ESC participation: stigma or starting shot for a testimonial career?

After the decision in favor of Cascada as the German contribution to this year’s ESC, the debate is boiling. The group embarrassed, the song copied. For Cascada this means one thing above all: attention. But the careers of past ESC participants show that the stamp song contest can be one thing above all: extremely obstructive.

By Johannes Steger

When the TV audience voted for Cascada in the ESC preliminary decision last Thursday, a storm of indignation flared up in the social networks Twitter and Facebook. With the hashtags #ESC, #usfm (our star for Malmö) and #Cascada, many users commented the choice as embarrassing. Many even recognized the song “Glorious” as a copy of last year’s Swedish winner “Euphoria”. After the Bild newspaper took up the allegation, the NDR finally announced that it would subject the song to an examination. The media interest in Cascada is a foretaste of the time around the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö, Sweden, in May. The dance group shouldn’t expect too much from participating anyway: for many of their ESC predecessors, the success ended shortly after the points were awarded. As a testimonial, they could at least make a career.

In 1982 pop singer Nicole won the title for Germany at the ESC for the first time, which was still called Grand Prix. Her hit “A Bit of Peace” became her trademark, which she could never shed. Although she still publishes hit songs to this day, she was unable to build on the success of that time. And as a testimonial, the engagements remain rare: in 2012 she becomes an ambassador for the Saar-Hunsrück Nature Park.

Only seventh place, but a little longer success had pop singer Guildo Horn. His song “Guildo hat sich lieb”, written by Stefan Raab, made it to number four in the German charts. His fondness for nut corners and his bizarre demeanor even gave the hit bard a job as a testimonial for Ferrero’s Giotto. A film of his own followed later. But whether that is owed to the Grand Prix. Is questionable. Guido Horn was already known in Germany beforehand. But it was quiet around Horn. It wasn’t until 2007 that he could be seen again on RTL’s Let’s Dance.

Guildo Horn for Giotto:

Other German participants disappeared as quickly as they came. Around Gracia or Atlantis 2000 it got very quiet very quickly.

Beneficiaries of the song competition

Only for Lena was the Eurovision Song Contest the starting signal for an enduring career: With her song “Satellite”, she not only won the competition in 2010, but also topped the iTunes charts in over 11 countries. She was also able to assert herself as a testimonial: Lena was a guest brand ambassador for Opel, and the Hanoverian is currently promoting the new edition of the cult toy Furby.

The former ESC winner also trumps vocally: her album “Stardust” recently achieved gold status and the Germany tour will begin in April. The success is no coincidence, as the singer recognized the danger of the song contest early on and prescribed a longer period of abstinence from the stage. For many singers, the ESC is the only unique selling point – once the contest is over, it is lost and becomes increasingly unimportant. The high level of media attention also quickly leads to oversaturation among viewers. For companies, the participants are at most short-term interesting candidates. Testimonials should, however, be usable over the long term.

However, completely different people benefit from the preliminary decision show, as the current Buzz Monitor shows: “Our Song for Malmö” presenter Ange Engelke is on the up and live stream host Janine Reinhardt is also moving up. Even last year’s participant Roman Lob can look forward to attention once again: as a jury member, he still comes in third in the current ranking.

absatzwirtschaft online and marketing-site.de publish in cooperation with the Berlin marketing service providers CPI Celebrity Performance the celebrity climbers of the past week compared to the previous week. Who is talked about on the web and how much? Who is promoted and who is relegated? The buzz ranking measures the total number of all articles, contributions and posts and their change (increase / decrease) that could be found on the Internet via corresponding celebrities in the respective period.