Although the official anouncement of the 15 artists and songs that will participate in the German national final Countdown Grand Prix 2003 is set for 13th January, all finalists will be revealed in tomorrow's edition of Germany's leading tabloid newspaper Bild, as esctoday.com reader Marco Schiffer has informed us.
According to Bild, the Polish band Ich Troje, who will also participate in the national final of their own country with the same song, will appear in Kiel at March 7th. However, German final rules mean that the song would be made public in Poland before it's permitted in Germany, so technicalities may be encountered.
The competition is going to be very international: there are singers from Canada, Iceland, Italy and the USA.
As another German tabloid paper, Express, also states, Ralph Siegel – mastermind of many German entries – has written a song named 'Let's get happy' for this year's final, which will be performed by Lou (picture) – the female singer who also sang Siegel's 'Happy Birthday Party' back in 2000, where she came third in the preselection. Asked what she thinks of Corinna May's disappointing result last year, she answered: “I don't care”.
Another participant with experience in German finals is the Munich based band Tagträumer (Daydreamer). For this occasion, they have recruited a Turkish-born female lead singer. Their song 'Living in a perferct world' is described as a “world peace hymn”. Just as last year, there will be a Christian popband in the national final, named Beatbetrieb (beat company).
Three participants, who won their places through German newspapers, are already known: Der Junge mit der Gitarre for FAZ, Senait for taz and satirist Elmar Brandt, imitating the German chancellor Gerd Schröder, for Bild. His song will be called 'Alles wird gut' ('Everything is coming up rosy').
The full list looks like this:
Elmar Brandt – Alles wird gut
Tagträumer – Living in a perfect world
Ich Troje – Keine Grenzen
Senait – Herz aus Eis
Der Junge mit der Gitarre – Die Seite wo die Sonne scheint
Lou – Let's get happy
Beatbetrieb
Isgaard
Vibe
Charlemaine
Freistil
Lovecrush
Elya
Sascha Pierro
Joachim Deutschland.
