Germany – Sarah Engles – Fire
Germany and Germans have seemingly gone “fuck it” this year. They’ve finally caught up with the “Panik records” school of thought here by putting in a woman in a skimpy dress literally singing Fuego in English on stage – I mean if imitation is a form of flattery, they’ve nailed this one.
It’s much more than that though. Sarah Engles knows how to sing, she’s an alumnus of a TV talent show and her national final performance shows she knows where the red light is and can hold a tune, which is a major improvement on many of the German entries in the past. Eurovision fan Mr Phil, though, is tired of this kind of song by now. It must surely be the 900th song of it’s type in the contest in the last ten or so years yes?
But then I am also reminded of what I always tell myself, namely that real people won’t remember what Fuego is and will vote, or not, for this on what they are hearing, And what that is, is a chorus that is the simplest of denominators, lyrics in the song that are straight out of the Maltese Rhyming Dictionary and a woman shaking what her mother gave her singing a song that is aimed at straight men and gays in equal measure.
Much as I will decry the simplicity of the lyrics, and they are proper shit at times, it has the potential to be Germany’s best result in years and compared to some of the other rubbish they have entered in recent history, whilst that might be hurdling over a very low bar, history tells us that more often than not songs of this type score heavily. She knows how to sell it, her backing dancers know how to gyrate, the gays know where the phone is…. It’s certainly not a winning combination but as there is no Spain to give us this kind of song, then this should hoover up some votes.
Phil’s score – 6 Points.
