All songs for the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 have been selected. During the weeks between the national final season and the actual Eurovision Song Contest, we will introduce all 43 entries in random order. We are half way through and part twenty-nine of the series is dedicated to the German entry.

Basic information

Performer:	Lena
Song:	Taken by a stranger
Language:	English
Music:	Gus Seyffert, Nicole Morier, Monica Birkenes
Lyrics:	Gus Seyffert, Nicole Morier, Monica Birkenes
Draw:	16th in the final

The song

Taken by a stranger is a mid-tempo electronic pop song. The lyrics tell about a woman who is fascinated by a mysterious stranger and tries to get hold of him:

Hey mind if i take this chair?

He drops a pause
She looks annoyed
But she's so mean he thinks she has to be the one
Taken by a stranger
Stranger things are starting to begin

The performer

Lena Meyer-Landrut had already appeared as an actress in various minor TV prodcutions when she entered Unser Star für Oslo, the talent search to determine the German representative in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. She won the national final after Satellite had been chosen the song to be performed by her out of the three she presented in case she wins. The song became an instant hit eventually being certified double platinum. Her debut album reached number one as well. In Oslo, she could win the whole Eurovision Song Contest. Aterwards, the winning song reached the top spot in the charts of Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway. It was also a top ten hit in various other countries.

Lena was chosen to represent Germany again the Eurovision Song Contest on homeground. She performed all 12 songs of her second album Good news in the TV show Unser Song für Deutschland and in the final, Taken by a stranger was chosen for Düsseldorf. The song later reached number two on the single charts as well as number 32 in Austria and number 45 in Switzerland. The album Good news went on to becaome her second number one album on homeground.

The songwriters

Taken by a stranger was written by Gus Seyffert, Nicole Morier and Monica Birkenes. US songwriter Gus Seyffert has mainly worked with indie pop acts such as Priscilla Ahn and The Bird and the Bee so far. Nicole Morier co-wrote a couple of songs for Britney Spear's last two studio albums and she also worked with singers such as Tom Jones and Aeroplane.

The national selection

Lena was chosen internally to represent Germany a second time in the Eurovision Song Contest. In the TV show Unser Song für Deutschland, she performed 12 songs in two semi finals and six of them moved forward to the final. The winning song was chosen in two rounds of voting with the first round selecting the top two.

Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest

Germany took part in the first edition of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1956 and has submitted and entry every year since, but was eliminated during the internal semi final in 1996. However, it remains the country with the most participations. The first victory came in 1982 and it took until last year that Germany won again.

Statistics

This will be Germany's 55th participation in the Eurovision Song Contest. For the 29th time the country is represented by a female solo performer. Lena Meyer-Landrut is the third singer to represent Germany twice in a row. The first one was Margot Hielscher in 1957 & 1958 and the second one was Katja Ebstein in 1970 & 1971. She is also the third winner to return right after her victory. The others were Lys Assia in 1957 (finishing eighth out of ten) and Corry Brokken in 1958 (finishing equal last). Besides, it will be the eighth in 13 times since the abolishment of the language rule in 1999 that the German entry is performed entirely in English.

Taken by a stranger is the 16th song to be performed in the final. Germany was also drawn to that position in 2007 (finishing 19th) and one spot later in 2005 (finishing last) and 2009 (finishing 20th).

Wir wünschen Lena und Deutschland viel Glück und eine gute Platzierung in Düsseldorf!

Videos

The preview video:

Winning performance in 2010:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qnsZgQe1tU

Due to the youtube policy of Brainpool Media, we cannot feature any more videos here. You can find all Unser Song für Deutschland performances here.

Tomorrow, we will take a look at the Georgian entry.

Previous parts of the series:

1. Estonia
2. Italy
3. Croatia
4. Slovakia
5. Lithuania
6. Finland
7. Switzerland
   
8. Ukraine
9. Norway
10. Moldova
11. Belgium
12. Azerbaijan
13. Ireland
14. Portugal
    
15. Austria
16. Latvia
17. France
18. Bosnia & Herzegovina
19. Romania
20. Sweden
21. Bulgaria
22. Armenia
23. Denmark
24. Cyprus
25. Spain
    
26. Belarus
27. San Marino
28. Malta