Tag Archives: Ralph Siegel

Afrimusic song contest

AFRI MUSIC SONG CONTEST – 3rd SA registration (Cole van Dais)

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Cole van Dais became the 3rd South African artist to register.  She has indicated that since she is busy with a DUET CD, her songs will all be duets, Euro covers and even with foreign singers. The first one she registered is with Sergey Sysuev from the Ukraine. And they will do the 2017 Eurovision song from San Marino, SPIRIT OF THE NIGHT, originally sung by Valentina Monetta and Jimmie Wilson. It is of course a song composed by German composer Ralph Siegel who has over 100 of his songs covered in South Africa. Afri music song contest is only open to singers outside of AFRICA if they are in duet with someone from Africa and then the song is entered for the country of origin of the African duet partner. But this is another way to involve especially Eurovision singers to be part of this contest and help it grow.

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Chris Roberts

CHRIS ROBERTS

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The day started off with very sad news from Ralph Siegel informing us of the death of CHRIS ROBERTS. Although Chris has never been an entry at Eurovision for Germany, he was well known among many EURO fans who follow German schlager music and songs composed by Ralph Siegel. One of his biggest hits was DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH (of course sang in German and composed by Ralph Siegel). The song was also covered in Danish by one of their most known Eurovision composer KELD HEICK (with his group) and the title is also DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH. In South Africa the song was covered as well and the title DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH was speak although the lyrics are in Afrikaans, and sung in duet form by Carike Keuzenkamp and Johan Stemmet. Chris was at Eurovision as one of a group of 6 singers who represented Luxembourg in 1985 with the song CHILDREN, KINDER, ENFANTS which was also composed by Ralph Siegel

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Covers

DIE ANDER KANT VAN ROEM/THE OTHER SIDE OF FAME

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What has people like Carike Keuzenkamp, Rina Hugo, Janita Claassen, Anneli van Rooyen, Patricia Lewis, Bles Bridges, Ge Korsten, Manuel Escorcio, Fanie de Jager, Jannie Moolman, Andre Schwartz, Guillaume, Tobi Jooste, Cole van Dais, David Fourie, Min Shaw, Groep 2, Amanda Luyt, Andriette Norman, Barbara Ray, Alan Garrity, Romanz, Sonja Herholdt, Sunette Bridges, Jurie Els, Corlea Botha and many more in common? Yes they are all South African recording artists but each one of them has at least COVERED one song originally composed by German composer RALPH SIEGEL. Ralph is the most known Eurovision composer and will be in Kyiv, Ukraine in May 2017 with his 25th Eurovision entry. Ralph has won Eurovision once – in 1982 when Nicole sang his song EIN BISSCHIEN FRIEDEN. The previous 3 years he had been 4th, 2nd and 2nd with his songs. Over the years he has written Eurovision entries for Germany (his home country) but also Luxembourg, Switzerland, Montenegro and San Marino.
Ralph has asked Roy van der Merwe, the president of Eurovision South Africa and the owner of the website ESCCovers, to make him compilation CD’s with his songs by South African artists. Roy has identified 100 such covers he is aware of and it will be recorded on various compilations to be handed to Ralph in Kyiv to celebrate the fact that Ralph is there with his 25th entry and also it is the 25th Eurovision in a row Roy will be attending.
During next week the compilation CD’s will be recorded and at this stage it looks like there will be at least 4 different ones
1 – EIN BISSCHIEN FRIEDEN
As there are 14 covers of this song, they will all appear on one compilation
2 – DIE ANDERKANT VAN ROEM
This is the title of Patricia Lewis’s ralph cover and will feature lesser known covers
3 – ‘N DAG MET RALPH
This comes from the title ‘n Dag met Maria which is the title of a Jurie Els song of Ralph
4 – EK IS BAIE LIEF VIR JOU
This comes from the title of one of the very first Ralph songs covered in South Africa – in the middle 70’s and originally sung by Min Shaw

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Moldova selection

INTERVIEW WITH MARKS & STEFANET

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Because ESC Covers like this duo from the Moldovan selection, we are publishing this interview from ESCKAZ.

