Unser Star für Baku started on January 12th, 2012. 20 artists competed for the honour of representing Germany in Baku. After seven shows including one quarter and one semifinal the final was held in Cologne tonight. The two remaining participants - Ornella de Santis and Roman Lob both performed three songs. There were two rounds of voting. During the first round the viewers had to pick one song per artist. In the second round they should determine the artist. All songs were played live by Stefan Raab's band The Heavytones.
The songs:
1) Roman Lob - Conflicted
The song starts very quiet, but builds up to a midtempo ballad with the first chorus. Roman can show the full variety of his voice. In the verses he has lots of emotions in his voice while in the chorus his voice is very powerful. A good opener, although a real highlight seems to be missing.
2) Ornella de Santis - Quietly
As the song title already predicts Quietly is a very quiet ballad with a very nice piano accompaniment. Ornella's voice fits excellent and her vocals are at a very high level again. At the end the song becomes more powerful. Ornella already earns applause during her performance.
3) Roman Lob - Alone
Alone is very similar to Roman's first entry. It is a midtempo song which starts quiet and becomes more powerful during the song. Again Roman delivers a flawless vocal performance.
4) Ornella de Santis - Alone
Ornella's version of the song is more uptempo. In the verses she seems to be more stronger than Roman, but in the chorus it was Roman who has a little bit more power in his voice. Good performance by Ornella, but not as strong as her first entry.
5) Roman Lob - Standing still
Roman's third song and it is again very similar to the first two that he has performed - quiet verse and midtempo chorus. His voice stands out in the chorus, but he seems to have some problems with the deeper notes in the verses. He gets a standing ovation by the audience.
6) Ornella de Santis - Standing still
Ornella's version contains more beat, but less rock elements. Her voice sounds better than during Alone, but Quietly still seems to be Ornella's highlight tonight.
The show:
The show started at 20.15 CET and was broadcasted by the public TV channel ARD/Das Erste. After all six entries had been performed we saw a short reprise of all songs and the lines were opened. There was no live voting this time. In the meantime a film was shown about Roman's and Ornella's work in the studio right after the semifinal.
These songs made it to the second round:
Roman Lob - Standing still
Ornella de Santis - Quietly
Both songs were performed again. This time we had a view at the live voting again. Ornella was in the lead when the live voting was shown. But very soon Roman took the lead. Maybe an influence of the live voting? After the newly performance of the songs Alina Süggeler and her band Frida Gold presented her big hit Wovon sollen wir träumen?
The results:
1. Roman Lob 50,7%
2. Ornella de Santis 49,3%
So Roman Lob will represent Germany singing Standing still in Baku. As a member of the Big Five Germany is already qualified for the final on May 26th, 2012. You can watch Roman's performance here.
