513/917 Ingrid Peters: Über die Brücke gehn (Germany 1986)

If in the late 1960's and early 1970's Germany made a habit of borrowing their Eurovision artists from Scandinavia (Siw Malmkvist from Sweden, Wencke Myhre from Norway and Gitte Haenning from Denmark), the 1970's and 1980's belonged to established female stars, who did not find it awkward to boost their career on Eurovision Stage. Ingrid Peters was one of them.

What I love about these schlager queens is that when they came on stage you didn't have to be worried one bit about whether they could carry the tune and whether they were professional enough to handle the pressure and excitement of a popular, world wide television show. Like Katja Ebstein, Lena Valaitis, Mary Roos and Ireen Sheer before her, Ingrid Peters took the stage and sung her song with no nervousness in sight and no flat note anywhere to be found. A professional is always a professional.

The composer Hans Blum was no beginner either, he had already written the German entries of 1965, 1967 and 1969. Über die Brücke gehn was maybe not the most original song he'd ever written but it suited Ingrid Peters perfectly and with nice build up to the chorus and the change of key in the right place it went straight into my heart as a musical package well done and beautifully finished.

The final result of the song (8th place among 20 participants) correlates well with my feelings to the song. It did well but the final push needed to pass the perky uptempo pop songs like the entries from Belgium, Denmark, United Kingdom, Ireland and Sweden and the traditional French ballads (from Switzerland and Luxemburg) was missing.

Unfortunately the 1986 contest marked the end of era of established German stars on Eurovision stage. Like in so many countries, now also in Germany the big acts started to shy away from the Eurovision Song Contest which allegedly in more cases hurt already established careers than promoted them.

My points 4/5.

56/917 Wyn Hoop: Bonne nuit ma chérie (Germany 1960)

Nowadays it some times refreshing to hear a Eurovision song composed to the rhythm of a classic dance f.eg. waltz or tango. In the early decades of Eurovision this was more commonplace. The 55th eurosong was based on the rhythms of a latin dance bolero.

Wyn Hoop was only 23 years of age when he took part in the Eurovision Song Contest, that took place in London. His entry Bonne nuit ma chérie was a tender lullaby where the singer puts his love to sleep promising he will never forget or leave her.

To me everything is in place in this entry. The song is easy going, yet gentle song where the latin rhythms is used tastefully without clashing with the idea of a lullaby. The arrangement is superb and the young singer gives a confident and at the same time very relaxed performance on a stage.

This song continued Germany's good streak in the early years of Eurovision with 4th position in the final results and Wyn Hoop would continue to have a good career in the German showbusiness until the end of the 1970's. After retiring, he has written articles and books about sailing and travelling.

My points 4/5.

239/917 Mary Roos: Nur die Liebe lässt uns leben (Germany 1972)

Germany has sent to the Eurovision stage an impressive legion of their most popular and famous singers. One of them was Rosemarie Schwab, better known with her stage name Mary Roos.

I got to know Mary Roos in 1984, when she represented Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest with song Aufrecht Geh'n. I was impressed with her voice which was vulnerable and strong at the same time. It was many years later that I heard and saw hers first Eurovision entry, which took part 12 years earlier.

When watching for the first time a bad quality VHS copy of the 1972 contest held in Edinburgh Scotland I was puzzled by her performance. Here was 23 years old singer singing un upbeat happy song with the same vulnerable strong voice I had heard singing a heartbraking ballad of separation in 1984. Somehow I felt her voice did not mach the song Nur die Liebe lässt uns leben.

During the years I've grown to appreciate her performance in 1972 as much as her appearence 12 years later. The song is good and she is clearly having good time on stage. The relaxed feeling, smile, the sparkle in her eyes (contrary to her 1984 performance) and of course her confident singing make the song work and the third position in the final results was well deserved.

My points 4/5.

127/917 Ulla Wiesner: Paradies, wo bist du? (Germany 1965)

This is a unfortunately usual story. A young competent artist performs well a challenging song on the Eurovision stage making also a terrific recording out of it. However, the juries (or the televoters) don't get the song and it goes nowhere and the artist is never heard of again. Such was the case also for the song performed 127th in the Eurovision history.

The song Paradies wo bist du is a not your usual Eurovision entry of the mid 1960's. The song combines in an unorthodox way German schlager and latin rhythms with an interesting melody line. The song was the first but also the most unconventional of four great Eurovision entries written by well known composer Hans Blum.

