Winner of the scandal-marred 1973 Eurovision Song Contest, French-born singer Anne-Marie David’s “Tu Te Reconnaitras” won out over some of the strongest competition in years, including the English entry, Cliff Richard’s “Power to All Our Friends” and Spain’s controversial “Eres Tu.” David was representing Luxembourg in 1973; six years later, she returned to the Eurovision stage for her native France. Born on May 23, 1952, David began her musical career in earnest with the release of her debut single, “Bab El Oued Mon Amour,” in 1970. “Un Peu Romantique” followed, but success remained at arm’s length until she was cast as Mary Magdalene in the French production of Jesus Christ Superstar at the National Theater of Palais de Chaillot in April 1972.

Her Eurovision triumph (which was also Luxembourg’s second successive win) followed a year later, and over the next few years David toured constantly, both in her own right and representing France at various international music festivals. In October 1973 she performed at the massive UNICEF concert in Milan, and the following month she was awarded the Interpretation Prize at the World Festival of Tokyo. Further singles “Comme une Valse,” “Pour une Heure une Seconde,” and “Fais Cette Chanson pour les Hommes ” followed, but David’s most potent market became Turkey. She scored a number of hits there, while her efforts on the behalf of Turkish earthquake victims saw her awarded the Legion of Honour of the International Red Crescent in 1975.

She remained resident in that country for much of the 1970s, but returned to the French spotlight following the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest, where she finished third with the song “Je Suis l’Enfant Soleil.” Tours of France followed, but by 1983 David was a resident of Norway, where — among other honors — she was invited onto the jury to pick that country’s Eurovision entrant in 1985. The panel, which also featured American producer Tony Visconti, English composer Ronnie Hazlehurst, and ABBA manager Stig Anderson, selected “La Dette Swinge” by Bobbysox, and was rewarded when the song duly triumphed at the festival. David has continued performing on a regular basis since that time; her most recent release was the 2004 live album Live in Charleroi.

You can listen to the new single here on iTunes

Taking a brief break from the intrigue and mounting tensions as we approach Eurosong our German Artists ‘In Profile’ deals with a relative new comer to the German music scene.  At 31 although he certainly doesn’t look it, (love to know what moisturiser he uses) this multilingual artist (German, French, English and Arabic) came second in the fifth season of the German pop idol.  Let me introduce you to the handsome Fady Maalouf. 

Born in the Lebanon in 1979 his German connections are through his Fathers side who came from Berlin.  The war in the Lebanon forced Fady to relocate to France where his love of Fashion had him working as an intern with some top designers such as Elie Saab and Robert Abi Nader.  Elie Saab has dressed some of Hollywoods brightest and best including, Rachel McAdams, Kristen Stewart, Toni Collette, Beyonce, Rhianna, Desperate Housewives-Marcia Cross and Teri Hatcher, Victoria Princess of Sweden and Queen Rania of Jordan.  Robert Abi Nader has designed all the evening gowns for the Miss France competition for the last numerous years.  Both men are of Lebanese origin which perhaps helped Fady with his beginning.  However in 2006 he moved to Germany with his brother and started again, this time entering into the German version of Pop Idol ‘DSDS’.

While not winning the competition his single ‘Blessed’ was released and reached number 2 in the German charts, his album also called ‘Blessed’ also reached the number 2 spot.  Other singles off the album included a cover of the Lonestar song ‘Amazed’ which has also been covered by Duncan James who will be rejoining boy-band ‘Blue’ to represent the UK in this years Eurovision.  The third single from the album was called ‘Show me your love’.  In this video Fady displays his love of free diving and his ability for Apnea which allows a person to hold their breath for up to four minutes in depths as far down as 214 metres.   Apnea however can be very dangerous and can result in the body been tricked into believing it had more oxygen than it actually does resulting in hyperventilation. 