Marks & Stefanet – Join Us in the Rain

– Tell us about your contest entry: What is its main message? Whether it was written especially for the preselection? Have you considered any other options?
– Our song was written especially for the contest by “Mister Eurovision” Ralph Siegel. The main and the only message of the song is that only together we can get the power to change our world, to make it clearer, fairer and more beautiful. Allegorically, it sounds like this – in order to live under “the sun” “tomorrow”, “today” we need to join hands together and not to be afraid to step out into the rain. Do not be afraid to say “no”!

– Introduce your creative team working on a song and stage performance? Was anyone of it already connected with Eurovision in the past?
– I, Andrei Stefanet, am a professional musician, I have participated in many international competitions (successfully)) and for several years have participated in the Eurovision Song Contest as a backing vocalist. My partner Mariana Marks is a professional singer, she was born in Ukraine, but for 15 years lives in Germany. Now she is busy working on a new musical “Zeppelin”, in May, it premiers in Berlin. Songs by Ralph Siegel participated in the “Eurovision” 24 times. Many of them have become global hits: for example “Dschinghis Khan” and “Moskau”, which were widely known even in the Soviet Union.

– Tell us more about your stage presentation plans: what do you want to focus the audience’s attention on?
– I think that song presentation should look balanced, so that the visual range do not dominate and do not distract from the substance. Our duo, this is not a dialogue between two lovers, it is a kind of protest, a call to action. We want the audience not only to listen, but to hear! That is why the outfits and the animation in the background – it’s just a seasoning to the product. It is important not to overdo, not to add too much sugar or salt. As M. Gorky said: – Culture is a sense of proportion))

– Why do you think your entry is worthy to represent Moldova at the Eurovision Song Contest? and can you guarantee a certain minimal result at the international competition in case of your victory?
– Today, we live in such an information space in which to surprise someone for 3 Eurovision minutes with folklore gimmicks, dresses to the floor, fire, drums and acrobatic flic- flacs is not even something impossible, but fundamentally naive and ignorant)). Today in fashion are “separate meals”)). Therefore, such a musical “seething” affects directly the viewer vestibular system and therefore creates confusion and discord directly in the stomach)). For a circus one needs to go to the circus, for folklore there are own places as well. Lovers of the colors can easily buy the kaleidoscope. Unfortunately, such phenomena as “Lordi” and “Conchita” just do not have a chance to pass through a sieve Eastern European (not Pavlovian) preselections. Well, of course I can guarantee for us, Moldova and Europe the victory and only the victory. The runner-up is actually the first loser))

Televised stage of the preselection will include one semifinal on 24 February and national final on 25 February. Out of 14 participants only 8 (4 chosen by jury and 4 chosen by televiewers) will qualify to the final.

Find out more info on the Moldova page: http://esckaz.com/2017/mol.htm

AspirinMusik Moldova Eurovision 2017 “Marks & Stefanet” Join Us In The Rain
Moldova Eurovision 2017 “Marks & Stefanet” Join Us In The Rain (Vino cu noi în ploaie) Mary…
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EUROVISION 2003 – RIGA – LATVIA

