The German act and song was chosen on February16th during the show "Das deutsche Finale". Eight songs were chosen and selected through the normal channels while a ninth spot was reserved for the winner of "Ich will zum ESC!" The winner was selected by a 50/50 combination of votes from an international jury and a televote. Going to Malmö is Isaak performing the song "Always on the run".
Isaak Guderian is from a musical family and learned to play the guitar and piano at an early age. As a teenager her tried his hand at being a street musician which gave him the courage to appear on TV talent show "X Factor". Ten years later he went on to win the show “Show your Talent” which was exclusively filmed online due to pandemic restrictions From this springboard he made his own music which can be found on almost all streaming sites as well as his youtube channel. In particular, the songs “Water to the Seed” and “Impact,” have gained over a million streams on Amazon. One of his most recent songs "Baby Steps" is in collaboration with DJ David Puentez and made it to number one on the iTunes charts.
The staging for this entry was extremely underwhelming. The set was rather dark but the predominant lighting colour was blue; they also used a 3-D effect of buildings and lights coming towards you on the back screen. Isaak was alone on stage throughout and was dressed in rather dark, casual clothing which was not too much of an issue as the stage was so dark. His movement on stage was very gestural and introverted which can look a little awkward. I feel some slightly choreographed moves/armography would help him utilise the space and the cameras better. The song has a very simple structure with a verse-prechorus-chorus compositions, which is followed through twice finishing with a repetitive bridge to the very end. The song overall has a slight rock feel although the prechorus allows for a bit of quiet in order to give some more fire and power to the chorus. Issak has an engaging stage presence as he was able to juggle performing to the crowd, performing down the camera and having moments of introspection during the song too.
The choices available during the national final were not niche enough as a sizable percentage of the songs/acts did not show a lot of personality or extoll much about the German music scene. Although the video screens were utilised well, not many of the acts had extra backing singers, dancers or even any props. Issak was one of these acts who performed alone. Isaak seems to be confident in his ability, has a great personality and a great voice however this in itself is not going to translate to the Eurovision stage as it is. It might be nice to see him on stage with some backing singers as I feel he would interact well with them. Isaak was not seen as one of the front runners to win the national final but he did end up winning both the international jury vote (he was top three in 7 of the 8 juries) and televote which must account for something. Right now, against some of the other acts and songs we know will be in Malmö, this feels extremely safe and it is a good job this song does not need to qualify for the final. However, against some of the acts we know, Isaak's voice is one of the best and this might be something the juries look favourably upon. If Europe is looking for something conventional, well performed and radio friendly - Germany many just have the guy they're looking for.
ARTIST - Isaak
SONG - Always on the run
WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Isaak Guderian, Kevin Lehr, Leo Salminen, Greg Taro
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