Germany GERMANY 2024 - Isaak - Always on the Run

[ESC United Mod Team]

 

[mauve]

And I'd want Galant to come back too. They have the style, creativity & stage presense, they just need a sliiightly stronger song and they'd be great at ESC.

I would like to see Galant return also with a stronger song. Their stage presence was stunning!

 

[mauve]

We are dropping in the odds, now 24th place - well done, NDR! I wouldn't have felt well if we hadn't been at the bottom.

 

[Realest]

This Season is over. Its Time to focus on 2025 already.

 

[Jupiter]

We are dropping in the odds, now 24th place - well done, NDR! I wouldn't have felt well if we hadn't been at the bottom.

This is the exact same falling down gif I've seen 3x in a row on Twitter after our NF

Being behind Joost feels weird xD

 

[mauve]

This is the exact same falling down gif I've seen 3x in a row on Twitter after our NF

Being behind Joist feels weird xD

Okay. That's spooky.

 

[lavieenrose]

What gives me the chance to give this my "salvageable for ironic reasons" points is Isaak himself. Isaak delivers this song with such palpable, intimidating, oversung desperation that I can't help but laugh at it. As the old internet meme goes, he don't got a single song where he need to be doing this. It's so committed and overwrought that it makes me feel *something*--nothing that quite hits the mark, but something for sure.

 

[Iker]

What gives me the chance to give this my "salvageable for ironic reasons" points is Isaak himself. Isaak delivers this song with such palpable, intimidating, oversung desperation that I can't help but laugh at it. As the old internet meme goes, he don't got a single song where he need to be doing this. It's so committed and overwrought that it makes me feel *something*--nothing that quite hits the mark, but something for sure.

The song gives me a strong impression of Germany 2022 & Germany 2017. An anemic, mid-tempo semi-bop.

 

[Lance Esgard]

... he had a certain charm about him. It's one of those guilty pleasures.

Right there with you on that. I didn't like the song at all, but found Jendrik sufficiently charming that the performance ended up having something for me, as opposed to any totally bland song that just bores me completely. even if technically it might have better production or whatnot.

And I find I still remember song of the jingles, whereas with certain other entries I remember nothing but the name of the song and the artist.

 

[Jupiter]

So, ehm... I've seen some wild opinions about AOTR on fb and yt. Worst of which being people, who like the song, name the "beautiful, african music inspired chorus" as a reason. Like... what??? Is it the elephant noises? First time I've seen it I thought it was a joke. But I've seen it quite a few times now, including from a Lady repeating she had studied music and therefor really knew what she was talking about. And now I've seen a youtuber who liked AOTR suggest "african dancers" for the staging

Am I just not seeing it or something? Now I can't get the Image of 4 random "african dancers" (a ka what probably passes as african dancers at Karneval here) behind Isaak out of my head

 

[mauve]

So, ehm... I've seen some wild opinions about AOTR on fb and yt. Worst of which being people, who like the song, name the "beautiful, african music inspired chorus" as a reason. Like... what??? Is it the elephant noises? First time I've seen it I thought it was a joke. But I've seen it quite a few times now, including from a Lady repeating she had studied music and therefor really knew what she was talking about. And now I've seen a youtuber who liked AOTR suggest "african dancers" for the staging

Am I just not seeing it or something? Now I can't get the Image of 4 random "african dancers" (a ka what probably passes as african dancers at Karneval here) behind Isaak out of my head

Or Isaak could simply put a dancing elephant onstage. Some suggestions:

 

[HarryUK]

Since the UK started serving decent acts I’ve missed the doom and gloom thread. Thank you Germany for keeping misery alive!

 

[Lance Esgard]

So, ehm... I've seen some wild opinions about AOTR on fb and yt. Worst of which being people, who like the song, name the "beautiful, african music inspired chorus" as a reason. Like... what??? Is it the elephant noises? First time I've seen it I thought it was a joke. But I've seen it quite a few times now, including from a Lady repeating she had studied music and therefor really knew what she was talking about. And now I've seen a youtuber who liked AOTR suggest "african dancers" for the staging

Am I just not seeing it or something? Now I can't get the Image of 4 random "african dancers" (a ka what probably passes as african dancers at Karneval here) behind Isaak out of my head

It isn't just the elephant sound effect, but the 'run na na yeah' or whatever the exact lyrics are could be interpreted as being an African-inspired chorus by being reminded of a style of traditional tribal chants.

The association is influenced by the use of the elephant SFX and perhaps the pronunciation of the 'n'.

Chant-like sounds are not exclusive to Africa (they're common across folk music the world over, not to mention use in other genres) but there are a lot of people who are familiar with chants mostly from how Western media has often sonically represented Africa via a focus on 'tribal music' and the 'African Chant'.

So small musical reference pools is partly at work here.

 

[Jupiter]

It isn't just the elephant sound effect, but the 'run na na yeah' or whatever the exact lyrics are could be interpreted as being an African-inspired chorus by being reminded of a style of traditional tribal chants.

The association is influenced by the use of the elephant SFX and perhaps the pronunciation of the 'n'.