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Having always wanted to go to the three Baltic states, I was able to see Estonia the previous year and now Latvia was next. Unfortunately it was another country without an embassy in South Africa. And as always, no direct flights. I decided to fly with AUSTRIAN AIRLINES via Vienna to Riga. As there was no daily flights to Vienna from Johannesburg as well as no daily flights from Vienna to Riga, it meant a 48 hour transit in Vienna on the way to Riga. I was not in the mood to spend that much time in an airport lounge and since I had a good penfriend in Vienna, I decided I will get off and stay with him. This meant a visa from Austria (Schengen). Well, what a nightmare. The day before I applied for the visa, a South African woman died on a plane between Johannesburg and Vienna and did not have enough insurance and this got the AUSTRIAN embassy to look at applications for visas in much more detail and require bigger health and medical insurance. But also due to the fact that I was staying with a friend, they wanted to see this person’s Meldesetter – never heard of that before. It took 6 weeks before my visa was issued and I got it the day before I had to depart. The Latvian government (who was not part of Schengen at that time) and the Latvia broadcaster came to my rescue and said I could enter Latvia visa free since I had the BALTIC VISA for 2002 through their embassy in the Netherlands. They would have officials waiting for me the Sunday at the airport and escort me into the country but there is a fee of 20 euro for this service. So arriving there, these people waited for me and I felt like a top VIP being escorted into the country and to my hotel by these people. From that moment, Latvia became my most loved country of Europe – never before a country did this for me, an ordinary SA citizen. Also the Latvian entry for that year, HELLO FROM MARS was so beautiful.

2003 proved to be quite a special year. Latvian TV, like Estonian TV the previous year, gave me also a ticket for the final but since I do not like attending the live shows, I swapped it with an ordinary Latvian citizen in exchange for a Latvian CD. This guy was so excited to be able to attend Eurovision in his home country.

I also had one scary incident. Morten was out for the evening to something (I can’t even remember) and I decided to walk to a shopping center to buy something nice to nibble on. I took a short cut through a tunnel underneath the big road and inside this tunnel was a drug addict who suddenly started shouting at me and began chasing me. I ran and luckily some other people came into the tunnel and shouted at this drug addict to leave me alone. I then discovered that you could be in danger no matter in what country you are.

In the hotel was a guy who carried my luggage up to my room. We got chatting and I discovered he was well educated but not able to find a job in Latvia. I recommended to him to try South Africa as his qualifications were in high demand in South Africa. A year or so later, I heard from him – he was in South Africa and employed at one of the universities in Pretoria.

Norway was back at Eurovision after not qualifying in 2002 and they had Jostein Hasselgard, a 24 year old singer. Originally they thought he had a limited possibility to win the national final but he took the country by storm with his laid-back yet genuine performance and during the tele-voting there was never any doubt that he would be the winner.

Ralph Siegel was again at Eurovision, this time with Lou and “Let’s get happy”.

Russia had t.A.T.u and one of my biggest hates. I refused to attend the press conference and missed out on the promo single. OGAE Norway, however, bought it for me on some auction.

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I don’t think I need to write a lot about the United Kingdom entry “Cry baby” by the duo Jemini. The UK fans really did CRY after this, giving the UK its worth placement at that stage in Eurovision. Now I quite like the song although not a top favourite.

Belgium brought Urban Trad with “Sanomi” in some non existing language and this was another song I hated but did so well on the night.

Sweden brought even more FAME to themselves by sending Fame with “Give me your hart” which still is a classic to me. For some reason (which I cannot recall now) I did not really meet the duo personally.

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And then there was Poland bringing Ich Troje and “Keine grenzen”, 100% the kind of song I like – many language in one. Ich Troje was a totally new name to me but I then discovered especially the lead singer Michal Wisniewski was extremely famous in Poland and I saw all the pictures of him on the covers of various magazines. We were also told at the press conference that they gave something like 300 concerts in crowded stadiums in the past 2 years.

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Ukraine debuted this year and they brought Olexandry with “Hasta la vista”, which I like a lot. I also attended the party organized by Ukraine with the help of Martti Immonen from Finland. This song turned out to be the ONLY Ukraine enter ever to make my top 10.

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A nice touch was that Latvia invited kids from orpanages and such institutions to attend the rehearsals.

Flying back home from Riga, my flight on Austrian airlines to Vienna departed the Monday and guess who sat on the plane next to me? It was Alf Poier, the Austrian singer. He was surprised about my knowledge of Austrian music but remarked that it seems I know only the Schlager side (which of course is true). He was happy with his position at Eurovision.

