Do the Coochie Bang Bang - German swing strikes again
Well, it is finally upon us - Miss Kiss Kiss Bang by Oscar Sings Alex Swings (a duo of German DJ Alex C featuring Oscar Loya) will represent Germany in Moscow. The act and song title were announced on Monday 9th and last night a version of the song became available. Take a look in our *ALL-NEW* 'Story so far' sidebar...
Now, I have seen that readers of a certain euro fan site have been coming down on this song like a ton of decidedly unswinging bricks. Here is my two penneth. Yes, as many fans have pointed out, it is a surprise to see Germany return to a swing theme only two years after Roger Cicero's disappointing 19th place in Helsinki with 'Frauen regier'n die Welt. However, there are some marked differences in this year's entry. First, it's not really a standard swing song in the way the 2007 entry was. The production is very Europop oriented, thus the song is much better set up for a big stage presentation and for all the Euroclub disco bunnies to do plenty of dancing along. Second, and very importantly, the song is in English. Swing in German just does not cut it - sorry Roger. It also doesn't go unnoticed that Oscar's destination is a little hot, hot, hotter than Roger's and this cannot be discounted. I'll bet Just can't wait until tonight could have gained a few more places in the table had Max not sported that combover.
These points aside, many of us might have hoped for something more sophisticated from Germany in 2009, given that they have taken the decision to go for an internal selection this time round rather than the 3-act national final format of recent years. Miss Kiss Kiss Bang is tacky, unoriginal and unlikely to do much better than mid-table in Moscow. But, I can understand how we have ended up with this song. Casting a glance back over Germany's efforts since 2000, I was expecting to remind myself of all those hopeless songs and placings, then I realised something quite important. There are some countries about whom we have a clear understanding of consistent originality and quality, for example France. There are some from which we might expect routinely off-the-mark efforts - see Latvia/Lithuania (excepting You Got Style - a magnificent tour de force). However, Germany has actually come up with a tricky combination of pretty ropey songs and novelty acts gaining relatively higher placings (Stefan Raab (2000), Lou - 'Let's be happy and let's be gay!' (2003)) than better songs that either failed to get the recognition they deserved (Texas Lightning (2006)) - or that totally crashed and burned with a dreadful live performance (Gracia (2005), and Vampires are Alive tribute act No Angels (2008)). Disappear is actually one of my favourite entries from 2008 and were it a contest based on studio recordings it would have been a strong contender. Similarly, I really did love Run and Hide but the performance was excruciating. Conversely, I found Max's 2004 entry quite dull but it seemed to strike a chord with the home voters and was well-suited to live performance. What I mean to say is that many people think Germany has been making a mess of Eurovision of late. The results haven't been good, but I think Germany has been trying hard to strike a balance of core song quality and potential stage presence/memorability, and with that in mind the Alex/Oscar combination makes a little more sense.
Germany has been hard-done-by on a couple of occasions in Eurovision and maybe a little more on the money on others - a German colleague of mine was recently bemoaning the absence of Stefan Raab who did a lot for the country's Eurovision profile with his astute novelty acts in 1998 and 2000. It remains to be seen whether Germany has chosen a vote-winning song this year. I fear that they haven't considered the return of the jury, which had it been present in recent years may have resulted in better scores for the likes of No, no, never and Disappear. Perhaps they've gone too far into televote mode and will have naked women jumping out of trumpets while Oscar does the 'skiddly skiddly bo'. But let's take it easy on them. I always look forward to what Germany has to offer and will watch with interest in May.
Now, I have seen that readers of a certain euro fan site have been coming down on this song like a ton of decidedly unswinging bricks. Here is my two penneth. Yes, as many fans have pointed out, it is a surprise to see Germany return to a swing theme only two years after Roger Cicero's disappointing 19th place in Helsinki with 'Frauen regier'n die Welt. However, there are some marked differences in this year's entry. First, it's not really a standard swing song in the way the 2007 entry was. The production is very Europop oriented, thus the song is much better set up for a big stage presentation and for all the Euroclub disco bunnies to do plenty of dancing along. Second, and very importantly, the song is in English. Swing in German just does not cut it - sorry Roger. It also doesn't go unnoticed that Oscar's destination is a little hot, hot, hotter than Roger's and this cannot be discounted. I'll bet Just can't wait until tonight could have gained a few more places in the table had Max not sported that combover.
These points aside, many of us might have hoped for something more sophisticated from Germany in 2009, given that they have taken the decision to go for an internal selection this time round rather than the 3-act national final format of recent years. Miss Kiss Kiss Bang is tacky, unoriginal and unlikely to do much better than mid-table in Moscow. But, I can understand how we have ended up with this song. Casting a glance back over Germany's efforts since 2000, I was expecting to remind myself of all those hopeless songs and placings, then I realised something quite important. There are some countries about whom we have a clear understanding of consistent originality and quality, for example France. There are some from which we might expect routinely off-the-mark efforts - see Latvia/Lithuania (excepting You Got Style - a magnificent tour de force). However, Germany has actually come up with a tricky combination of pretty ropey songs and novelty acts gaining relatively higher placings (Stefan Raab (2000), Lou - 'Let's be happy and let's be gay!' (2003)) than better songs that either failed to get the recognition they deserved (Texas Lightning (2006)) - or that totally crashed and burned with a dreadful live performance (Gracia (2005), and Vampires are Alive tribute act No Angels (2008)). Disappear is actually one of my favourite entries from 2008 and were it a contest based on studio recordings it would have been a strong contender. Similarly, I really did love Run and Hide but the performance was excruciating. Conversely, I found Max's 2004 entry quite dull but it seemed to strike a chord with the home voters and was well-suited to live performance. What I mean to say is that many people think Germany has been making a mess of Eurovision of late. The results haven't been good, but I think Germany has been trying hard to strike a balance of core song quality and potential stage presence/memorability, and with that in mind the Alex/Oscar combination makes a little more sense.
Germany has been hard-done-by on a couple of occasions in Eurovision and maybe a little more on the money on others - a German colleague of mine was recently bemoaning the absence of Stefan Raab who did a lot for the country's Eurovision profile with his astute novelty acts in 1998 and 2000. It remains to be seen whether Germany has chosen a vote-winning song this year. I fear that they haven't considered the return of the jury, which had it been present in recent years may have resulted in better scores for the likes of No, no, never and Disappear. Perhaps they've gone too far into televote mode and will have naked women jumping out of trumpets while Oscar does the 'skiddly skiddly bo'. But let's take it easy on them. I always look forward to what Germany has to offer and will watch with interest in May.
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