Elmar Brand, who recently tops the German single charts with his parody on German chancellor Gerhard Schröder called 'Der Steuersong' ('The taxes song'), will take part at the national final Countdown Grand Prix 2003 with another political parody. Germans leading tabloid paper Bild is backing him.

Elmar Brand, 30, started a career as voice-imitator. During the campaign for the last elections in Germany, he scored big sucess with his so-called 'Gerd Show', a radio show where he made fun about both candidates, Germans chancellor Gerhard (Gerd) Schröder (SPD) and his challenger Eduard Stoiber (CSU), speaking both voices. After Schröder has won the elections and raised the taxes afterwards, he released his 'Steuersong', based on Las Ketchup's 'Aserejé'. In Gerhard Schröder's voice, he makes comments about how much fun he's having raising the taxes and taking the money from everybody.

Brand will enter another parody to the German final, again pretenting to be Gerhard Schröder and even using a rubber doll of the German chancellor. In sunday's edition of tabloid Bild, he said: “The people in Germany are complaining more than enough about the chancellor and the taxes already. With my new song I want to show to whole Europe that Germany even has many beautiful aspects.”

Bild already has secured his starting place in the German final. This year, three German newspapers are supplying songs to the preselection.

This Saturday, the alternative Berlin tageszeitung started a lyric contest for their entry. They have published the melody of their entry on a website and are now asking readers to write lyrics to it. Next Saturday, another melody will be published. Lyrics can be submitted through the website until December 24th, the winner of the contest and final entry will be chosen by a jury at January 3rd.

In a recent poll for a German Volksmusik magazine, 32% named singer Stefanie Hertel as their favorite representant. With 22% of the votes, Patrick Lindner (6th in the German final of 1999) came second, followed by German contestants Nicole (1982, Winner) and Guildo Horn (1998, 7th). Stefanie Hertel replied: “I feel flattered. But Grand Prix Eurovision was never a theme for me. On the other hand, one should never say never.”