Ahead of the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 she said that she was aiming to finish in the top third of all contestants.
But on Saturday night Levina once again found herself in a particularly German situation: finishing at or near the bottom in the grand final.
Thankfully there is a faint silver lining. Unlike her predecessors Ann Sophie in 2015 and Jamie-Lee in 2016, the “Perfect Life” singer came next-to-last rather than dead last. A journey of a thousand miles begins with just one step…
Thanks to three points from Ireland’s jury as well as three points from Switzerland’s public vote, Levina managed to leave Spain’s Manel Navarro behind, giving Germany its best finish in three years.
Levina, a sassy singer with attitude we love, isn’t down-trodden about it all.
Speaking to NDR immediately after the grand final, she admitted she was disappointed but kept the humour flowing and laughed any bad feelings away.
“Of course I have to thank Ireland for giving us 3 points and besides, we did not come in last place, but only in second to last,” she said. “If this can continue over the next few years, we will be number one again in 25 years!”
Levina at Eurovision 2017
Ahead of Levina’s grand final performance, wiwiblogger William was feeling positive about her chances to avoid last place. In an article entitled “Nil points? No way!”, he praised her opening shot, which saw her laying on the floor and serving sex appeal on what appeared to be molten diamond.
Despite not reaching her goal on the left-hand side of the scoreboard, Levina has plenty to be excited about. She’s just released her debut album Unexpected and has earned tens of thousands of new fans, following her Eurovision promo tour, which took her to Israel, Georgia, Armenia and The Netherlands, among other places.
Do you love Levina’s humour just as much as we do? And do you think she deserved a better spot in the final? Let us know in the comments below!
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she sang and looked very good…. deserved a much higher place…the verses are excellent
– I hope Spain will always be last, because they didn’t supported their entry this year. All those national juries (former esc glories or mediocre singers) knew about the Spanish drama, and they knew they should not vote for Spain this year. – UK didn’t deserve rank 15 with that mediocre screaming song, I don’t care how loud Lucie can scream, that song was awful. Malta should have been 15 in grand final. – About Germany, they should pick a good singer like Xavier Naidoo and give him complete freedom of decision, and I mean COMPLETE FREEDOM OF DECISION. Enough… Read more »
Xavier is currently in the news as he (again) published an extreme rightwing song. He has little support of the Germans and will definitely not participate in the ESC
GERMANY DON’T CRY..
There are the countries who with years cannot get the place in the Final. I wish if the German fans can only imagine how it would be if the last 3 years the participtions from Germany have had to go through the SEMI-FINAL . Would they reach the place for Final? Than if you can imagine that, than you can understand US. ( TEST; Go on Youtube hear again Macedonian song and after that hear the German song, compare and see in which one you will remember longer).
There was nothing special about the Macedonian song. Germany’s performer was much more talented (and more beautiful too)
Even against Jana’s “Dance Alone” (69 points in the semi), Levina’s “Perfect Life” would have lost and been in a world of trouble if it had to be tested in the semifinals. The fact that she couldn’t get double digits in the final suggests she would have had to fight just to get 50 points in the semis. Look at who finished 10th in each of the semis, and look at how many points they managed to retain when the finals were done. Then again, Israel had 207 in the 2nd semi, and only managed to save 39. You think… Read more »
A rule of thumb here may apply: If you’re one of the Big Five and the defending championship country, and you finish below the top 20 in the Grand Final, chances are you would have failed to qualify if you had to perform in the semis. Obviously this applies to Ukraine, Germany and Spain.
I´m German and for this year I had higher expectations… I didn´t expect Levina to win, but I was convinced that she would make at least a top15 song. So I was really dissapointed. And I´m sorry for her… she is such a great singer, a great performer and a great person, with a great sence of humour… I wish her the best!
btw, I also think, that our preselection process sucks… it´s often choosen bad songs, because many songwriter are afraid to send their songs to the German selection, since this might be the end of their career, I guess. And good singers also don´t want to participate, because history shows, that it´s defintely the end of their career. Even if they aren´t last, it´s often their last performance on German tv.
What do you mean, the end of their career? Even if they do well, like Roman Lob? If Eurovision is a death sentence, why do you, as a country, care about it? Or send somebody from a smaller country. Even if they do bad, they will always be stars in their country, just for being in Eurovision.
Really? I am sad to say this was Germany’s worst entry in many years.
I usually like your songs but this was just a bland forgetable comercial pop song. Love Levina though.
I still remember Ann Sophie two years ago. That was a big shock for me! She was my favourite that year.
Next year bring Ivy Quainoo to Lisbon and you will make me a very happy guy!