Chant-like sounds are not exclusive to Africa (they're common across folk music the world over, not to mention use in other genres) but there are a lot of people who are familiar with chants mostly from how Western media has often sonically represented Africa via a focus on 'tribal music' and the 'African Chant'.

So small musical reference pools is partly at work here.

Yes, it's very chant-like, but as you say it's used across several cultures. I guess it just gives me "I have no idea what african music really is like, but I've just watched 3 Hollywood movies about Africa" vibes. Especially because the elephant Sound effect is... not it for me either way.
Thank you for the nice answer

Or Isaak could simply put a dancing elephant onstage. Some suggestions:

Since animals aren't allowed on stage, it's gotta be humans in elephant costumes. What do we think, 5 small elephants or 5 people together as one big one? or maybe 2 dancers + a middle-sized elephant?

 

[Franzilein]

So, ehm... I've seen some wild opinions about AOTR on fb and yt. Worst of which being people, who like the song, name the "beautiful, african music inspired chorus" as a reason. Like... what??? Is it the elephant noises? First time I've seen it I thought it was a joke. But I've seen it quite a few times now, including from a Lady repeating she had studied music and therefor really knew what she was talking about. And now I've seen a youtuber who liked AOTR suggest "african dancers" for the staging

Am I just not seeing it or something? Now I can't get the Image of 4 random "african dancers" (a ka what probably passes as african dancers at Karneval here) behind Isaak out of my head

It's African-inspired due to syncopation. Each time signature has certain points where you usually have emphasis on, for example if you have a four-four time signature, you put emphasis on 1 and 3. Or if you have a waltz (in triple metre), the emphasis is solely on 1.
The chorus of Always On The Run doesn't follow this (western) pattern straight up and is more in-line with the rhythmic (off-beat) patterns people associate with Africa. We have a four-four time signature here, one line is sung in two bars, but emphasis is on 1-3-4-6, with the "na-na's" completely off-beat. Try to clap along and you will notice, too. If he followed Western-style rhythms, we would have emphasis on 1-3-5-7 here.

run, na-na-ayy, run, | (here starts bar 2) na-na-ayy _ _ (the last two beats of bar 2 unsung)

So yeah. It is clearly the most interesting part of the song, but also... still underwhelming

Ah well, let me mourn the cat, I am done for this season here

 

[Iker]

It's African-inspired due to syncopation. Each time signature has certain points where you usually have emphasis on, for example if you have a four-four time signature, you put emphasis on 1 and 3. Or if you have a waltz (in triple metre), the emphasis is solely on 1.
The chorus of Always On The Run doesn't follow this (western) pattern straight up and is more in-line with the rhythmic (off-beat) patterns people associate with Africa. We have a four-four time signature here, one line is sung in two bars, but emphasis is on 1-3-4-6, with the "na-na's" completely off-beat. Try to clap along and you will notice, too. If he followed Western-style rhythms, we would have emphasis on 1-3-5-7 here.

run, na-na-ayy, run, | (here starts bar 2) na-na-ayy _ _ (the last two beats of bar 2 unsung)

So yeah. It is clearly the most interesting part of the song, but also... still underwhelming

Ah well, let me mourn the cat, I am done for this season here

Wow, Germany sends avant-garde and out-of-the-box entry this year! Eartheater, Igorrr and Ulver who? LMAO

That's the only entry this year so far that I can only describe as nondescript and lame. Sorry Germany.

 

[Realest]

2 Days without Comment during the Season. When was the last Time that happened?

 

[mauve]

2 Days without Comment during the Season. When was the last Time that happened?

Guess everything is said. It doesn't make things better to whine about our lost chance. When May comes and we get another , then we will fill again 100 pages here what to do better next year. Same procedure as every year.

 

[Mainshow]

Marvin Dietmann will be stage director A-G-A-I-N.

Shipton has been the creative director of many entries in the past decade and was the main creative director of Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool. Also, in 2022, he worked with four countries, while in 2021, he collaborated with seven. Shipton and Nicholson had to reduce their collaborations for this year’s Eurovision as they are expecting their first child. Marvin Dietmann will also be collaborating with them on the three entries in Malmo this year.

Eurovision 2024: Dan Shipton to Direct Germany, Austria, and Cyprus! - Eurovision News | Music | Fun

Dan Shipton will be directing three countries in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Specifically, Black Scull Creative, owned by Dan, his husband Ross Nicholson, and their collaborators Jay Revell and Paul Gardner, will be responsible for the television production of the entries from Austria...

eurovisionfun.com

 

[I bims]

Marvin Dietmann will be stage director A-G-A-I-N.

Eurovision 2024: Dan Shipton to Direct Germany, Austria, and Cyprus! - Eurovision News | Music | Fun

Dan Shipton will be directing three countries in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Specifically, Black Scull Creative, owned by Dan, his husband Ross Nicholson, and their collaborators Jay Revell and Paul Gardner, will be responsible for the television production of the entries from Austria...

eurovisionfun.com

Never change a losing team.

 

[ESC94]

It´s already clear that we´ll need some strong booze after the final.