You could call it a Cascadastrophe. This week gmx.de reported on the noticeable bullying that Greek Twitter users have directed towards Germany’s Cascada, the euro-dance act which finished in 21st position at Eurovision. And surprise, surprise: Germany didn’t receive any points from the Greek jury.
Yes, it seems the bailout really has pushed viewers into an anti-German state of mind. One of the first media outlets to rub salt into the wound was Greece’s Proto Thema, outlining that it was Angela Merkel’s “strict policies” which were responsible for Germany’s “flop” at the contest.
German broadcaster ARD has said little. But as we reported earlier this week, Thomas Schreiber did tell the press that it “was not just Cascada, but also Germany on the stage”. Rather than seeing Cascada’s front-woman Natalie Horler in a gold, bust-enhancing outfit last Saturday, perhaps the Greek audience only saw Angela? Or could it just be that Natalie’s live performance was weak? Or maybe it was because the music was outdated? (Oh, snap. That was controversial).
Tweets from all over Greece have suggested that the hate stems more from the political atmosphere than Cascada’s performance. A user going by the name of g_tzakis said, “I’d only like to suggest that, as a protectorate of Germany, we will obviously not vote for Germany”. Another user was far bitchier about the whole affair. It was “the gold that the Nazis stole from us that they’ve used to make their dresses”.
Even worse, amigaman_rief denounced every Greek who voted for “Glorious” as an “enemy of the state”. I’m sure a lot of ESC fans won’t be visiting Malia next year, then.
On personal reflection, the media response was obviously just an opportunity to be nasty towards Germany. This demonstrates that people aren’t mistaken when they say the contest is political.
But let’s be honest: Cascada didn’t do that well because her performance was weak. (Just read our review of her first rehearsal). At the beginning of the act Natalie’s voice clashed with the backing singers and she was out of sync a few times. Germany couldn’t have expected to do well after the performance was over, and not just because of the alleged corruption that’s now coming to light.
Greece may have out-performed Germany on the Eurovision scoreboard, but at least the Germans can take solace in this. Unlike Greece, Germany knows it could have afforded to win…
Poor Germany, they bailed everyone out in 2010 and won, then tried to impose control to help these countries get their house back in order, suddenly they’re hated.
Southern Europe needs to grow up, they’ll take the money, but not the necessary medicine that goes with it.
I just think Cascada failed because of a very weak performance, a not to good draw en people might have thought the song sounded to much like Euphoria. Even I mix both melodies when I try to sing Glorious I end up singing Euphoria. I guess that makes the latter a much stronger song, and the ranking of Cascada has everything to do with low quality and has nothing to do with politics. And if only in the margins.
btw I think the picture is funny. 🙂
They are a weird bunch over there – wasnt the idea of the Eurovision Song Contest to unify the countries of Europe in song? Well – any countries displaying non unity should be banned for 5 years – that would give them time to get over it!
Geez, the performance was fine. Yeah, she was out of sync for a few moments, but it’s not like that’s never happened before in a live performance. You don’t see anyone saying that Finland’s performance was weak because they were in the bottom 5, or likewise for France. She had a lousy draw, and obviously political voting may have had a hand here. It doesn’t appear the juries cared much for the entry either.
@Vlad: hmm, it’s called “crowd interaction”.
I’m Greek, and I was a HUGE supporter of Cascada and Germany in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest(My 2nd best entry after Italy’s Marco Mengoni)! The song was totally fantastic, and so was the performance! There may have been some weak parts of it , but let’s be honest guys.. Do you think Azerbaijan 2011 was a less weak performance? Or even other songs that ranked high this year? We cannot blame Natalie of this.. But most of all, WE CANNOT BLAME ANGELA MERKEL AND GERMANY AS A POLITICAL IDENTITY!!!!!!!!!!! Belgium flopped in 2006! Sweden in 2008! France in 2011!… Read more »
I think the song was good, but I have no idea what Natalie was thinking by screaming “come on”, “are you ready?” etc. That ruined it.
wow so much bitterness in the article. But i do agree that it’s unfair to make fun of Cascada because of Angela Merkel. GLorious was one of the best songs of this year’s contest and Natalie was awesome! It is just that the song was reminiscent of Glorious (even commentators mentioned that) and the performance was kinda weak, the staircases were basic and there were no dancers or impressive effects. Still, the song deserved top 15. i’d love to see the split results and if televoting privileged Cascada. They are popular in UK but they got nul WTF?