The thing is, Germany doesn’t actually send bad entries to this contest, they are usually one of my favourite countries at Eurovision. Ann-Sophie should never have gotten nil point in 2015, that was such a crime, Jamie-Lee also had a great song and a powerful voice but I think her quirky appearance let her down a lot. This year, I think it was song choice that ruined it for Levina, the obvious Titanium comparison ruined the song from the beginning, but she’s actually very capable, I’d welcome her back in the future with a better song. Ünser Song as a… Read more »
I am totally for the revamp of the German selection system, yet the German commentator said that he doesn’t know what they’re doing wrong (in an informed way). I think that revamp might take a few years. Also, I’m kind of annoyed that we didn’t get dead last, since it would’ve given us a record for most last places in a row. Then the low placing would’ve been okay-er.
Fully agree Sophia.
I think Levina did a great job with what she had. She has a great voice but ultimately the beginning of the song was a Titanium rip off which polarised people right from the start and it didn’t get much better after that. I really don’t like this idea of countries choosing an artist separately from choosing their song. The artist and the song should go together to ensure that each artist is singing something that matches their voice and that they connect to. I wanted to take part in the international voting for Unser Song but it was tedious… Read more »
It was frustrating when she released the acoustic version since that sounded miles better than the ‘original.’ I think they’re on the right track in that they chose great vocalists, but yeah, the format is not helping them.
Even if they separated the contest, it would help: one to find the singer (like Unser song fur Eurovision), and one for the song (like Lena’s selection in 2011). Or if they at least internally chose the artist (one without scandal, I might add), then they can really focus on the song like they did for Lena.
I just wished she had a better song. I think Unser Song fur Eurovision needs to be revamped, Swedish style.
I’ve been saying that about the U.K. selection process for a couple of years now.
“And that’s what you call a perfect life” 😉 I love her positivity. She really was a worthy representative to Germany since she knows how to keep her head up while everyone at home is bringing her down.
I just wanted to point out that while it’s bad optics for direct qualifiers to constantly populate the last spots in the grand final this is what we should expect, statistically speaking. The other performances have already been vetted to be average or above average, in other words top 60% of the competition. Out of 6 direct qualifiers you’d expect 2-3 to fall below this standard and finish in the bottom. There’s of course also the disadvantage of having had less exposure. I’m not saying this is an excuse to send mediocre songs ofc, we all expect a lot from… Read more »
I wonder if Manel will risk giving an interview.
It look like Germany’s national selection format didn’t work after all. 🙁
“Milinium”
I’m still sorry for her, she deserved a better song. For example “Echo”, a track from her new album, wouldn’t have done so badly.
No perdona yo soy hijo de mi madre y de mi padre, que me conceberon por un acto de Amor, soy Canario y Español y Europeo. No puedo entender esta idea recista sobre la humanidad, mi pueblo ancestro ” Los Guanches” fueron exterminados y exclavisados, pero hay que mirar hacia adelante, para crecer evolucionar y saber convivir con los demás pueblos del mundo, sin agresividad y odio al prójimo.
This German entry was flawless but also lacking personality.. I think they went for silver, but everything was just grey about this… This decade started of well for Germany with 3 top 10 finishes (one was a victory), but than they fell to the bottom of the ranking. In fact, if you rank the ‘big five’, Germany is one of the best. Only Italy finishes on the left hand side more often than Germany. The worst performer is Spain, with 5 finishes in the bottom 5 of the ranking these past 8 editions… Also the United Kingdom is a poor… Read more »
Kind of not on topic but…. does anyone have the same problem as me?
More exactly – What to do after Eurovision?! Right now I’m watching it for the second time because TVP is airing it again. To be honest just now I’m tearing up… I just can’t believe it’s over!
Jup. Now the waiting game begins again…
Oh I know exactly how you are feeling! I’ve been an emotional wreck. I can’t believe it’s over!! I can’t wait another year ? what do we do now??
Hopefully Spain and Germany will finally learn their lesson after this year.
Spain finishing last was honestly the safest bet of the whole final. I was feeling sad because of Italy’s placing, but the Manel memes lifted my spirit to the stratosphere. Good to see Levina is taking it with good humour too.
Hardly surprised by this. Predicted bottom of the totem pole for both Germany and Spain from the beginning. Mediocre, run-of-the-mill, unoriginal, uninspiring and generic songs will get you nowhere–except if you’re Sweden *wink*.
