It’s taken a while to get to the next Big 5 country but we’ve finally got there and it’s time for – Germany. For a second year in a row there was controversy in their national selection. Last year, the winner of their national final dramatically turned down the opportunity to go to Vienna, so the runner up, Ann Sophie, went instead (scoring nul points and coming last in the final, rather unfairly though I thought). This year, they internally selected someone with a plan to do a national vote on which song he should sing. However the backlash was huge due to some rather unsavoury political and social views that the singer had expressed. So they went back to a regular national final, and the result was Jamie-Lee, the youngest woman performing in the contest.

You’d be forgiven for remembering 18 year old Jamie-Lee more for how she looks and dresses than her actual song – she’s a huge fan of Korean culture and K-Pop and also has a preference for the Japanese Decora kei fashion. She’s hugely popular in Germany of course, though I do wonder what Saturday evening television viewers across the rest of Europe will make of her. The song itself is, well, at risk of disappearing in a Eurovision final I feel and fear and the lingering memory may be of how she looks and dresses. It’s not an offensive song at all, but doesn’t really have any great lift or change in it, it just goes along in the same vein for 3 minutes.

I think Germany may be thinking she’s the next Lena (who won for Germany in 2010, only their second win in the contest) but I suspect that it will be disappointment for the people of Europe’s biggest economy. Maybe I’m wrong and its position in this ranking suggests it will do better, but she’s done no promotion at all outside of Germany in the run up, unlike the rest of the Big 5, so we shall see on final night what happens…

Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest:

First entered: 1956

Appearances (excluding this year): 59

Best result: Winner 1982, 2010

Last year’s result: 27th (last place with nul points)