A short break brought about the 2010 album ‘Into the light’.  The lead single, ‘Into the light’ a dance number didn’t fare so well in the charts only reaching number 44.  The song itself is good but the video is shocking, my friend who is a make up artist laughed when she saw how tangerine he was, we both agreed whoever left him appear as a tall ‘Oompa Loompa’ in the video didn’t have his best interests at heart.  Other good songs on the album include ‘Kissing Moonlight’, ‘Holding onto water’, cover version of Roxettes ‘Listen to your heart’ and the brilliant Mika influenced ‘I still cry’.  None of these have yet to materialise as a follow up single.

His personal life has also come under scrutiny with claims been made, which he has neither confirmed nor denied, that he is in a same sex civil partnership.  I think anyone with the slightest hint of Gaydar would go ‘Duh’.  Can’t wait to see what his next single will be and live in hope that one day he will represent some country in the Eurovision.   

We were delighted and priviliged to have a chat with the very talented and Fabulous Nikki Kavanagh earlier today.

Hi Nikki thank you for speaking with us, we are all delighted to hear that you are taking part in Eurosong, this year this time as a main act. How does that compare to your last 2 entries when you were a back vocalist?
Thank you! It’s more exciting & more nerve wracking at the same time! I love to sing backing vocals, its great discipline as a singer; you really learn how to use your voice well to compliment the lead singer. This time round it’s a tough song to sing, vocally challenging and very dynamic, I can’t wait to perform it!

(Nikki pictured in Oslo, second from left)
How was Oslo for you last year, any special memories, any gossip?
Oslo rocked, it was a fantastic experience, I’ve honestly never had such a good trip away meeting so many talented & wonderful people. We don’t reaslise how huge the contest really is, compared to the nationals it’s a totally different ball game!

You must come from a very musically talented family, how do they feel about yet another Kavanagh in the Eurovision?
I’m the only musical one would you believe! Everyone thinks Niamh (Kavanagh) and I are related but we arent! Mind you my daughter Eden is following closely in mommy’s footsteps!

Do you feel under pressure because people might be comparing you with Niamh Kavangh?
I don’t feel the pressure at all, I’m Niamh’s biggest fan, she is without doubt the finest singer ever to emerge from Ireland. I can sing…there is no doubt in that…but Niamh could sing the phonebook!

Do you play any instruments yourself?
I play a bit of guitar, getting stuck back into it at the moment, love acoustic spanish guitar, I intend to improve drastically!

Who do you listen to music wise, and who or what would influence you most?
At the moment I am a huge Rihanna & Pink fan, I listen to pretty much all kinds of music, I’ve a very diverse ear! Strong independent women who sing with heart & passion, live bands and serious attitudes, that’s where it’s at for me right now!

What is your favourite song from the Eurovision, and do you have any childhood memories of it at all?
We used to have Eurovision parties when we were kids! It was amazing but it seemed to die a death after we began to lose…a lot! We stuck to the same theme that worked for us all along,  fine songs and singers but time has moved on, we need to evolve as a nation and send more current acts, personally speaking! I don’t have one favourite I have loads! Loved all our winners of course, Niamh’s ‘In your eyes’ was probably the best one. Last year I loved Paula & Ovi from Romania & I loved Drip Drop

We all know that you were in X-factor a few years back, how did that affect your life? Would you do it again?
Gosh that was 2006 I think! Feels like a life time ago! It was a great experience but quite disappointing, they keep a lot of really bad or average singers that have some drama going on in their lives that might make good TV. As a singer, a devoted singer…that annoyed me! Just because I hadn’t got anything heartbreaking going on! I should have made something up! Was happy to get to boot camp though, made some great pals and it’s nice to see behind the scenes like that, gives you an eye opener. Leona Lewis won that year so let’s face it, she is awesome!

