Eurovision – Germany

The most recent news from ESC TODAY states in an article published on April 29 that an American burlesque star, Dita Von Teese, will show a lot of skin as part of Germany’s performance in the final. This is apparently the real live “Miss Kiss Kiss Bang”. There’s a quote from “one time Eurovision legend Ralph Siegel” that ” ‘the path from Ein bisschen frieden to this little strip-tease was a long path downwards.” Frankly, I couldn’t agree more.

But I do predict that Germany will place a lot higher in the ESC this year than it has in the past few years, because “Miss Kiss Kiss Bang” sure fits the winning Eurovision song formula pretty well. Alex and Oscar are promising a big show for the final, with lots of lights, color, and sex appeal, and if it’s anything based on their The fact that the entry is in English and has “cool American” elements to it will probably make it appealing to a large portion of Europe. As I’ve mentioned in class before, I was amazed at how popular American culture was in Spain when I was living there (three ubiquitous markers of popularity were Burger King, McDonalds, and High School Musical 3) and I’m fairly confident that this style of music will have great appeal for a large population of Europe. The use of nonsense syllables is also a common element in winning songs, as Raykoff notes, and this song’s got plenty of ‘em. Raykoff writes that “meaningless vocables and nonsense words” are “a way to circumvent language barriers among participating nations and potential voters,” and I truly believe that “Miss Kiss Kiss Bang” achieves this goal, judging by its online popularity.

Whether or not “Miss Kiss Kiss Bang” is an example of how “this infantile approach to linguistic diversity also detracts from Eurovision’s artistic dignity” is kind of up for debate, I guess. I would argue that it does, but I don’t think winning Eurovision is about artistic dignity these days. And maybe that’s ok, if that’s what Eurovision is becoming and that’s what the people like, but I would love to see future songs from Germany that are more representative of the German population so that I see some hope that corporate desire for victory isn’t the only compelling hand that’s turning the wheel of human progress.

Sources:

http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/13830

Raykoff, Ivan. “Camping on the borders of Europe” from A Song for Europe.

The decision to choose the song internally was made to attract performers of international acclaim, according to an ARD staff member.

The three different finals of Eurovision 2009 will be broadcast on three different channels in Germany. The first semi-final (the one that Germany is allowed to vote in) will be broadcast on Phoenix, the second will be broadcast on NDR, and the third will be broadcast on ARD. Phoenix is a public channel that airs a lot of documentaries and news shows but by airing it on this channel, more people (especially in Southern Germany) will be able to watch it. Germany’s Eurovision committee really seems to want more people to watch this year.

A few days before the final, Spanish national broadcast TVE will air a special show intended to be a “homage to the ESC” that will feature the Big 4 entries as well as the entries of Andorra and Greece for this year. Soraya, Spain’s performer, will host.

Sources:
http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/13641
http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/13707
http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/12704

“Miss Kiss Kiss Bang” is all about the flash, glitter, glitz and bang of the big band sound. Traditional instruments (horns, bass, drums and Alex C. on the keys) are played to the beat of a bouncy 4/4, and syncopations/off beat rhythms abound.

In no way whatsoever do the lyrics to “Miss Kiss Kiss Bang,” posted at the end of this post, make me extra-proud to call myself a member of the human race. I’m not sure whoever wrote them even got all of the words right, and they’re not super complex, to say the least. But the nonsense syllables are somewhat reminiscent of U.S. jazz and swing styles of singing in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s and might not just nonsense – I think they serve a stylistic function of showing off the singer’s sexy voice and the song’s element of call and response that Alex C. might have copied from other big band songs.

The video for “Miss Kiss Kiss Bang” shows Alex Swings Oscar Sings! crossing Europe and images of newspapers with headlines that imply that Germany is really trying to conquer Europe with this song, such as “Miss Kiss Kiss Bang No. 1″ and “Alex Swings Oscar Sings! Rocks Russia.”  The band does choreography along with the dancers in both the live and pre-recorded videos, which focus a lot on sex (Oscar has his shirt halfway open for the entire pre-recorded video). The song also seems extremely male-dominated – all of the singers are male, and though the song seems to be about a woman’s power over a man, there are one or two images that seem to emphasize a man getting to feel up a women.

(Hey Miss Kiss, let us dance)
Verse 1
Mrs Kiss Kiss Bang, she’s not a fool
Extraordinary and oh so cool
When I feel the touch of her sweet lips
I know this is a devil’s kiss
She sets my soul on fire with no return
Oh baby, just burn, burn, burn
And our faith went like Mr and Mrs Right
So I'll give you my heart tonight

Chorus
Miss Kiss Kiss Bang, come and let us sing
Miss Kiss Kiss Bang, now let us swing
Shake your sweet, sweet, sweet little thing
Mrs Kiss Kiss Bang, come let us swing

Verse 2
When I look into her eyes the flames grow higher
I know this is a kiss of fire
Imagination feeds my hungry heart
Give me your love before we part
And I’m on the way of no return
Ooh baby, just burn, burn, burn
And our faith went like Mr and Mrs Right
So I’ll give you my heart tonight

Chorus
Miss Kiss Kiss Bang, come and let us sing
Miss Kiss Kiss Bang, now let us swing
Shake your sweet, sweet, sweet little thing
Mrs Kiss, come on and let us sing

