Last Saturday OGAE Germany – one of the two German fanclubs of the OGAE network – held its annual convention in Munich. The organizers offered a varied programme and managed to bring four Eurovision artists on stage – among them one Eurovision winner and one participant of the 2014 edition in Copenhagen.
OGAE Germany invited to its annual convention which has every year since 2004 been held at the end of January in the Bavarian capital Munich. Again the organizers offered a huge programme that already started at 15:00 CET with an interview of Thomas Schreiber, entertainment chief of the German TV channel NDR and member of the EBU reference group. Mr Schreiber revealed a few more information about the German final and a possible 60-year-jubilee show of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2015.
After the traditional cover song contest host Reinhard Ehret announced a surprise guest – Carolin Reiber. Carolin Reiber presented the German national final in 1979, 1980, 1982 and 1983 and announced the German entry Theater at the 1980 Eurovision Song Contest in 1980. She was welcomed with a huge applause by the fans in the audience that obviously touched her. Beside her on stage two other surpise guests were sitting in the audience – Ralph Siegel, accompanied by his wife Kriemhild and Christian Bruhn, the composer of the German entries Zwei kleine Italiener (1962) and Wunder gibt es immer wieder (1970).
The official programme continued after a break at 20:00 CET with the first artist on stage. Malene Mortensen from Denmark finished surprisingly last at the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 in Tallinn with Tell me who you are. Fortunately the last place did not affect her career. Today she is a very successful jazz singer. She started her programme with the Danish version of her Eurovision entry, Vis mig hvem du er. After that Malene delighted us with an uptempo song, one Danish ballad that she played on the guitar and the song At last that she played on the piano. The last song the very sympathetic and sweet Malene performed was of course Tell me who you are.
Malene was followed by Valentina Monetta on stage who showed that she is into jazz as well and kicked her show off with the jazzy song Una serata bellissima. Valentina continued with a jazz version of The Social Network song and of course her 2013 entry Crisalide (Vola). For the last one she earned such a huge applause that she delivered the original version of The Social Network song as a bonus. Being asked about her song for Copenhagen afterwards Valentina replied that they have not decided about the song yet. The final decision is to be made in the middle of March.
After the two ladies it was time for Sweden on stage. The first Swedish artist to perform was Jan Johansen who started with his 2003 Melodifestivalen entry Let your spirit fly which he performed back then together with Pernilla Wahlgren. On Saturday he had to sing the song on his own, but that did not affect the quality of the song. Let your spirit fly was followed by Ingenmansland from Melodifestivalen 2001 and finally Sista andetaget from Melodifestivalen 2002. The latter was so touching that Malene Mortensen asked Jan to sing the song once again at the end. The highlight of Jan’s performance was certainly Se på mig, his 1995 Eurovision entry. As a bonus Jan put on the original leather jacket that he wore on stage in Dublin. During the years this jacket has become a bit tight, but it still suited him well.
Finally it was time for The Herreys to go on stage. 30 years after their victory in Luxemburg they have certainly become older, but they still manage to deliver a lively performance on stage including the original choreography of Diggi-loo, diggi-ley. The Herreys performed a medley of songs they published during the 80s. In addition to that they sang Michelangelo, a 1975 entry from Melodifestivalen sung by Björn Skifs at that time. For this song they were accompanied by Jan Johansen on stage. They finished their performance of course with their classic Diggi-loo, diggi-ley.
As soon as all artists had left the stage the popular Eurodisco started. Those who were looking for photos or autographs of the artists had the possibility to meet them in another part of the location.
All in all the 2014 convention of OGAE Germany was again a successful event. A big thank you to the organizers and see you in 2015!
You might also like to read:
First five entries in Iceland’s Söngvakeppnin now online
Norwegian candidates for MGP 2014 presented today
The race is on in France – all entries performed for the first time