Of all the artists that you performed with who would you say you are most proud to have collaborated with?
Being a session singer, you sing with everyone and anyone, be it on TV shows as backing vocalist or sometimes on their albums you don’t even get to meet them! It’s all part of the job really and Irish singers don’t get calls to do anyone UK based so it’s pretty much our own artists. I loved singing with Sharon Shannon on The Late Late show with Eleanor Shanley & co., I love to sing harmonies and we had great fun rehearsing! Other than that I have sung support for some big acts in The George over the years!

Any plans for the future, outside of Eurovision. Do you have any tours or song launches ahead of you?
I think at the moment I’m focusing on the Eurosong, we’ve a big campaign of radio, tv, shoots & interviews set up for the next two weeks so I’m flat out with that!
I’ve been selecting songs for my album so will head off to Sweden to record later in the year. My diary is pretty jammed until October so I hope too much more doesn’t come in that I can’t say no to! I will be sleeping in my car!

Can you give us any hints on the song you have for Eurosong, we now know that it is called Falling? Anything special on the night planned?
The song is very current, has a Rihanna feel with a Pink vocal & space allowing, it will be a performance to be remembered!

What will your guna be like? Will it be fabulous?
If I could actually chose one it would be! Still at the drawing board but it will be very sleek, sexy & have some attitude thrown in for good measure! I hope to finalise this week….excited
This year RTE have changed the format of Eurosong to include mentors for each of the artists, has that helped do you think with the songs?
Yes definitely, David has been a superb mentor, we have the same vision and we are ploughing ahead! As the ‘artist’, its like having a manager looking after the show in all aspects, less work & pressure for me…It means I can focus on my look and vocal…and my dance moves of course

Who is this mystery act that have yet to be announced? We know you know who it is.
I think the cloak & dagger aspect is more to do with the group being so new the final line up hadn’t been finalised and also the name hadn’t been chosen. I think they just wanted to launch on the 5th Feb on the documentary to give themselves time enough to have everything worked out, track recorded & rehearsals in place, it’s more work when there are four people expected to gel together…which in fairness is what I would have done myself if we had considered a group option. They haven’t announced the names yet but we all know, worst kept secret with the music business but it’s done well to keep out of the press! Best of luck to them!

So, She’s going to Sweden (Fabulous), has a great dress planned (More Fabulous), Loves Romania’s entry from last year (Our performance of the year in the ESC Ireland awards) (Double Fabulous) with a great performance planned for the night, humble and extremely talented how can we not love this girl. Nikki you got our vote.

Nikki Kavanagh will perform  Falling by (Christina Schilling, Camilla Gottschalck, Jonas Gladnikoff and Hanif Sabzevari), she will be 5th on the night. Eurosong 2011 will take place on the Late Late Show – RTE 1 on Friday Feb 11th at 21.30 GMT.

Don’t forget to vote for your favorite entry for Eurosong this year on the following link.

Continuing with our German Artist profiles we have Germany’s answer to Britney Spears, the one and only,  Jeanette Biedermann.

Like many young stars today you need the trifecta, sing, dance and act.  Jeanette is accomplished at all three, from 1999-2004 she starred in the German soap opera ‘Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten’, playing the role of Maria Balzer.  The soap opera was a remake of the Australian soap ‘The Restless Years’.   From 2008-2010 she played the main character of Anna Polauke in the series ‘Anna und die Liebe’ , about a shy introverted character who is constant competition with her sister.  Dancing was never a problem for the star who began a career at the age of 6 in the Liliput circus as an acrobat.

Her first launch on the musical world came courtesy of the German newspaper ‘Bild’.  The newspaper launched a talent competition and out of the thousands that entered Jeanette won and launched her debut single ‘Das tut unheimlich weh’.  Trying to capitulate on the success of the single she entered it into the German qualifiers for the 1999 Eurovision.  She placed fourth.  The winning song by Corinna May was disqualified as it had been previously released on someone elses album so the runner up by ‘Supriz’ with ‘Journey to Jerusalem’ entered placing 3^rd on the night.

