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Rain of confetti and gesture of solidarity: Germany's representative at the ESC 2022 is Malik Harris
Photo: Gerald Matzka/POOL/EPA
The German preliminary decision for the 66th Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) was ill-fated from the start.
The preliminary jury, made up of radio people, had selected six variations of a harmless, radio-friendly pop sound from 944 submissions - and the leading Norddeutsche Rundfunk (NDR) was not deterred in this selection by an Internet petition with over one hundred thousand supporters.
And then, on February 24, Russian troops attacked Ukraine.
Difficult conditions for
light entertainment
.
Light entertainment, that's what the ESC is above all, despite all the doggedness in the fight for the points and all the superstructure that connects peoples.
Fun for the whole family and all the adoptive and surrogate families.
The suddenly inevitable seriousness of the war triggered hectic activity.
Internationally, Russia was banned from participating in the competition in Turin in mid-May.
On German television, broadcasting times were pushed around wildly - the ESC preliminary decision "Germany, 12 Points", which was actually deported to the third programs, was allowed to move back into the first, but framed by a fundraising program, moderated by Ingo Zamperoni, who had every trouble with it Lviv-born, Cologne-based singer Mariana Sadowska when she called for donations for the fighting forces - after all, freedom cannot be defended with bare hands.
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Schöneberger and Ceylan play rock stars
Photo: Britta Pedersen / dpa
A harsh break from the opening act, then, when Barbara Schöneberger and the Mannheim comedian Bülent Ceylan performed cabaret variations of the Italo-Pop classics »Gloria« (Umberto Tozzi), »Felicità« (Al Bano & Romina Power) and »Citti e buoni« (Måneskin) performed – trick dress and self-mortification because of the bad German point yield included.
But Schöneberger's popularity has a lot to do with the fact that she can do just that: just keep going in a hopeless situation and still find a reasonably good gag.
But even Barbara Schöneberger couldn't save anything when it came to the appearances of the six hopefuls for Turin.
A video wall was placed in the clearly arranged studio in Berlin-Adlershof, which was supposed to simulate the big wide show world.
But then the naïve lines of the song were translated one to one into illustrations.
On the stage in front of it there were wind machines and dancers jumping in soap bubbles, yes.
But the whole setting was reminiscent of a musical show in the provinces, where you can still recognize the multi-purpose hall despite all the stage props and beams of light.
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Maël and Jonas with Bulli: 1st place after the radio listeners' online vote
Photo: Gerald Matzka/Getty Images
But isn't it about the songs, isn't it about the singing?
Two of the six acts had major text dropouts and the others didn't manage to radiate presence either - the will, the star quality, to stand out from the unfortunate environment.
The cheerful Bud Spencer Terence Hill duo Maël and Jonas from Koblenz tried hard with their pop-punk song and a lot of energy.
And the crew around the B-League rapper Nico Suave had even practiced a completely new text at short notice.
That was a good thing: Lines like »Hello world, how are you?
Why so down?
Why are you giving so much space to negative vibes?” had raised fears of the worst possible embarrassment given the situation.
Now it was a more suitable »Hello world, I see you!
It makes me down."
Solidarity as a search game
In the Ukraine in general: Here the gestures of solidarity became a hidden object game – where are the blue and yellow colors hiding?
In the stripes of the V-neck collar?
In eye makeup?
In the sweatbands of the musicians?
The clearest was the eventual winner, Malik Harris, who at the end of his performance presented the tape lettering "Stand with Ukraine" on the back of his guitar.
Then, like everyone else, he was greeted by moderator Schöneberger with a sentence like “Well, you did it” – as if these were high school graduates after the oral and not artists who were singing about their great opportunity for fame.
While the TV audience was still pondering which of these six titles was the least evil, an ESC classic medley was staged in the studio, ending with Nicole's "A Little Peace".
But the attempt to get an atmospheric singalong for peace with the manageable studio audience (there's also Corona - yikes, the FFP2 masks are all yellow and blue!) didn't really ignite.
So it was up to the real world to provide the moving moments of the evening: The Ukrainian ESC winner from 2016, Jamala, reported on fleeing her home country, alone with her two children, she had to leave her husband behind.
"I'll scream so that the whole world can hear that things can't go on like this," she announced her performance with the winning song "1944".
It is about the deportation of the Crimean Tatars as alleged “anti-Soviet propagandists” from the point of view of those whose homeland was attacked – the large Ukrainian flag that Jamala carried during her impressive singing was enough to establish a connection to the present.
During the goosebump moment, Barbara Schöneberger sighed »Never before have we needed the fast forward as urgently as now« – oh dear, that's right, we had to find a German contribution.
The online voting of the audience of the ARD radio stations produced a result that was as uniform as the musical landscape that is presented on the car radio when driving through Germany.
But through the televote of the television viewers, Malik Harris, who had previously placed second, passed Maël and Jonas: His "Rockstars" will represent Germany in Turin in mid-May.
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Radiant and unpretentious: preliminary decision winner Malik Harris
Photo: Gerald Matzka/POOL/EPA
Will the song have a chance of a better result there than the last German contributions?
One should not have too high hopes.
The rather solemn hymn to the carefree times of youth doesn't hurt much, but musically it won't particularly stand out.
The special element is a rapped verse in which Malik Harris talks himself into a rage from line to line - but this will remind international audiences above all of Eminem's "Stan", also more than 20 years old.
Malik Harris already has a bit of charisma, the son of the former Sat.1 talk show host Ricky, who cheered with a cap and shield.
His performance is deliberately unpretentious, alone between different instruments, in a T-shirt and jeans.
"Oh no, I have to pee like this," is Harris's reaction when Barbara Schöneberger reminds him that he has to sing "Rockstars" again in the rain of confetti.
Kind.
Self confident.
Suitable for radio.
But probably not conspicuous enough among 25 other finalists.