German broadcaster NDR recently staged a Eurovision Q&A about ‘Unser Song für Israel’ — its national selection for Eurovision 2019. During the stream the delegation announced that a seventh act will join the six already announced. As you’ll already know, this surprise entry is the female duo Sisters (that’s Carlotta Truman and Laurita) with the song ‘Sister’. Looking closely into the songwriter credits, a familiar name stands out: Laurell Barker.
For those who don’t remembering her: She was responsible for some amazing tunes last season. She was the genius behind Renaida’s Melodifestivalen debut “All the feels”, which achieved ninth place in Sweden’s national final.
She also gave Asanda the bop “Legends” for UK´s You Decide. The song emerged as an early favourite among Eurofans — and one that many would have been proud to see on the ESC stage.
Laurell does not only slay as a songwriter: she’s also an amazing singer and performer. In fact, she wowed us at the Wiwi Jam in Lisbon by performing “Legends” to a sold-out crowd. In a sense the song did make it to Eurovision.
But of all Laurell’s Eurovision 2018 exploits, perhaps the greatest was watching ZiBBZ perform her song “Stones” in the semi-finals. It almost made the final, which is a rather good result for Switzerland of late.
Now she’ll take part in Germany’s final as a songwriter and we can’t wait to see what she offers. She co-wrote the song together with Marine Kaltenbacher, Tom Oehler and Thomas Stengaard, the man involved in Michael Schulte’s “You Let Me Walk Alone”. Another interesting fact is that “Sister” is the only entry in which the performers are not listed as co-writers. Given that Laurell created a bop with plenty of horns, a pop-rock song and a dance entry for last year’s selection season, there’s no way of knowing what genre “Sister” will kiss. But given that the group behind it includes two solid vocalists, we’re expecting lots of harmonies.
Entertainment coordinator Thomas Schreiber mentioned during the Q&A-session that the duo was cast for this very song. It seems like the song was sufficiently strong that NDR sought out suitable candidates, despite having six other acts already.
What are you expecting from “Sister” Did you like Laurell’s earlier songs? Tell us in the comments below!
Headline is a bit inaccurate, but I’m glad she will return to write. She had some great songs last year!
She can’t win. France already sending a song about female empowerment (Bilal).
France can’t send Bilal. Israel already sent a song about female empowerment last year 😉
Wait, I’m slightly confused by the article: is Laurell competing or is she just co-writing one of the songs?
Co-writing.
All these three songs were bangers. Too bad they didn’t get what they deserved.
Stones was criminally underrated.