The recording of this song is excellent with arrangement and production way ahead of its time. Especially notable is the use of the wordless female vocal which is used  more like an instrument than a backing vocal. Young 24 year old Ulla Wiesner does a immaculate job following the complicated melody line managing to add some personal interpretation in the recording. The arrangement of the live version on Naples Eurovision stage is much more conventional losing the enigmatic ambience of the studio recording.

Still the song in its live version would have deserved better fate. The voting system of the mid 1960's did not do favours for songs like this. Each country gave points to maximum three songs (out of 18) they deemed best, so it was no surprise that a song so different and exotic would not receive any points at all.

For poor Ulla Wiesner the drawn last place in the 10th Eurovision song contest meant abrupt end for her singing career. In the Internet very little (if any) information can be found of her singing activities after the 1965 Eurovision song contest, although the bad result was by no means her fault. The song itself disappeared and the studio recording can be found only on German Eurovision compilations that are currently sold out. I tried in vain to find a link to the studio version on Spotify, YouTube and GrooveShark.

Hans Blum wrote another three entries for the Eurovision Song Contest in 1967, 1969 and 1985. With less adventurous songs he managed each time reach the top ten.

My points 3/5 (I make my judgement according to the live version. The studio version of song would easily receive 4 points from me or possibly the full fiver)

p.s. This song was suggested for me by a fellow blogger Tobias Larsson. If you have a song, a decade or a country you want me to write about, please send me a comment or tweet me to mikko_suhonen. I'm looking forward to your contribution.

66/917 Lale Andersen: Einmal sehen wir uns wieder (Germany 1961)

This time the random number generator picked me a singer who had started her international known career earlier than anyone else ever in the Eurovision Song Contest. The singer of the 66th Eurosong is none other than the singer who made Lili Marleen a hit on both sides of the frontier during the second world war.

Lale Andersen was 34 years old when she recorded this war time classic in 1939. At first the nazi officials banned the recording, but after the song had became immensely popular among the German troops it was allowed to be played again. The song made Lale Andersen popular also on the other side of the frontier, as the sad story about a soldier and his lover separated by the war was understood everywhere during those years.

After the war Andersen's career stopped for a while, but in the 1950's she continued her career. In 1961, at the age of 56, she was chosen to represent Germany in the Eurovision song contest with a very traditional German schlager Einmal sehen wir uns wieder.

The dark and enigmatic voice was still there and the song was an excellent vehicle for the experienced singer. With a perfect performance, beautiful tune and the international fame of the singer, the 13th place among 16 participants was rather disappointing. It is possible that the juries did not like the long passages of spoken text in the song. I, too, prefer the recorded version with more music and less talking.

With a long and succesfull career behind her the poor result in the Eurovision did not do her harm. She continued to tour Germany, Europe and even United States until her death in 1972.

It would take 47 years and a Croatian disc jockey and rapper of 75 years of age before anyone older than Andersen would perform on the Eurovision stage.

My points 3/5.

835/917 Stefan Raab: Wadde hadde dudde da (Germany 2000)

Humor is difficult and in Eurovision almost impossible. Call me a Mr KillJoy, but so far I don't recall any good Eurovision entry that can be called funny. There have been of course numerous unintentionally ridiculous entries during the years, but if the song has been made intentionally to make the audience laugh, they seldom do, at least not me. The first German entry of the new millenium, the song number 835 managed to make some people smile, but I wasn't among them.

Stefan Raab got away with murder in 1998, when his song Guildo hat euch lieb, a pretentious comedy moment sung by "character" Guildo Horn managed to gather enough points for the 9th place. Two years later Raab decided to improve the result by singing himself his own entry, which was even more pretentious.

Raab and his team put on a great show, I don't deny that. Glittering clothes, suggestive choreography, lightning tricks, dashing girls (who would take off some superfluous clothing during the finale in a good Buck's Fizz fashion) and childish lyrics repeating the same phrase over and over again, managed to hide quite well the absence of any substance or even melody in this entry, that I can hardly call a song. The televoting audience seemed to have fun, they voted the song fifth in the final results (among 24 songs competing).

I disagreed violently, hating this "song" from the first time I heard it and after 13 years it hasn't come any better. Luckily this song and the 1998 German entry are not the only things to remember Stefan Raab by. In 2004 he wrote a decent ballad Can't wait until tonight for Germany playing guitar in the backing band. When Germany hosted the contest in 2011, he was one of the competent trio that served as hosts in the contest.

When thinking of Stefan Raab, these two moments are the ones I prefer to his 1998 and 2000 entries, which both deserve the lowest points on my scale.

My points 1/5.