Anyway, both Germany and Spain should consider finals that offer more quality songs, not just limited to two or three. Also, don’t just limit it to amateurs that are pre-selected by so-called professionals. The Spanish and German national finals were a joke. Peace. 🙂
Broadcaster NDR has been responsible for the Eurovision Song Contest since 1996. The main issue is that they don’t understand how the contest works. They always try to select something that is “nice” and appeals to everybody – they still believe that the middle of the road is the right way to success. If there is a national final with various songs, their intention is always to display a wide variety of styles (so that as many people as possible watch the show) instead of just picking good songs. Most of the successful German entries in that period (1998, 2000,… Read more »
Your first paragraph could also apply to the BBC in the UK. Although they did engage some Eurovision experts this year, so perhaps the problem isn’t so simple. I do now feel that the BBC should now look for willing acts via the radio stations 6Muic, 1Xtra and the Asian Network. There ought to be time for them to come up with something completely different for 2018.
I thought the British entry this year was very interesting because it seemed to be the first in long time that seemed designed to appeal to the general Eurovision audience – as opposed to the ‘f-you we’ll do what we like’ approach they have seemed to adopt in past years (which is fine if you don’t care about winning). And lo and behold, they were rewarded with the best result in years. It will be interested to see how this progresses next year.
I feel bad for her… 🙁 I really like her! She is charismatic, her voice is amazing, but “Perfect Life” is not a good song. She definitely deserved a better spot. Germany needs to improve its National Selection, Levina was the best choice, but both “Perfect Life” and “Wildfire” were weak songs.
What did they expect with that song? Top 10?
Sadly Armenia flopped so hard.
Latvia finishing last will force fewer countries to send dance/electronic songs.
Australia and Sweden overrated by the juries, as usual.
Montenegro’s jury rigged, San Marino’s zzzZZZzzz.
The juries were supposed to save songs like “Blackbird” not to kill them.
I don’t want to take away the Portuguese victory, they deserved.
However, this year’s results are VERY difficult to understand.
The final top 4 was the same as the televote top 4 in the end, but what about Australia finishing 9th with only 2 televote points? The juries simply need to be eradicated. Portugal broke all boundaries and snatched 12 points left and right.
I think Germany’s ESC delegation are doing this on purpose.
She was awful!
I agree. Regardless of the denial by Germans, It was a stolen song. And while she is likeable and a competent performer, that dress makes her the front runner for Barbara Dex Award.
Yep. I said as much about her being a Dex candidate last night.
A beautiful song from Salvador Sobral. You thank me later.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nglpp3QSiI
Congratulations Portugal. You deserve it. Record points ever, record 12 points given, unanimously highest score from jury votes and televote from 42 countries with 400 millions people. Beautiful and a hearthbreaking song. Eurovision made history.
It was one of my favourite songs of this Eurovision. I didn’t like the staging though; it seemed to jar with the song and with her personality. I saw her as being a bit ‘rougher’; more of an alley cat than a Marlene Dietrich.
That said, Germany clearly have some sort of structural problem. Since winning in 2010 they’ve sent largely similar kinds of song. They’ve often been good (Ann Sophie in particular), but they haven’t reached the heights of ‘Satellite’. Maybe they do need to change it up a bit – even if its just sending a male singer!
German tabloids are full with pictures of Levina crying in the Green Room. 🙁
Like a few other countries out there. Either they have forgotten how to win, or they have given up trying to win. And since when is next-to-last supposed to be a GOOD thing? She got even fewer points than Jamie-Lee (11)! How many points would she have have received, if the composite method of the years leading up to 2015 were still in place? I wouldn’t be surprised if came out to zero, which would have been Germany’s 2nd nul-point effort. Italy and France are pulling their weight. The U.K. is trying but they need to avoid making a boneheaded… Read more »
Yeah… in fact, someone made the calculation with the old voting system and Germany came last with nul-points
Isn’t it supposed to be original song….
I mean …. David Guetta – Titanium ft. Sia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRfuAukYTKg
“Top third”. Not sure if shameless or lacking judgment.
She was so close to get points in televoting in Armenia. But people had voted in large scales for some other songs( anyway, she has stolen my heart, German beauty( I’ll be following her later. Greetings from Armenia.
Are we going to talk about Manel’s awful voice crack? How do you screw up a song that’s already bad?
To be fair other editions have seen FAR worse cracks and vocal gaffes. And Manel did sing it all, as opposed to Imri or Samra…..
… or Demy
To be fair to him, his voice crack was nowhere near as bad as Isaiah’s on Tuesday.
But Isaiah had a reason to crack because of the song, Manel had a flat song with nothing in it.
Let’s talk about other contestants who were out of tune during all the performance or that their backvocalists sang the song for them (Samra, Demy, …). Manel cracked once, the rest of his performance is good.
Unfortunately that one crack was devastating to Manel. If it wasn’t as bad and as loud as it sounded, he would have finished ahead of Levina.