To date Biedermann has released 6 studio albums and 1 Christmas album. 

It wasn’t however until her 3^rd album ‘Rock my life’ the Biedermann started to achieve wider success.  The single ‘Rock my life’ reached number 3 in the German charts and 6 in the Austrian.  The next single off the album was a duet with our very own Ronan Keating and reached number 7 in Germany.  The album was certified Gold.  Her next album ‘Break on through’ went platinum. 

Her sixth studio album, ‘Naked Truth’ had a rock vibe and her first single off it ‘Run with me’ went to number 3 in the charts.  The follow up single ‘Bad Girls Club’ was one of her poorest charting positions at number 20. 

The seventh studio album is what drew my attention to the singer, ‘Undress to the Beat’ is euro pop at its finest.  The album is filled with quirky pop/dance songs and showcases a faster paced direction in Jeanettes music. 

Jeanette was also a Juror on the German panel for the 2009 Eurovision.

Nikki works regularly with The RTE Concert Orchestra & The Modern Gospel Ensemble and has toured extensively in Ireland, Europe and The United Arab Emirates.

Nikki has performed at some of the country’s most prestigious venues including The National Concert Hall, The Helix & Vicar Street but still loves to sing in the intimate and very personal settings of a church.

In 2006 Nikki was one of three singers in Ireland chosen by Simon Cowell & Louis Walsh to attend the X Factor boot camp where she got down to the last 25 out of 100,000 singers in total!

A regular face on TV, Nikki also appears on many leading Irish artists albums’ as backing vocalist from Red Hurley, Autamata, Les Bien, Scribble Orchestra and even Dustin the turkey!!! She has also done backing vocals for Deborah Harry (Blondie) Cilla Black, Rod Stewart & Jocelyn Brown not to mention supporting Dannii Minogue, Ultra Nate & Karen Ramerez in The George! Last two years running she has appeared as a soloist for RTE productions “Im still standing

She also appeared on ‘Eurosong 2008’ as backing vocalist for Marc Roberts, and more famously did backing vocals for her cousin Niamh Kavanagh last year with “It’s for You”

Nikki will take part in the Irish Eurosong on RTE 1, Late Late Show at 9.30 GMT on Friday Feb 11th. We wish her the best of luck on the night

For more information on Nikki you can see her webpage here: http://www.nikkikavanagh.com/

Or her Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/nikkikavanaghweddings

Here are some of her songs:

Don Mescall is an Irish singer songwriter set to perform in the Irish Eurosong final for Eurovision. Originally from the small parish of Ahane/Lisnagry in Co. Limerick, Mescall now splits his time between the UK, Ireland & USA.In describing Mescall’s music, the press typically makes reference to the styles of classic artists such as Paul Simon, Jackson Browne or a laid-back Springsteen, whilst the fresher-faced draw somewhat clichéd parallels to hugely successful contemporary singer/songwriters, the likes of David Gray and fellow Irishman, Damien Rice.

Since releasing his debut album “Innocent Run” in 2006, Don’s reputation as a songwriter has sky-rocketed with his songs being snapped up by a diverse range of top pop, country, folk and even classical artists and reaching the top of the charts on international shores.

Just a few of the stars who have enjoyed hits with Mescall’s songs are Rascal Flatts (a band described as “bigger than U2 in America”), Boyzone, The Backstreet Boys, Canadian Idol winner Theo Thams, Canada’s No 1 male artist Garou, the hugely successful American Idol contestant, Clay Aiken, Woodstock’s legendary Richie Havens, multi platinum artist Ronan Keating, new Irish stars The High Kings, the new Celtic Woman star Lynn Hilary, US country star Neal McCoy and Irish artist Frances Black, to name just a few.

Don in fact wrote an entry for Ireland back in 2007, he was part of the writing team that submitted an entry for Dervish.

He also was runner up for 2006 in Eurosong as well.

