Germany

**__//Artist biography://__** The group th at is made up of Alex Christensen and Oscar Loya is called  **Alex Swings Oscar Sings **. This group will represent Germany to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009. According to the Eurovision site and [|ESC Today], Alex Christensen is a well known DJ, Producer, and Composer in the industry, and boasts critical acclaim as the BMI AND ECHO award winner. He conducted the famous project U96, and released "Das Boot" in 1991. After making a techno remix for the track Das Boot, Christensen revolutionized the techno industry by making it popular enough to reach the charts. The song was number one on 22 different national charts. Alex mixes German text with the popular Eurodance techno and has proven this to be a very effective means of communicating with the masses. The majority of his songs are "either techno/dance tracks or romantic ballads". He has also produced for notable artists including American Michael Bolton, who has much international appeal. Searching for an artist who could complement his style and talent, Christensen met Oscar Loya, an American performer. Loya has honed his singing, dancing, and acting skills on an International stage, performing in Berlin, Bologna, Vienna, Honk Kong, Singapore, and many others. Although never formally trained, Oscar's experience in the global pop scene as well as his talent and stage presence have facilitated his movement toward's being an international Pop Star. The two collaborate over the song Miss Kiss Kiss Bang, and Alex's producing abilities greatly complement the performance abilities of Oscar. They are the second male duo representing Germany in Eurovision ever since 1983 after "Hoffmann & Hoffmann". 

 media type="youtube" key="2FAuk8qGImA" height="344" width="425" __//** The artists Oscar Loya and Alex Christensen band together in the group Alex Swings Oscar Sings and perform the song Miss Kiss Kiss Bang for the Eurovision 2009 contest. The lyrics are provided by Christensen, and he produces the song as well. Oscar Loya sings the lyrics, which are in English and about the irresistable Miss Kiss Kiss Bang.
 * //__Song information:

This song is a modern adaption to Big Band and Swing music. With prominent horns, dramatic lead-ups, and a smooth, Sinatra-like voice, the song takes on a Big Band identity. Oscar Loya sings beautifully on the track, showcasing his performance abilities. Some of the brass instruments featured on the track include a trombone, trumpets, and saxaphones. The song, however, has a definite place in the modern Pop scene. Christensen compliments the horns in the song magnificently with a prominent bass synthesized beat. The song's most impressive aspect is production. The singing is great, and the instrumentals are pleasant, but the entire package is necessary to fully appreciate the track. The overall tone is relaxing with light beats. But the whole piece does not have a obvious emphasized points that can really push the atmosphere into a high and exciting status. Oscar even briefly showcases his tap-dancing ability, an aspect that will surely add to the stage experience. The double-time at the end of the song features call-and-response vocals, a prominent bass providing the beat, and jazz-like brass instruments adding a seductive instrumental melody.

 __//**Narrative of the entry: **//__ This band’s journey to the Eurovision stage has been a classic example of the American Dream. Oscar Loya was an undiscovered talent working as a fashion designer/hair stylist in Southern California until at age 24 he decided to drop everything and move to New York to pursue his dream of performing. He was asked by a stranger on the street if he could sing, act, or dance. Answering with an enthused “Hell Yeah!”, the stranger turned out to be a famous Broadway producer/choreographer, jumpstarting Oscar’s light-speed journey across the world. Performing at renowned stages across the globe including Bologna, Rotterdam, Vienna, Seoul, Beijing, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Berlin, Köln, and Munich, Oscar honed his performance skills to world class pop star status. Oscar then met up with BMI and ECHO award winning producer and composer Alex Christensen to create the track Miss Kiss Kiss Bang for Germany’s entry into the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest.

The song was selected by a specially-formed internal NDR jury, in comparison with the national selection process of previous years. The NDR has used a system of national finals to choose their Eurovision contestants since 1966. A controversial choice, this year a special jury was formed in response to Germany’s 25th/25 placement in the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest. The NDR stated that the special jury was a one-off event and that the selection process would return to national finals selection next year.

