Levina from Germany needs to break the country’s Eurovision curse
Germany has not been all too lucky and successful in Eurovision recently. Actually, the country ended up in last place for two years in a row now. You would think they tried their absolute best to not let it happen a third time, right? In their national selection, they chose the young singer Levina to represent them with the uptempo pop song ‘Perfect Life’. Will it be enough to keep them away from the bottom of the scoreboard this year?

I’m sad to report that actually Germany made the same damn mistake for the third year in a row. Nobody wins the Eurovision Song Contest with middle of the road radio pop songs (well maybe only Azerbaijan in 2011, but that was probably the exception to the rule, right?). When Ann Sophie did not receive a single point with the enjoyable soulful pop track ‘Black Smoke’ everyone, including me, reacted surprised, but to be honest, her act did not stand out at all in between the 25 other songs. The same was the case with last year’s Jamie-Lee, who’s ‘Ghost’ was just too bland and forgettable to make an impression.

It feels like Germany is awaiting a similar fate with Levina’s ‘Perfect Life’. It is what they would think of as a ‘safe’ choice, but that does actually make it quite risky, because people might enjoy it, or at least not hate it, but that is not enough for them to pick up the phone and vote. ‘Perfect Life’ has a light dance beat and the intro is one on one copied from David Guetta and Sia’s ‘Titanium’. It however misses all the power and drama that track had going on, resulting in a decent pop song with an OK chorus and predictable lyrics, which might be enough for the background, but not for the Eurovision stage. Levina is a skilled enough vocalist, but she needs a whole lot more charisma to sell this song to the masses. I would say Germany is definitely risking to end up last for the third year in a row.

UPDATE – Review on final performance and result (25th):
The good news for Germany is that they did not finish in the last position for the third year in a row. They only did escape by literally one point though… Levina gave it her all in a visually attractive performance, but vocally she wasn’t her best on Saturday night. To be fair, she could have given the performance of her life and still would have ended up where she did, as ‘Perfect Life’ was doomed to end up at the bottom of the scoreboard. The production sounds way too similar to David Guetta and Sia’s ‘Titanium’, but melodically it misses the same power. Up your game next year please Germany, we know you guys can do it!

Check all Eurovision 2017 reviews: Albania – Armenia – Australia – Austria – Azerbaijan – Belarus – Belgium – Bulgaria – Croatia – Cyprus – Czech Republic – Denmark – Estonia – Finland – France – FYR Macedonia – Georgia – Germany – Greece – Hungary – Iceland – Ireland – Israel – Italy – Latvia – Lithuania – Malta – Moldova – Montenegro – The Netherlands – Norway – Poland – Portugal – Romania – San Marino – Serbia – Slovenia – Spain – Sweden – Switzerland – Ukraine – United Kingdom