GERMANY

The German Final was held on February 9th at the Köln-Mülheim TV studios in Cologne, hosted by Barbara Schöneberger. There were 5 finalists with 2 songs in the running.  In round one, the finalists performed cover versions with 2 contestants eliminated. In round two, the remaining 3 finalists performed one potential entry and another contestant was eliminated. In round three, the 2 finalists performed a different potential entry. The best two song/singer combinations from rounds 2 & 3 moved forward to a fourth and final round where a winning entry was chosen. In the end with winning act was Levina and her chosen song was "Perfect life".

During the show, the music was performed live by the old Stefan Raab house band The Heavytones. Although a nice touch, this is odd as the performance does not quite replicate the backing track. Levina spends most of the song walking up and down in her tight black trousers and sparkly flesh coloured top which was not every flattering at all. She slightly overdoes it when it comes to her arm movements but this couldbe worked on. The background shows strips, almost like vertical blinds that turn off and on and change colour and tone depending on the part of the song she sings. It is very generic and maybe this is to focus eyes on her but I think they could come up with something a bit more memorable and relevant.

The song starts off with a very strong bassline, reminiscent of “Titanium”. One might say the whole thing is slightly too similar to the David Guetta/Sia song. Her voice is pleasant although at times it feels like it’s slightly over accented. The chorus follows on quite nicely but the first rendition of it has an odd drum beat behind it and the song loses its early momentum. The repetition of the final line also makes you remember the title of the song even more. The song builds well although the ending is a little wet – that said at least it is an actual proper ending.

It must be said that ARD and its subsidiaries had been burned by the national final controversies over the past few years (internal selection then de-selection of Xavier Naidoo, and of course Kummert-gate) having a different kind of process was needed – just not THIS one. The show went on far too long, had too many voting rounds and was kind of unfair on the contestants not even allowed to sing an ESC song. Probably just having 4 of them to start with and getting them to sing both songs would have been enough and lasted 2 hours instead of 3.

This is not a bad song sung by quite a nice girl and I think this is very much an act in progress. Much will change between now and May. First of all we need to get used to listening to the recorded version of the song rather than the live band version. Secondly, she needs a better look – both in terms of styling but also in terms of stage craft, camera angles and engaging with the audience. She needs to stay personally and likeable but also make her movements more fluid and less amateur. Germany are not going to win with this one, however they also won’t come last like in 2015 and 2016… and that might just be enough to keep them happy.

ARTIST - Levina

SONG - Perfect Life

MUSIC - Lindsey Ray, Lindy Robbins, Dave Bassett

LYRICS - Lindsey Ray, Lindy Robbins, Dave Bassett