We wish Don the best of luck in Eurosong this year. You never know, 3rd times the charm.

Don will take part in the Irish Eurosong on RTE 1, Late Late Show at 9.30 GMT on Friday Feb 11th.

Love them or hate them either way you cannot deny how successful the X-Factor Twins are. These two have made a carrer of being awful, in fact that was the reason they were formed. But they are so good at being bad they are good, if you get what I mean…

John Paul Henry Daniel Richard Grimes and Edward Peter Anthony Kevin Patrick Grimes (born 16 October 1991) formed for the 6th series of X-Factor in 2009, the judges found it very hard to get rid of them as the public kept voting them in every week. They became renowned for their bad performances and quickly developed a cult following. They quickly developed a signature look with their blond quaffs.

Jedward signed a £90,000 one-album contract with Sony Music in January 2010. It was also announced that they would have their own ITV2 documentary. On 20 January, they performed their debut single “Under Pressure (Ice Ice Baby)” (a mashup of “Under Pressure” and “Ice Ice Baby”) at the 2010 National Television Awards with rapper Vanilla Ice, who performed with them in the second half of the song. “Under Pressure (Ice Ice Baby)” was released on 31 January and the CD came out two weeks later. The song debuted at #1 on the Irish Singles Chart and #2 on the UK Singles Chart. Having actually only had a one-single deal, Jedward were dropped by Sony on 16 March after their debut single failed to top the UK charts, but Universal Music signed them up on a three-album contract the following day, which coincidentally was Saint Patrick’s Day. On 4 June, Jedward announced that their second single would be a cover of Blink-182′s 1999 hit “All the Small Things”. They then appeared at T4 on the Beach at Weston-super-Mare on 4 July and performed a medley of “Ghostbusters/Under Pressure (Ice Ice Baby)/All the Small Things”. Whilst performing a roundoff during “Ghostbusters”, Edward fell and severely injured his left leg. This was later worsened when he fell again whilst doing a hip gesture near the end of “Under Pressure (Ice Ice Baby)”. He continued the performance of “All the Small Things” either limping or kneeling down. After the performance, Edward was taken to hospital and Jedward’s spokeswoman said at the time of the incident: “We think he’s broken his leg and at the very least has badly twisted the ligament in his knee.” It was later revealed that Edward had torn ligaments in his left knee and would require surgery on it, but he insisted that he would still be able to perform “even if I have to bring crutches on stage”.

On 16 July, Jedward’s single “All the Small Things” was released. Even though Blink-182 originally allowed Jedward to cover their song, they later ran a campaign to try and prevent the release of the twins’ version. This resulted in thousands of copies of Jedward’s version being recalled to their studio and destroyed. ”All the Small Things” peaked at #21 on the Irish Chart and #6 on the UK Indie Chart. On 26 July, Jedward released their debut album Planet Jedward, which went straight to #1 on the Irish Albums Chart and #17 on the UK Albums Chart. Blink-182 referenced Jedward at the Reading and Leeds Festival in August. Drummer Travis Barker announced “We would like very much to thank that band Jedward for allowing us to cover their song.” and frontman Tom DeLonge then said “Travis is super pissed about that shit and he wants to call them out to a fuckin duel.” These comments received both booing and cheering from the crowd. On 30 July, the twins appeared on the Channel 4 reality show Big Brother and performed “All the Small Things” in the garden as part the housemates’ task to “ignore the obvious”.

From 6 April to 1 May, Jedward completed their first solo tour, a sold-out 27-date tour of Ireland called the Planet Jedward Tour. Due to overwhelming demand, the Planet Jedward Tour was extended to 65 dates, with a second 38-date tour of concerts in both Ireland and the UK. The second tour began on 4 August and is scheduled to end in January 2011. The Irish Independent has rated the tour postively, saying that “Jedwardmania is right up there with Beatlemania”

Their manager is Louis Walsh whom many of ye know as the Judge on X-factor as well as manager to Boyzone and Westlife. He also managed Ronan Keatings solo career – this includes when he was submitting successful entries to Denmark – Brink 2009.

