Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003

Eurovision Song Contest 2003
Country	Germany
National selection
Selection process	Countdown Grand Prix Eurovision
Selection date(s)	March 7, 2003
Selected entrant	Lou
Selected song	"Let's Get Happy"
Finals performance
Final result	11th, 53 points

Germany was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 by Lou with the song "Let's Get Happy", written by Ralph Siegel and Bernd Meinunger. Germany's representative was chosen during a national final called Countdown Grand Prix Eurovision.

Countdown Grand Prix Eurovision

Countdown Grand Prix Eurovision

Date:	March 7, 2003
Presenter:	Axel Bulthaupt
Venue:	Ostseehalle, Kiel
Voting:	Two rounds of televoting
Interval Act:	Modern Talking, Marie N
Winner:	Let's Get Happy performed by Lou

The national final was held at the Ostseehalle in Kiel on 7 March 2003.

Before the show

After Germany has finished 21st in the Eurovision Song Contest 2002, head of delegation Jürgen Meier-Beer wanted to renew the national final. In an interview, he told^[1]:

“

This defeat gives me the chance to make people separate from the old image of the song contest in Germany too. Ethetically, we want to make a huge jump from old-fashioned schlager to modern pop music.

”

Nevertheless, the formula was similar as in recent years - the best known record labels in Germany were again asked to submit entries for the national final. Furthermore, five well-known newspapers and magazines were asked to submit one song each^[1][2]: Tabloid BILD submitted Elmar Brandt's project Die Gerd Show with a parody on Gerhard Schröder to Kiel, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung submitted DJMDG, die tageszeitung Senait, who was also supported by politician Claudia Roth, Freistil were submitted by teenager magazine Yam! and Tagträumer feat. Aynur by Turkish newspaper Hürriyet. Actually, 15 songs were supposed to be presented, but Joachim Deutschland and his song “Marie” were disqualified, because the singer has insulted the Bavarian minister-president Edmund Stoiber in one of his other songs and because of inappropriate lines in his entry.

Ich Troje took part as Troje in the German national final although they had previously already won the Polish national final with “Keine Grenzen-Żadnych granic”^[3]. They would have not been allowed to take part in the competition for two countries according to the rules. Later in Riga, the band would receive its only twelve points from Germany. Two of the acts have previously taken part in a German national final: Lou and Tagträumer, both in 2001.

The show

For the sixth time in a row and for the last time so far, Axel Bulthaupt hosted the German national final. In the first round of televoting, 601809 votes were cast and Die Gerd Show was the winner of that round with 98455 votes and would enter the second round along with Lou (second place, 85984 votes) and Beatbetrieb (third place, 66418 votes). In the second round, 367415 were cast and the results changed dramatically: Die Gerd Show now has only finished third with 111601 votes, Beatbetrieb came second with 116214 votes and Lou won the national final with 139600 votes exactly^[4]. Actually, only the top three of the first round were supposed to be revealed, but BILD has published the results shortly after the competition after all^[4] (see below).

The interval act was performed by Modern Talking. Furthermore, Renārs Kaupers, host of the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest appeared in the show and so did Marie N, his co-host and winner of the 2002 Eurovision Song Contest, who performed her own winning song “I Wanna” again.

Participants

#	Singer	Song (Music and lyrics)	Translation	Place (first round)	Place
1	Sascha Pierro	Wenn Grenzen fallen (Sascha Pierro, Patrick Benzer, Peter Hoffmann)	When borders fall	10th
2	Charlemaine	Life (Peter Ries, Charlemaine)	-	12th
3	DJMDG	Die Seite, wo die Sonne scheint (DJMDG, Octopussy)	The side, where the sun shines	13th
4	Lou	Let's Get Happy (Ralph Siegel, Bernd Meinunger)	-	2nd	1st
5	Elija	Somehow - Somewhere (André Franke, William Lennox)	-	9th
6	Beatbetrieb	Woran glaubst Du? (Theo Eißler, Michael Janz, Derek von Krogh, Tobi Wörner)	What do you believe in?	3rd	2nd
7	Isgaard	Golden Key (Jens Lück, Sabina Lück)	-	7th
8	VIBE	Für immer (Daniel Biscan, Philipp Palm, Julian Maas)	Forever	8th
9	Troje	Liebe macht Spaß (André Franke, Joachim Horn-Benges)	Love is fun	6th
10	Lovecrush	Love Is Life (Sabine Mayer-Foster, Peter Bischof-Fallenstein)	-	14th
11	Die Gerd Show	Alles wird gut (Elmar Brandt, Peter Burtz, Dieter Müller-Christ, Frank Kurt-Meyer, Michael Kernbach)	Everything will be alright	1st	3rd
12	Senait	Herz aus Eis (Senait, Frank Ramond, Oliver Pinelli)	Heart of ice	4th
13	Freistil	Hörst Du meine Lieder? (Nico Sukup, Philip Schmid, Simon Schmid, Fabian Keitel, Dieter Falk)	Do you hear my songs?	11th
14	Tagträumer feat. Aynur	Living in a Perfect World (Andy Jonas, Arno Brugger)	-	5th

Releases

Again, a compilation album of the national final was released. Apart from the 14 competing entries, it included the German entry of 2002 “I Can't Live Without Music” and the winner of that year, “I Wanna”. As compilations cannot enter the album charts in Germany, only few can be said about the commercial success.

Chart successes

For the first time since 1999, the German entry would not enter the German single charts. From the 14 competing songs, only two reached the top 100: Alles wird gut was the most successful one peaking at #18. The disqualified entry Marie by Joachim Deutschland also reached the single charts.

Entry
Woran glaubst Du?	80	-	-
Alles wird gut	18	-	-
Marie	32	-	-

At the Eurovision Song Contest

In the Eurovision Song Contest, Germany finished joint 11th with 53 points. The highest vote came from Sweden - 10 points. Iceland was the first country to vote and gave eight points to Germany, which put the country in third place after the first points announced.

After the Eurovision Song Contest

In an interview at the aftershow party of the Eurovision Song Contest, Lou was asked why she did not reach a better position. She answered that she was “too old, too fat and too ugly”^[5]. That quote made it to the front page of BILD the Monday after the contest. Previously, Lou had made it to front page of that newspaper stating that she lost weight for Riga and reduced her wrinkles with Botox^[5].

Sources and external links

• John Kenney O'Connor: Eurovision Song Contest - Das offizielle Buch zu 50 Jahren europäischer Popgeschichte, Gondrom 2005
• The 2003 German national final at eurovision.de

References

1. ^ ^{a b} aufrechtgehn.de - Deutsche Vorentscheidung 2003
2. ^ http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Vorentscheidung_zum_Eurovision_Song_Contest_2003
3. ^ POLISH NATIONAL FINAL 2003
4. ^ ^{a b} GERMAN NATIONAL FINAL 2003
5. ^ ^{a b} aufrechtgehn.de - Eurovision Song Contest 2003