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Musically 2003 was a fantastic year with no less than 3 songs getting 10 out of 10 from me
Sweden – Give me your love – Fame
Poland – Keine grenzen – Ich Troje
Latvia – Hello from Mars – F L Y

But Eurovision won’t be Eurovision without songs I hate as well and it also brought songs who got 0 out of 10 from me
Russia – He bepb he boncr – t.A.T.u.
Belgium – Sanomi – Urban trad

To read previous years go to esccovers
http://www.esccovers.com/tag/lookingback/

 

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EUROVISION 2002 – TALLINN – ESTONIA

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I hated the 2001 winner from Estonia but was delighted to go there – I have always wanted to go to the three Baltic States but due to politics, South African citizens were not able to travel there until 1995 or so. Now I was able to go to the first one. It was my first Eurovision to a country without an embassy in South Africa and so problems to get the visa. Estonia made a special arrangement for to me to pick up a Baltic visa at the Latvian embassy in De Hague on my stopover there before I flew onto Tallinn.

Estonia also made me feel really special and even gave me a free VIP ticket for the final. I do not really like sitting inside the venue but I did and once the performances were over, I rushed out to follow the voting on the big screen inside the press hall.

In the press hall was free beer as a beer company was one of the sponsors.

We had a wonderful hotel; the people were so special and so hard working. The woman at reception misspelled by surname by writing it as one word instead of three loose words and she said they are not allowed to make such mistakes and I got one night stay in the hotel for FREE. Across the street from our hotel was Stockman, the Finnish chain store and I bought some CD’s there.

Personally I regard Tallinn as one of the best places to stay. We had many invitations to the various embassies and at one embassy (it was the Latvian embassy), Morten and I were the first guests and so we have a long chat with the ambassador. In the old city there were also various parties organised by some of the countries and people sort of jump from one party to the next (I think one night there were three parties at the same time and close to one another).

I predicted Latvia to win after seeing the stunning and surprising performance. It is not one of my favourite songs, but already by then Eurovision moved away from a SONG CONTEST more to a PERFORMANCE CONTEST due to tele-voting. Even 4 days before the final, the Latvian head of delegation wrote in my passport “See you in Riga next year”.

Macedonia had a special promo single packed very interesting. A local singer Jenny Kirsten covered the Estonian entry of that year song and packed her single in a similar way (just more African).

Greece brought Michalis Rakintzis with a song called “S.A.G.A.P.O”. Besides the lovely promo single, Michalis gave me also a full CD

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Spain had high hopes this year – they has a whole selection over several weeks and in the end Rosa with “Europe’s living a celebration” won and came to Tallinn. I was very disappointed with the song, I expected so much better. It was also the biggest group of Spanish fans I had seen at Eurovision.

Ralph Siegel was also back, and this time with “I can’t live without music” by Corinna May who won the selection a few years earlier with a song but was then disqualified. This song was catchy but totally wrongly performed.

Slovenia rocked the boat by sending Sestre with their song “Samo Ljubezen” and we attended a party hosted by them.

Switzerland brought Francine Jordi. I had known her already with especially songs from the Grand prix of Volksmuzik. The song was good but they entered with the French version and I thought the English and German versions were better choices.

Malta nearly won when Ira Losca, while singing “7th wonder” threw star dust during her performance and surprised people.

Denmark brought a strange CD with 20 tracks on – it was recorded live at Martinez Ballroom on 22 January. They thought I would like it since it contains Safri duo with their song BAYA BAYA. To be honest besides Safri duo, I have never heard of any of the 19 other artists in this CD and have never played it as well. But being a collector, it has a spot in my CD collection.

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As the venue was outside the city center, we went there every day in a shuttle bus and all the time we traveled with some delegation and artists and have really great personal contact.

