Over the past years, Germany has been landing in the last positions at the Eurovision Song Contest. With his song "I don't feel hate," Jendrik Sigwart is the country's new hope.
Germany's Eurovision candidate, Jendrik SigwartImage: Christian Charisius/dpa/picture alliance
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When Jendrik Sigwart found out that he was going to represent Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest, he was grocery shopping. "I'm absolutely thrilled that I'm going to the ESC for Germany this year," the young man beamed, adding he is a huge fan of the song contest. "I always watched it as a child and thought, what a great show, what great people," he said."What inspires me is the diversity. That everyone can be who they want to be, that everyone can also be crazy."
Perhaps the 26-year-old from Hamburg is a bit crazy, too. He is certainly a cheerful guy. At the ESC in Rotterdam, he will sing a song he composed called "I don't feel hate (I just feel sorry)" — his personal strategy on how to deal with insults, bullying and discrimination: to simply rise above it all. "Hate doesn't do any good," he says, adding that anger doesn't change the other person's behavior.
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With a sparkly ukulele
Jendrik will be bringing his beloved ukulele, an instrument he decorated with 4,000 rhinestones, and that he first played his ESC song on. "The ukulele creates a good mood," he says, arguing scientists have found out as much, and he certainly feels that way. With that abundance of optimism, he probably convinced the two ESC juries — 20 music experts on the one panel; 100 die-hard ESC fans on the other — to select him as Germany's candidate.
The ukulele is Sigwart's constant companionImage: Christian Charisius/dpa/picture alliance
The young man has been writing songs for years, and apart from the ukulele, he also plays the piano and violin. He studied musical theater in the German city of Osnabrück and has since been on stage regularly, playing lead roles in musicals including My Fair Lady, Hairspray and Peter Pan.
Old hand on stage
He has plenty of stage experience performing in front of large audiences, a bonus even if it is unlikely the show will have an actual live audience in Rotterdam this year. Last year, to the regret of millions of fans, the show was cancelled altogether because of the pandemic.
Either way, Sigwart is happy his long-cherished dream of an ESC appearance is about to come true.
He composed his song when all musicals were cancelled because of the pandemic. He had a lot of free time, so he produced "How to make a music video" film clips and shared them on TikTok and Instagram.
The clips start with the crucial question: how can you create a clip without money? With the help of friends and family, he created a laundromat setting for his video with used old washing machines. Cake fights also play an essential role — which, unfortunately, will not be allowed in Rotterdam. "After all, we're not allowed to mess up the stage," he laughed.
He couldn't find an email address to apply to the German ESC organizers, so he just hoped that one of them would discover his song entry in social media and invite him, Jendrik Sigwart said at a press conference. That's exactly what happened. The young man from Hamburg was chosen among 153 applicants.
Jendrik Sigwart has sung and danced in many musicalsImage: NDR/dpa/picture alliance
Can't wait to be back on stage
"We are delighted to have an incredibly creative artist bursting with ideas," said Germany's ESC delegation manager, Alexandra Wolfslast. He is incredibly confident at what he does, added Thomas Schreiber, an entertainment expert with the Norddeutscher Rundfunk broadcaster. "He can sing, tap dance, has sensational moves, and is hungry to be on stage."
Will Jendrik convince the foreign juries as well, when artists from 41 countries compete against each other on May 22 under the motto "Open Up"?
In recent years, the German entries have lagged far behind in the public's favor. The last time Germany won the ESC was in 2010, with Lena and her song "Satellite."
It remains to be seen whether Jendrik can follow in her footsteps. He said it doesn't matter that much to him. "I'm not watching the competition and thinking, 'Oh, my God, look how good they are!' — I'm looking forward to being on stage with all these great artists."
Fashion faux pas at the Eurovision Song Contest
Flame dresses, butterfly wings, sequined swim caps and bare feet. At Eurovision, no fashion faux pas is too great. We look back through the past decades at some of the song contest's most questionable fashion moments.
Image: AFP/Getty Images
Verka Serduchka
The Ukrainian comedian and performer dressed in drag, and a futuristic sequined ensemble with a star atop her silver spangled swim cap, during the 2007 contest in Helsinki. Singing the upbeat "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" with her band who wore complementary outfits, she won second place but upset Russian fans — and officials — for apparently singing the lyric "Russia Goodbye."
By today's standards, the stage dress of the British singer Sandie Shaw is rather cute. But in 1967 two things caused minor public outraged. First, the singer wore a mink dress. Second, Shaw performed her song "Puppet On A String" barefoot. Nevertheless, she won. Many have since performed barefoot at the ESC, including the German candidate Levina in 2017. But it didn't help — she was next to last.
Image: picture-alliance/United Archives/TopFoto
Abba
What look to us today like a collection of damaged Mardi Gras costumes was considered state-of-the-art style in the 1970s. Swedish pop band Abba scored points with these daring combinations of velvet, polyester and platform boots. Their song "Waterloo" won the contest in 1974 — and thus began one of the most successful careers in pop music history.
Image: AFP/Getty Images/O. Lindeborg
Nicole
The 80s were the decade of big hair, shoulder pads and bright colors. Not so with Nicole. In 1982, in the British spa town of Harrogate, the German contestant seated herself with her guitar in a brave black dress with a white lace collar and chanted "A little peace" before winning the contest — and reaching number one on the British pop charts.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/L. Oy
Guildo Horn
In 1998, Guildo Horn, a long-time Schlager music satirist, performed for Germany in a garish turquoise velvet suit. The sweaty, long-haired contestant sang "Guildo hat euch lieb!" (Guildo loves you!) before tearing off his jacket and scaling a pole on the side of the stage. Horn placed seventh.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/K. Lenz
Dana International
The transgender singer from Israel upstaged Guildo Horn's velvet suit in 1998 with a bolero featuring colorful plumage. With her song "Diva" she made a stand for tolerance and gender fluidity and won the competition. Her black dress with feather sleeves was designed by French fashion icon Jean Paul Gaultier and will be long-remembered by the Eurovision faithful.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Lordi
Many Eurovison fans might have been initially shocked by the appearance of the masked Finnish monster band in 2006. But the fainthearted audience ultimately embraced Lordi's outre horror garb, cheering the ghoulish band on as they easily won the 2006 song contest in Athens with the song "Hard Rock Hallelujah."
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/dpaweb/J. Carstensen
3 + 2
Oslo 2010: At first, the three ladies and two gentlemen from Belarus stood on stage in the standard way and sang their sugary ditty "Butterflies." But suddenly butterfly wings shot out of the backs of the singers; the act of kitsch was punished with second-last place. German contestant Lena won that year — maybe because she wore a rather simple dress.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Cartensen
Aliona Moon
In 2013 in Malmö, Sweden, the Moldavian contestant stood tall in high-tech fashion as she was hoisted onto a pedestal while donning a dress onto which LED lights projected fiery visual montages. Singing her flaming heart out on the epic ballad, "A Million," Aliona Moon's only problem was that she wasn't allowed to move for fear of revealing herself.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Carstensen
Conchita Wurst
In 2014, Austrian singer and drag queen Conchita Wurst stunned the song contest in Copenhagen in a dazzling gold-laced dress set off with the performer's signature beard. The cross-dressing singer triggered some conservatives across Europe after winning Eurovision with the uplifting power ballad "Rise Like A Phoenix." Soon after, the diva featured on the runway at Paris fashion week.
Image: AFP/Getty Images
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This article was translated from German by Dagmar Breitenbach.