Alex Christansen announced that there would be a real "Miss Kiss" appear on the stage in Moscow, and the American burlesque Dita von Teese was revealed to be show up as the "Miss kiss" according to [|Wikipedia]. Dita von Teese is a famous fetish model who appeared on many fetish magazine covers, and " was featured in Playboy magazine in 1999, 2001 and 2002, with a cover-featured pictorial in 2002". She started to perform burlesque in 1993, and then attracted as a proponent of New Burlesque. Therefore, she is known as "the Queen of Burlesque".([|Wikipedia] )

According to different news resource, there are different reasons why Dita von Teese was chosen. [|Mail Online] says that it's because Dita von Teese is well-known in Germany becuase she married to but then divorce with a popular German shock rocker Marilyn Manson <span style="line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 13px;">. According to website "[|dw-world.de] ", <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 110%;">Thomas Schreiber, the head of the consortium of German broadcasters that organizes this Germany's entry, said that their goal was "to have an internationally known artist on the stage in Moscow as Miss Kiss", and Dita von Teese was the "perfect choice". And on another news website called "[|Bild] ", it predicted that " <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 110%;">Maybe Dita von Teese can save Germany this year, as the stripper dancer is popular in Eastern Europe", since there are a lot of Esatern European countries attending Eurovison, and Germany will need points from them.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 110%;"> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">**//__ Country’s EUROVISION history: __//** Germany has quite an extensive history in the Eurovision contest, appearing in it every year from 1956-2009 except in 1996. According to [|Wikipedia], it is the country that participate in the Eurovision the most, with France and UK running after it. There are four countries that make the biggest financial contribution to this contest, who are "automatically qualified to the final", despite of their placing. Germany is one of those four, along with the UK, France and Spain. The only time that Germany was absent for Eurovision was in 1996. In that year there were may countries wanted to compete in this contest, so a new method was used to eliminate 7 countries out of 30 countries. The German artist Leon with the song "Planet of Blue" did not get enough points to get into the first 23, then Germany fail to join the contest that year. In 1982, Germany won the Eurovision contest with artist Nicole performing the song Ein Bißchen Frieden, written by Berd Meinunger and composed by Ralph Siegel. That was the only time Germany got first place in Eurovision till now. They placed in the top five 15 times in that span, 33 times in the top ten, and four times ranking the last. They have offered a variety of artists from a variety of countries, and the language of songs has been variable.

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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 110%;">Recently, Germany has been famous for some musical styles such as country and western (Taxes Ligtning- "No No Never" in 2006) and swing (Roger Cicero - "Frauen regier'n die Welt" in 2007) even though they are not typical of Eurovision, according to [|Wikipedia]. However, both of the songs didn’t do well in Eurovision, “No No Never” was awarded 14th and “Frauen regier'n die Welt" was awarded 19th. Furthermore, according to [|Wikipedia], “Germany tied for last at the 2008 contest for points, but was awarded 23rd of 25th place when the results were posted. ARD announced that changes would occur to the national final, Vorentscheid, for 2009. Thomas Herrmanns will also not be returning to host the contest.” Thomas Hermanns who is a German TV moderator, directer, TV author and comedian, was also the moderator and spokesperson of the //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 110%;">Vorentscheidung //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 110%;"> Eurovision Song Contest. "In May 2005 and 2006 Hermanns was moderator of //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 110%;">Countdown //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 110%;"> Eurovision. In December 2005 Hermanns worked with Sky du Mont and Bettina Zimmermann as moderators of the Bambi award on German channel ARD." Interestingly, Hermanns also admitted that he is a gay and has been in a relationship for 14 years with Wolfgang Macht, and they were married in 2008. ([|Wikipedia]) ======

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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 110%;">According to Eureovision, in 2009, "NDR had drastically changed the selection procedure for the German entry. After having had national finals since 1996, it was decided this year that a specially-formed jury would choose Germany's entry internally. The reasons given for this were Germany's bad result in the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest - the group No Angels came last out of 25 candidates - and also declining viewing figures for the national final last year. NDR however stated that the internal choice this year would be a one-off event and that the broadcaster would return to a national selection next year." In addition, many of the Eurovision audience especially German audience thought this was a very good news. ======