What hasn't Germany tried yet in an effort to succeed at the Eurovision Song Contest? Take a look back at past decades, and you'll see there's no clear recipe for success.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. Pedersen
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One victory, many defeats: German ESC contestants from 2007-2017
What's Elaiza up to these days? Are No Angels still around? Who was Alex Swings Oscar Sings? How did Lena Meyer-Landrut rank in her second ESC performance? Get all the answers right here.
Image: Walter Glöckle/Sony Music
2007: Roger Cicero in Helsinki
The German-language jazz-swing song "Frauen regier'n die Welt" (Women Rule the World) and a big band were what Cicero took to the ESC. Laid back and ironic, the song didn't do too well. Roger was no newcomer to show business, but he was to the ESC, and he placed 19th. That didn't impair the star's career back home though. Cicero unexpectedly died in March 2016 and is still mourned by his fans.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/J. Carstensen
2008: No Angels in Belgrad
No Angels was the first girl band to win a German television casting show. The very successful group sold millions of CDs and scored four No. 1 hits. Parting ways after three years, the girls later tried a comeback with lukewarm results. They placed their bets on an ESC win, but "Disappear" landed third-to-last. The evening went down in German ESC history as the "embarrassment in Belgrade."
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Carstensen
2009: Alex Swings Oscar Sings & Dita von Teese in Moscow
The song "Miss Kiss Kiss Bang" was supposed to make amends for the previous year's debacle. Beau Oscar Loya was sent onstage shirtless, while songwriter Alex Christensen sat at the piano. The high point of the act was burlesque dancer Dita von Teese, stretching lasciviously on a sofa and yielding her whip to make the singer dance. The gimmick fizzled; the song placed 20th.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/Dmitry Kostyukov
2010: Lena in Oslo
Now it was TV multi-talent and producer Stefan Raab's turn. Having successfully contended at the ESC years earlier, he organized an elaborate television casting show in which the energetic young singer Lena Meyer-Landrut emerged victorious. With her song "Satellite," she enchanted the entire ESC audience. A decisive victory - and Germany finally snapped out of its Eurovision doldrums.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/G. Kallestad
2011: Lena in Dusseldorf
There was no alternative to this girl, so in a daring experiment, Lena was sent back into the fray the following year. But she'd changed meanwhile. Now a superstar in Germany, there was little left of her perkiness and quirky English in her reserved rendition of the song "Taken by a Stranger." Yet even then, she placed a respectable 10th.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/J. Carstensen
2012: Roman Lob in Baku
The pleasant auto mechanic Roman Lob and his pop ballad "Standing Still" took a respectable eighth place at the ESC. Back home, some people grumbled, not knowing at that point to what depths German ESC contestants were to sink. Lob went on to very successfully sing in the musical revue "The One" in the Friedrichstadt Palace in Berlin, with stage decoration by Jean Paul Gaultier.
Image: dapd
2013: Cascada in Malmö
Cascada was an attempt to replicate the success of the previous year's winner, Loreen of Sweden - and "Glorious" did sound a lot like the winning song of 2012. But many ESC watchers wondered: Why a bad copy of a good idea? Natalie Horler of Cascada placed 21st. Cascada, incidentally, is one of the world's most successful dance acts and delivers the song for the 2017 Ice Hockey world championship.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/J. Henriksson
2014: Elaiza in Copenhagen
After the famous dance act Cascada flopped in 2013, the pendulum swung back to an unknown band. In "Is It Right," the female trio Elaiza brought a bit of folk, some pop and a smidgen of ethno into play. Not a bad concept for an ESC entry? Wrong again: They ranked 18th. The ladies didn't give up though. They continue to release albums with music they call neo folk.