Their song for Eurosong is rumored to be called Lipstick, although if this picture that was circulated to the fan club yesterday is any indication then its true.

It is also said that Louie Sence will be doing their choreography for the night and lord forbid if they qualify. It’s more of a UK thing there – as he has become a recent z-list celebrity on the TV and papers over here, so don’t feel bad if you don’t know who that is

Also if it’s any indication for their favors in Eurosong then Brian Cowen even backed them at one point in their carrer. I do not doubt that they will win the public vote, but how will the Jury vote swing it on the night? Let’s face it Juries hate Jedward, but we have to wait and see on the night. Whatever happens we wish the boys well on the night.

Jedward will take part in the Irish Eurosong on RTE 1, Late Late Show at 9.30 GMT on Friday Feb 11th.

Hoping to represent Ireland this year in the Eurovision, Eurosong hopefuls The Vard Sisters are a trio of Dublin sisters, Wendy, Cathy and Lisa. They formed together in 1996 after being discovered by a Sony music rep while they were singing at a friends wedding.

The burst onto the Irish music scene in 1997 with their debut album ”Heavenly”, The album went triple platinum, selling in excess of 100,000 copies – unprecedented in Ireland for a new act.

Following the success of their first album Heavenly, the Vard Sisters appeared as guests on what seemed like every TV programme in the UK and Ireland, including The Late Late Show, Open House, Ireland AM, Richard and Judy, GMTV, The John Daly Show, Kelly, MTV Europe Irish Special and Light Lunch (to name but a few) confirming their widespread appeal.  They have performed at such prestigious venues as Dublin Castle for Bill Clinton and the American Ambassador’s Residence. They also performed with Westlife for the Westlife Christmas Special Concert in Temple Theatre and with top Irish tenor Finbarr Wright in the Cork Opera House and University Concert Hall / Limerick.  To top it all off, they recorded a P.B.S.T.V Special in Germany in February 2002 which goes out coast to coast in America.

They have performed extensively both at home and abroad over the last few years, including Germany, where following a successful concert in the National Concert Hall with the Bayer Choir (the largest male choir in the world), they were invited to Germany to perform with the choir in three of their concerts.  They played to packed houses in the Gaiety Theatre, National Concert Hall and the Cork Opera house and almost every Cathedral in Ireland . They are well known as well for performing at weddings and funerals around the country.

In 1998 they entered the Irish Eurovision finals but failed to qualify ahead of that years entrant Dawn Martin by 3 points, but many of us still remember their beautiful song “Seol”.

We believe that this year their mentor will be Liam Lawton as the musical styles are very similar to each other. Whatever way it turns out on the night we wish these very talented artists all the best.

The Vard Sisters will be performing in Eurosong on the Late Late show on the 11th of February at 9.30 GMT on RTE.

For more information about the Vard Sisters please visit their website:  http://www.vardsisters.com/

We will include some more songs by The Vard Sisters below.

In a slight tweak to our ‘In Profile’ section we here at ESC Ireland will be profiling some of this years host country, Germany, biggest and beloved singers.  Our first profile is on one of the countries most successful singers as she is the only German female singer to achieve four consecutive number 1 hits. It can only be the beautiful Sarah Connor.

With 7 studio albums, the token Christmas album and a self entitled compilation her name should be very familiar.  However in Ireland the name Sarah Connor is familiar for its commonality rather than a German singer of Scottish/American descent.  Born Sarah Lewe in 1980 her first singing pseudonym was Sarah Gray taking her mothers maiden name.  Under that name she joined forces with the producer Marc Van Linden providing vocals on a dance remix of one of my personal favourite childhood songs ‘The Last Unicorn’ from the 1982 cartoon feature of the same name. 