Do the he-de hi-ho
(Sing he-de hi-ho)
Do the he-de hi hey
(Sing he-de hi hey)
Do the dip dip ded-de
(Sing dip dip ded-de)
Do the skiddly skiddly bo
(Sing skiddly skiddly bo)

Now do the gucci bang bang
(Sing gucci bang bang)
Do the skiddly buffely boodely bump
(Sing skiddly buffely boodely bump)
Do the oh
(Sing oh)
Mrs Kiss, you are my everything tonight

Now shake your sweet, sweet sexy thing

Chorus
Miss Kiss Kiss Bang, come and let us sing
Miss Kiss Kiss Bang, Miss Kiss Kiss Bang
Miss Kiss Kiss Bang, now let us swing
Miss Kiss Kiss Bang, Miss Kiss Kiss Bang

You are my queen and I’m your king
(Miss Kiss Kiss Bang, Miss Kiss Kiss Bang)
Shake your sweet, sweet thing
Do the ring ding ding
Mrs Kiss, come on and let us sing

Do the he-de hi-ho
(Sing he-de hi-ho)
Do the he-de hi hey
(Sing he-de hi hey)
Mrs Kiss Kiss Bang
Come let us swing!!

(Miss Kiss)

This year’s entry is “Miss Kiss Kiss Bang,” performed by a duo (backed up by a huge brass band) billing themselves as “Alex Swings Oscar Sings!”. (http://www.alexswingsoscarsings.com)

Alex Christensen, or Alex C., composed the music and wrote the lyrics. He has composed and produced a lot of techno and dance music. One of the most famous songs that Alex has produced is ATC’s significantly catchy “Around the World (La La La La La)” which hit the top of the Top 40 charts in 2000.

He has also produced for a long list of artists such as NSync, Marky Mark, and his own dance project U96. According to eurovision.tv, Alex’s “combination of German text and Eurodance music is a force to be reckoned with in the music industry,” though he seems to have abandoned that combination while representing Germany in Eurovision this year. Alex submitted a song Doktorspiele (Playing Doctor) which is currently really popular all over Europe but was rejected by the German final selection jury because of its explicit lyrics. Though the composer was upset that his piece was rejected for the 2008 finals, he was willing to try again in 2009.

The singer, Oscar Loya, was born in Baja California as the youngest of five children and moved to New York at 24 where he was discovered as an acting, singing, and dancing talent. (His tap dancing is featured in the video for Miss Kiss Kiss Bang and will probably play a substantial part in Germany’s performance in the semifinals.) He has gotten to perform all over the world and is currently working on a solo album in Munich.

I can’t seem to find too much information on the individual political views of Germany’s performers; however, it is interesting to note that the song was an “internal choice” this year for the first time in more than 10 years. Since 1996 there have been “national finals”, which I think means the song that will represent Germany in Eurovision is chosen by viewers, but this year “Miss Kiss Kiss Bang” was selected by a specially formed jury. The reasons given for this change in selection process, according to the news release on Eurovision.tv, are that Germany did really badly in 2008 (their performers “No Angels” came in last out of 25) and that viewing numbers for the national final have been declining. (Germany hasn’t broken the top 10 since 2004 and the top 5 since 2000, which is probably embarrassing for a member of the Big 4.)

NDR, the broadcasting company that markets Eurovision in Germany, stated that the national selection process would resume as normal next year. Here is the performance of “Miss Kiss Kiss Bang” at Germany’s ECHO awards on February 21st, 2009. (CHECK OUT THE BIG LIPS! Totally ridicuolous…)

Finally, the choice of an American performer to represent Germany is certainly interesting. Alex C. is probably one of Germany’s most savvy global music entrepreneurs and is giving his country a good shot to win, judging by the immense popularity of this song according to comments on YouTube and Eurovision.tv. It’s kind of sad and scary to me to see the commenting public be so enthused by a big band song with lyrics in English that reminds me more of American swing styles then anything I’ve ever known about Germany. Songs like “Ein bisschen frieden” seem much more representative of Germany’s population, and this song just seems like a sellout to try to get Germany higher up in the rankings of the ESC. But more on that later.

Sources:
http://www.eurovision.tv/event/artistdetail?song=24714&event=1482#biography
http://www.eurovision.tv/page/news?id=1898
http://www.eurovision.tv/page/news?id=2148

Germany has participated in Eurovision since the beginning of the contest in 1956. The only year it did not participate was in 1996, when the European Broadcasting Union limited the number of countries in the final from 30 to 23 and Germany’s entry did not get enough points to make the finals. As one of the “Big Four” European countries (along with France, Spain, and the UK), Germany has basically always been automatically qualified to the contest because it is one of the biggest countries in Europe and one of the biggest financial contributors to Eurovision.

Most of the country’s entries were written in German but since 2002 all of the entries have been in English. Germany has only won the contest once, in 1982, with this entry, Ein bisschen frieden (”A Little Bit of Peace”).

The country’s songs have come in second place a number of times. In the past four years, Germany has not broken the top 10, but is hoping to do so this year. There seems to be a pretty balanced mix of male and female performers, though the composers and song writers appear to be mostly male. Several of the composers have two or more Eurovision final songs to their names, including Ralph Siegel and Stefan Raab.

Sources:
http://www.eurovision.tv/page/history/by-country/country?country=
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany_in_the_Eurovision_Song_Contest