Germany is the only country to have entered
every Eurovision Song Contest since the competition began back in
1956. Unfortunatly, the German entry failed to get through the
pre-selection process introduced for one year in 1996, but
otherwise they have competed at all the Eurovision finals. Interest
in the competition remains high and in 2006, both the German entry
by Texas Lightning and the Eurovision winner "Hard Rock
Hallelujah" by Lordi were major chart hits.
This year German television channel NDR decided
to repeat the selection process which they had used twelve months
previously and invited just three artists to perform entries in the
national final staged in Hambury on March 8th.
The hot favourite of the three songs, and the
only one in English was "Even Heaven Cries" sung by the
female trio Monrose, which had just won the latest series of the
"posters" television casting show. However in one of the
biggest surprises in any Eurovision selection show the song which
the German public chose to send to Helsinki, was the swing style
"Frauen Regier'n Die Welt" (Women Rule The
World" sing by Roger Cicero. While no results were published,
it is believed that the song won by a considerable margin, which
is a bit surprising considering that this is the first time since
2001 that the Germans have sent a song in their native language.
Roger Cicero was born on July 6th 1970. His
father, was a famous jazz pianist in the 1970s in Europe. His
mother was a dancer at the opera, but was unable to continue her
career because of a broken toe. Musicians, singers and dancers
were constant guests at home and the legendary Josephine Baker
cuddled him on her lap.
After rejecting the piano, at the age of ten he discovered the guitar and
on long car trips father and son sang songs together favoured
those by Gilbert O'Sullivan, Errol Garner, Stevie Wonder and
Manhattan Transfer and Roger's early musical taste developed in
this way.
At just twelve years old he made his first
stage appearance and by sixteen he had his first TV shows with
Horst Jankowski and the RIAS dance orchestra. After leaving school
he underwent musical training: first of all song, piano and guitar
at the Hohner conservatoire in Trossingen and in 1991 he studied
music at the School of the Arts in Hilversum, majoring in jazz
singing.
With his club appearances he not only financed
his life in the Netherlands but also developed into a charismatic
entertainer. Back in Germany he worked first with the Soullounge
group, later on issuing his first CD under his own name and that
of the After Hours ensamble. Other jazz CDs followed and Roger was
praised by the critics, both for the CDs and for his live
performances.
Finally, the meeting with songwriters and
producers Frank Ramond and Mathias Hass led to his jazz-oriented
path curving sharply upwards commercially. With this team he was
able to realise a long-held dream: to record a CD with swing music
and contemporary German lyrics. The album was called "Männersachen"
(Male Things) and hit reached #3 in the German charts and achieved
Platinum sales.
As well as becoming a major recording star,
Roger Cicero remains a hugely successful live performer. With his eleven piece band, he is currently taking part in a major tour of
Germany and many of the 33 concerts sold out.
Roger is being celebrated by enthusiastic audiences and is enjoying the success to the
full and with his German Eurovision entry, he has scored his first
Top 10 hit single. The song "Frauen Regier'n Die Welt"
which is a tale of the way men can be manipulated by women was
wriiten and composed by Roger's current songwriting team of Frank Ramond
and Matthias Hass.
Composer Frank Ramond was born April 7th 1964 in Istanbul.
He is a songwriter and composer mainly for pop and commercial music in
the German language as well as music for children and musical comedy.
He also translates and adapts songs from English and French into German.
He is also a music producer with his own recording studio.
Lyricist Matthias Hass was born in 1967 in Hamburg.
He is a successful songwriter, composer, producer and arranger and
the winner of several awards, including "Echo 2005" and the "Goldene Stimmgabel 2005 und 2006".
He also won a Grammy in 2001.
Touring commitments within Germany have limited
any international promotion for Roger Cicero and while the song
continues to be a hit in Germany, neither internet polls or the
bookmakers see it as a serious challenger for victory in Helsinki.
Two rather unusal decisions by the German
broadcaster may also not have helped their cause. They chose to
use the performance from the national final as their preview
video, when a very slick promotional video was available and after
getting a "wildcard" in the draw for the running order,
Germany chose position #16, apparently believing that the German
audience were not prepared to stay tuned in for their entry until
the end of the show.
In a late change of mind, it has been decide to
perform the last verse of the song in English in Helsinki.
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GERMANY @ EUROVISION