 A change in management resulted in a change of pseudonym and Sarah Connor materialised.  Personally I have always thought Sarah Gray would have worked better as a lot of search engines often link to ‘Terminators’ Sarah Connor as opposed to the singer. 

Her first single would be her only Irish hit and was a collaboration with the American singer TQ, the song ‘Lets get back to bed boy’ went top twenty here and the UK.

It was her third single ‘From Sarah with love’ which became her signature song.  The song reached number 1 in Germany and Switzerland, number 2 in Romania and Austria and placed top ten in Finland, Hungary, Belgium and Holland.  She also received a prestigious German Echo award for the song. 

With her second album she attempted to recreate the success of her collaboration with TQ by joining forces with another American rapper Wyclef Jean however while popular in Germany it failed to achieve the widespread success ‘Lets get back to bed boy’ had. 

However, her star was rising Stateside with some songs on her album been penned by the great Diane Warren including the haunting ‘Skin on Skin’.  

At this time she also met and started dating one of the singers ‘Marc Terenzi’ from the American boy band ‘Natural’.  The bands manager supposedly threatened to have Marc kicked out of the group if he continued to date her publicly and when it was announced Sarah was pregnant rumours of the band splitting were rife.  The band however recorded a duet with Sarah ‘Just one last dance’ which became the bands only number 1 single.  Shortly after, the original line up in the band disbanded and Sarah and Marc went on to have their own reality TV show along the same vein as ‘Newly Weds: Nick and Jessica’.

 ‘Sarah and Marc in love’ would last for two seasons.  The power couple became the darlings of Germany with singles used in the series climbing the German charts, Sarah’s ballad ‘Living to love you’ hitting the number one spot in both Germany and Switzerland. 

Critically her fourth album didn’t fair so well and this trend continued with her fifth album of mostly ‘Motown’ covers.    Her personal life was also under scrutiny when she and Marc announced their separation although it was claimed to be amicable.

 Her sixth album ‘Sexy as hell’ saw a distinct shift in music for Sarah moving away from American RNB, hip hop influences and embracing light Euro pop.  As part of this departure she provided the vocals on Enrique Iglesias song ‘Taking back my love’ for its European release replacing American singer Ciara. 

This trend became amplified on her latest 7^th album, ‘Real Love’.   Disco queens unite and if you do nothing else go buy/download this slice of euro-pop goodness.  For me it’s the icing on Sarah Connors career shifting from breathy ballads to electric dance beats, the stand out track been ‘Better Man’.  With many years of singing and dancing left it is exciting to see what this German Diva will come up with next.  Below are the two singles currently on release from ‘Real Love’.

NDR have announced who our hosts will be for Dusseldorf. Anke Engelke (Token Frenchie), Judith Rakers (German Hottie) and surprise surprise Stefan Raab, Mr German Eurovision himself,.

Here is the bio that was released for each of them.

Anke Engelke was born in Montreal, Canada and is tri-lingual (German, English, French). She has been a steady figure on German television since she was 12. She is mainly an actress and comedienne, but she has also presented lots of shows for several big German TV channels, like the Berlinale. She has been singing in a soulband for 20 years now and revealed that she is a big ABBA fan since they won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974. In a first comment, Anke said that is very honoured to be one of the hosts of the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest.

Judith Rakers is one of the faces of ARD’s Tagesschau – the most important news show on German television. On NDR, she presents 3 Nach 9, a talkshow. She has also been involved in NDR’s Hamburg Journal and has been working for the radio, too. She is excited to be one of the presenters’ team for the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest and it is a dream coming true for her.

Stefan Raab is no stranger to Eurovision Song Contest fans as he wrote the German entries in 1998, 2000 – which he performed himself – and 2004. Furthermore, he is the mentor of Lena who won the contest this year for Germany. Stefan is mostly working for private channel ProSieben presenting several entertainment shows. He says that presenting the Eurovision Song Contest is the biggest highlight in his contest career.