Why Change a Winning Recipe?

Germany: Lena Meyer Landrut - Taken by a Stranger

Immediately after Lena won last year in Oslo, it was decided that she would represent Germany at home in Düsseldorf. Why look for someone else when everybody seems to be loving Lena? This girl has a charming personality and a cute voice, she’s the Lily Allen of Germany and it was refreshing to see someone who was just being herself on the ESC stage. Many countries have won ESC two years in a row (Ireland, Israel, Spain etc.), but nobody has ever done it with the same artist two years in a row. Could Lena create ESC history?

“Taken by a Stranger” is a quite good song and Lena is looking better than ever, but this song is not nearly as catchy as “Satellite” was. It kind off feels like the song never really starts, you’re waiting for it to take off but it never happens. This slow, melancholic act doesn’t feel right for Lena. Last year she was that happy German girl who bounced around on stage in her own little world, and this years she’s all down and depressed. What happened? Maybe she’s embarrassed about having to represent Germany again, it does sort of feel like a joke, or has the pressure of being a celebrity already worn her out? Did her boyfriend dump her?

I don’t know what happened, but it feels a little cheap that Germany is using the same recipe as last year. I don’t think they’re going to get another win like that. Perhaps it is on purpose; hosting the ESC two years in a row would be mad expensive and just double the work, so I do understand if that’s the idea behind putting Lena out there again. I don’t think she’s going to create ESC history and win it again, but I guess if anybody could do it, it would be Lena - so I can’t write it off completely.