The Swiss dropped their ‘Entscheidungsshow’ as a selection format this year, officially for budgetary reasons, though with only two qualifications in eight years (one of which then finished last), you imagine it wasn’t a difficult decision to make. Instead, in came a convoluted internal selection with 200 national and international jurors whittling down a list of songs, one of which ended up as the German entry! Each of the many broadcasters were able to add in wildcards, which you assume, given his omission from the announced shortlisted entries, Luca Hänni was.
Hänni’s a former winner of the German Idol franchise and was already on the radar of many fans of European pop after teaming up with German super schlager songstress Helene Fischer for a duet. The performance saw her rip his shirt off before thrusting and writhing on a bed in an erotically-charged performance. Many fans of a certain demographic will be hoping for a similar flesh-fest in Tel Aviv, as Luca rides the Latin vibe with this lively pop song.
Speaking of Germany, you’ll recall I was mentioning those song writing camps as I reviewed their entry. They’ve proven fruitful, as not only is Laurell Barker, one of the German song’s writers, behind the Swiss entry, she also has a hand in the UK’s entry which is coming up in the Countdown. I don’t want to spoil my thoughts about our home entry, but this is the best of those three, and has helped Switzerland climb to fourth favourite with the bookies. I think that’s a bit optimistic, but this should bring the Swiss their best result in years.
Monty’s score: 8 points