible places (“Eurovision Voting & Points”).
While Cascada’s performance of “Glorious” (2013) is energetic and entertaining, it ultimately fails to tell a story or convey a meaningful message. In “Glorious”, Cascada delivers a slew of empowering lines such as “We are young at heart and we’re free / The world is ours”, “We’re running at the speed of light”, and “We can set the world on fire”. These lines are all independent messages of empowerment. Unfortunately, they are all nonsensical and receive no explanation. The rest of the song is more of the same: inspirational statements strung together with more inspirational statements that ultimately tell no story and have no larger meaning. Songs like “Glorious”, that sound fine musically but are lyrically cluttered with inspirational jargon, are common in the world of electronic music. And while Cascada pulls out all the stops in their performance with purple lights, fog machines, pyrotechnic explosions, strobe lights, swiveling spotlights, and even spark showers, the song still lacks meaning and originality. Cascada’s failure at Malmo 2013 proves that taking the Eurovision audience on an enjoyable, energetic, 3-minute ride is not enough to succeed in the competition when the song being performed has no substantial meaning. “Glorious” could have been a big hit at Tomorrowland, but unfortunately Germany chose to present it to a Eurovision audience that simply wasn’t feeling the vibe.
In 2014, the German people sent Elaiza, a formerly unknown group consisting of three white women, to the Eurovision Song Contest. Unlike the performance of Germany’s previous few acts, Elaiza’s performance of their song “Is It Right” (2014) contains certain characteristics that allow the performance to be clearly identifiable as one that is German. First, Elaiza taps into Germany’s musical roots by playing two traditional German instruments, the accordion and double bass, on stage during their performance. Additionally, the colors of the German flag were used to light the stage during Elaiza’s performance.
Because the German people are given the power to choose their Eurovision representative each year via the national competition, it isn’t surprising that most of Germany’s Eurovision representatives perform radio-pop songs with no clearly German elements – pop is short for popular by no mistake. But why did the German people want Elaiza in 2014? Perhaps a heightened sense of nationalism existed in Germany as 2014 was a World Cup year and the German national team was strongly favored in the competition. This would explain why the German people – after years of electing generic musical representatives – felt it was important to remind the rest of Europe that they are a country with a rich cultural history by sending a group like Elaiza to the Eurovision Final. Even though “Is It Right” only came in 18th place, it was refreshing to hear a song featuring traditional musical instruments during a span that otherwise lacked musical diversity.
One thing that Lena, Roman Lob and his band, all three members of Cascada, and all three members of Elaiza have in common is their race: they are all white. Even though the majority of Germany’s population is white, only electing groups with white members during this five-year period does not send a message of inclusivity to the rest of Europe and the world. It is possible that Germany’s performances are typically racially diverse, but weren’t during this five-year period due to random chance. Today, the German public opinion towards immigrants and refugees has taken a negative turn and it is more important than ever for the nation to preserve its identity as one that fosters racial diversity and values universal human equality. Going into the future, hopefully Germany continues to send quality Eurovision representatives while simultaneously increasing both racial and musical diversity on stage.
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Cascada. “Glorious,” music and lyrics by Yann Peifer, Manuel Reuter, Andres Ballinas, and Tony Cornelissen. Germany, Eurovision Song Contest, 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFuGH2Kp9dI Accessed 12 Feb. 2017.
“Cascada.” Discogs, www.discogs.com/artist/226574-Cascada.
Elaiza. “Is It Right?,” music and lyrics by Elżbieta Steinmetz, Frank Kretschmer and Adam Kesselhaut. Germany, Eurovision Song Contest, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HYTd7WDCPg Accessed 12 Feb. 2017.
“Eurovision Voting & Points.” Eurovision World, eurovisionworld.com/?eurovision.
“Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest.” Wikipedia, 14 Feb. 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany_in_the_Eurovision_Song_Contest#2010s.
Lena. “Satellite,” music and lyrics by Julie Frost, and John Gordon. Germany, Eurovision Song Contest, 2010. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pL9vdpSvnY Accessed 9 Feb. 2017.
Lena. “Taken by a Stranger,” music and lyrics by Gus Seyffort, Nicole Morier, and Monica Birkenos. Germany, Eurovision Song Contest, 2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHsLnk3whxg Accessed 9 Feb. 2017.
“Lena Meyer-Landrut.” Discogs, www.discogs.com/artist/1756180-Lena-Meyer-Landrut.
Lob, Roman. “Standing Still,” music and lyrics by Jamie Cullum, Wayne Hector, and Steve Robson. Germany, Eurovision Song Contest, 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cScJPH20P3A Accessed 9 Feb. 2017.