Image: AFP/Getty Images
2015: Ann Sophie in Vienna
Lots of body movement and a mighty voice. Add self-discipline and a great stage presence. With Ann Sophie, nothing could go wrong, could it? But that song! Nobody remembers "Black Smoke" anymore. Earning a sensational zero points, Ann Sophie ranked last - a status she shared with host country Austria.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Stratenschulte
2016: Jamie-Lee in Stockholm
Another very young, unknown act: 18-year-old Jamie-Lee, clad as a manga figure, sang the song "Ghost" in a dreamy stage landscape. Here, at the latest, they might have asked why German ESC contenders get such boring songs. Jamie-Lee's sweet performance was of no help. Once again, it was bottom of the heap for Germany.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. Pedersen
2017: Levina in Kyiv
Traumatized German Eurovision fans had placed all their hopes in Levina. After the German nationals in February, she went on an ongoing tour of ESC participating countries and made a very positive impression everywhere: She's congenial, poised, authentic and can really sing. Yet the deception was huge, once again. She only came in second-to-last with "Perfect Life."
Image: Walter Glöckle/Sony Music
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The grand era of German Schlager - folk pop - is long past, as is the heyday of hit manufacturer Ralph Siegel. The composer and producer equipped several German ESC candidates with songs, and many of them scored well to superb. Siegel's biggest success was the ESC victory with Nicole and "Ein bisschen Frieden" (1982). But the longer Siegel kept at it, the worse the results - until he was finally bumped aside.
Ralph Siegel gets competition from Stefan Raab
TV entertainer Stefan Raab first intervened in 1998. Having placed a number of wacky songs in the charts, he wrote "Guildo hat euch lieb" (Guildo Loves You) under the pseudonym Alf Igel (!) for a certain German singer by the name of Guildo Horn, a freak in a flouncy shirt and silken cloak, long, unwashed locks and a band that named itself The Orthopedic Stockings.
Guildo Horn performed at the ESC in Birmingham, and his ridiculously harmless song took seventh place. Ralph Siegel was humiliated.
Gaga rather than Schlager: Guildo Horn brings a gust of fresh (?) air in 1998 Image: picture-alliance/dpa/K. Lenz
A year later, he was back in charge though. With his multi-cultural group Sürpriz, he scored third place and showed everybody what he could still do.
But 2000 was another Stefan Raab year. This time, he wasn't in the background, but front and center, sporting a golden glittery suit and another corny song. "Wadde hadde dudde da?" made it to fifth place.
Wadde hadde dudde da? Stefan Raab with his ESC entry in 2000Image: picture-alliance/dpa/I. Wagner
ESC candidates go through casting show rigamarole
Raab was also the one to come up with a new concept for the German nationals in 2004: a casting show where completely unknown singers vied for the top honor.
With participation of a jury assembled by Raab, the audience chose singer Max Mutzke, a modest guy with a wonderful soul voice and a soul ballad composed by Raab that is still remembered today. Unfortunately, Mutzke only made it to number eight.
In 2010, Lena sing's Germany's way to ESC heavenImage: Getty Images/R. Klatt
Germany finally hits bullseye with Lena
The show "Unser Star für Oslo" (Our Star for Oslo) in 2010 was Raab's greatest coup. In eight televized events, 20 contestants had to prove their game.
In the end, Lena Meyer-Landrut, just 17 years old, convinced both viewers and the jury. Then, in Oslo she scored a landslide victory for Germany, the first time the country had won since Nicole had back in 1982.
Lena became a pop star and still is one today. Her second entry as ESC candidate took her to 10th place in 2011. With that, Stefan Raab had achieved his personal goal and bade farewell to the song contest.
One retired, the other restless
He re-emerged in 2017 though, if only in the background: Raab's company was the producer of the German national competition. It was won by Levina, a talented singer of almost uncanny professionalism. One might have wished her a better song though, maybe one composed by Stefan Raab. But he's staying in retirement.
ESC-crazy bedrock Schlager artist: Ralph SiegelImage: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Carstensen
Ralph Siegel, meanwhile, has been churning out hits for contenders from the tiny country of San Marino. Whomever he writes for, they seldom make it past the semifinals, however.
In 2017 he's sending the duo Valentina Monetta and Jimmie Wilson to Kyiv. It's the music dinosaur's 25th entry in 45 years. And that's how his songs sound, too - not quite up to date.
