All songs for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 have been selected. During the weeks between the national final season and the actual Eurovision Song Contest, we will introduce all 39 entries in random order. Part thirty-seven of the series is dedicated to the German entry.
Basic information
| Performer: | Lena |
| Song: | Satellite |
| Language: | English |
| Music: | Julie Frost, John Gordon |
| Lyrics: | Julie Frost, John Gordon |
| Draw: | 22nd in the final |
The song
Satellite is a mid-tempo/up-tempo pop song described as "bubbly", "pretty easy and sweet", "with sweetful lyrics and three chords" by songwriter John Gordon. Writer Julie Frost explained that the lyrics are about "all the crazy hidden things a girl does and feels when she is in love. A man can make her feel everything at a time, joyful but also tortured and helpless.":
Love you know I'd fight for you
I left on the porch light for you
Whether you are sweet or cool
I'm gonna love you either way…
Love, oh, love
I gotta tell you how I feel about you
Cause I, oh, I
Can't go a minute without your love
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. Already after her first performance, she received much media attention and she was widely considered to be the top favourite throughout the whole show. Although she performed mainly unknown songs, most of their original versions managed to enter the German single charts based on downloads only after the performances, most notably My same by Adele (no. 61) and Mr. Cruiosity by Jason Mraz (no. 44). Lena 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.
Richt after the national final, her three national final entries Satellite, Bee and Love me reached the top three in the biggest download portals in Germany. The song was highly popular and sold more downloads than any other song ever in Germany with in week and was eligible to be certified gold after the first week. Therefore, it also reached the top of the German single charts where it stayed for five consecutive weeks. The other entries Bee and Love me peaked at number three and four respectively making Lena Meyer-Landrut the first artist ever to have three songs in the top five at the same time. Furthermore, Satellite peaked at number two both in Switzerland and Austria.
On 7th May, the debut album My cassette player will be released under her first name Lena only. Besides the three national final entries, it also features cover versions of My same and Mr. Curiosity. Based on pre-sales, the regular version and the deluxe version of the album are currently at number four and number five on the amazon.de sales charts. Meanwhile, Satellite is eligible to be certified platinum having been sold more than 300,000 times.
The songwriters
The German entry was written by Julie Frost and John Gordon. Julie Frost is a US singer-songwriter from Chicago. Her first album The wave was released in 2002. John Gordon is a Danish songwriter and record producer who has worked with acts like Michael Learns to Rock, Michelle Hunziker and German Pop Idol runner-ups Fady Maalouf and Mike Leon Grosch. Some sources credit the lyrics of the song to Julie Frost alone but the official statement says that both worked on the music and the lyrics.
The national selection
The German national selection was a collaboration between public broadcaster NDR and private channel Pro7. The talent search like show began with 20 contestants who were reduced to two finalists over seven shows. In the final, the two remaining singers Jennifer Braun and Lena-Meyer Landrut performed both the same two songs and an individual song. Televoting then chose the favourite song for every artist before the winner was determined in a second round of voting.
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 only victory to date came in 1982, but Germany also finished second four times and third five times. The last top ten placing to date was achieved in 2004.
Wir wünschen Deutschland und Lena viel Glück und eine gute Platzierung in Oslo!
Videos
The preview video:
Due to the youtube policy of Brainpool Media, we cannot feature any more videos here. You can find all Unser Star für Oslo performances here.
Tomorrow, we will take a look at the Turkish entry.
Previous parts of this series:
- Ireland
- Belarus
- Albania
- Denmark
- Russia
- Bulgaria
- Switzerland
- FYR Macedonia
- Armenia
- Spain
- Poland
- Croatia
- Finland
- Greece
- Ukraine
- Lithuania
- Belgium
- Norway
- Portugal
- Moldova
- The Netherlands
- The United Kingdom
- Latvia
- Serbia
- France
- Slovenia
- Azerbaijan
- Bosnia & Herzegovina
- Georgia
- Romania
- Sweden
- Israel
- Estonia
- Cyprus
- Slovakia
- Iceland