Musically I like the following songs
Israel – Light a candle – Sarit Hadad
Estonia – Runaway – Sahlene
Cyprus – Gimme – ONE
France – Il faut du temps – Sandrine Francois
Malta – 7th wonder – Ira Losco
Switzerland – Dans le jardon de mon ame – Francine Jordi

Interesting is that there were actually no song I hate – a few were just average
United Kingdom – Come back – Jessica Garlick
Russia – Northern girl – Prime minister
Spain – Europe’d living a celebration – Rosa
To read previous years go to esscovers
http://www.esccovers.com/tag/lookingback/

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Eurovision 1999

EUROVISION 1999 – JERUSALEM – ISRAEL

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This was one of the best Eurovisions in many ways. This was the only time ever I had a direct flight to Eurovision. It was also the shortest flight (every other flight to Eurovision took almost 24 hours with lay overs somewhere) and the only time I could visit without a visa. But I had accommodation problems as the travel agent lied to me. Instead of securing me accommodation close to the venue, I was living in a guest house miles away from the venue. The travel agent said I wanted to stay CLOSE to a bus stop to take me to the venue, but my directive was that I want to stay as close as possible so I could walk there. It took almost an hour travelling by bus to Eurovision every day. Also I was totally away from any official hotels, so I was unable to use their transport and so I had to buy a bus ticket daily. I must say the guest house was out of this world, but totally wrong for me who came to Eurovision and wanted to be close to the venue.

Israel gave me my best accreditation ever – made me HEAD OF DELEGATION of SOUTH AFRICA so for the first and only time, I was allowed backstage to speak to the artists in private. They also produced for me a press card so that I was also able to get a pigeonhole. That year I represented the Portuguese radio station RADIO CIDADE.

Morten had a very special flight to Israel. He was on the same plane with all the artists from the Nordic countries. In the same plane were Selma (Iceland), Van Eijk (Norway), Charlotte (Sweden) and Trine and Michael (Denmark). Finland did not qualify for Jerusalem, so they were not there. Carola Haggkvist was also on the plane.

My flight from Johannesburg landed 3 minutes after the plane with the Nordic delegation. Charlotte Nillson spoke to me while we were waiting to go through customs and asked me what I thought of her song. At that stage there was a big debate about whether to sing in Swedish or English since the change of the language rule. I told Charlotte her song, “Take me to your heaven” would be a winner. More countries did televoting and I just knew for those viewers hearing/seeing the song the first time, this will do well. Patricia Lewis from South Africa covered the song and it sold 100 000 copies for her. She impressed the composers so much that they invited her to Stockholm where they produced a full CD for her.

Ralph Siegel was of course also in Jerusalem with Surpriz and their song Reise nach Jerusalem – kudus’e seyahat – it was exactly 20 years since he had been there with Dschinghis khan.

There were a change in rehearsals – Lithuania was suppose to be last on the first day but due to flying in only the next day (to save money), they swapped with another country which I cannot remember now but think it was Estonia.

Austria had a great promotion – their entry was “Reflection” by Bobby Singer and press people were given a disposable camera to take photo’s of Bobby and the person taking the best photo would win a holiday in some Austrian ski resort.

The biggest shock to me was the Friday before the final when the Jewish SUNDAY started and I was stuck 5 kilometers away from my guest house and no public transport and had to walk the distance home. Luckily it was mainly downhill.

Obviously with no transport to go to the venue from the guest house on the Saturday to watch the final from the press center, I stayed in my bed and watched the final on TV.

The entries I like best are
Sweden – Take me to your heaven – Charlotte
Iceland – All out of luck – Selma
Malta – Believe ‘n peace – Times three
Portugal – Conc tudo comecou – Rui Bandeira

And some horrors as well
Lithuania – Strazdas – Aisle
United Kingdom – Say it again – Precious
Spain – Lydia – No quiero escuchar