Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Jendrik Sigwart - who replaced Ben Dolic as the internally chosen one for Eurovision 2020 - has released his song and video that represents Germany at the Eurovision song contest 2021. And a jolly little number it is! If Finland gives an angry middle finger to the pandemic year Germany does it with a more joyful way. This said Jendrik's social media videos in the past weeks have been a very useful way to introduce his bubbly funny character and prepare us for the song to come so it wasn't such a chock. Hands up who doesn't feel a bit better after these few minutes of his crazy positivity? Now the big question is: How to bring this alive on stage so people won't take this as another joke entry?

Germany is one of those countries who selected internally last year (Ben Dolic) but didn't want to send him in 2021, too, which is kind of... well, awkward. Now their new choice out there: it's 26-year-old Jendrik Sigwart with his very first self produced song. The ukulele playing guy seems very likable and full of laughter as you can see from his presentation video below. It's good to have a real Eurovision fan taking part who doesn't take it all to seriously. I like him already! You can check out just how excited he is about Eurovision on his Tik Tok here

Czech Republic - Benny Cristo - Kemama What can I say? There are elements I like, but in the end it's a mess. It's also so anonymous it could be from anywhere, anytime. I kinda like it for a while when it plays but besides that it's completely forgettable. This said I would have been interest to see how they would have staged this because I have a feeling this might have worked live in a big arena with audience participating. But would people have taken the effort to vote? Probably not. 4/10 Austria - Vincent Bueno - Alive Shackle bolts! Now that's something you don't hear every year in Eurovision. This is like Czech entry, I kinda like it when it's playing but have hard time remembering otherwise. Vincent does his best Timberlake/Jackson moves and grooves but it really isn't that original or captivating, is it? 5/10 United Kingdom - James Newman - My last breath The best UK entry for a long, long time! I really like his voice and I hope...

If France goes to Eurovision with the usual Swedish songwriters Germany follows suit with Bulgarian-Austrian Boris Milanov and even the singer, 22-year-old Ben Dolic is Slovenian. Makes me wonder..... after all the German and French music industries are among the biggest ones in Europe and yet they can't find local names?  Anuways, Benjamin or Ben Dolic's been around already ten years starting from Slovenia's Got talent in 2009 and has even tried to get to Eurovision back in 2016 as a member of D Base in 2016. Since then he moved to Switzerland with his family and on to Germany where he finished second in The Voice of Germany.  The song is a radio friendly pop tune and what makes the difference is his androgynous voice.