Cascada will represent Germany in this year’s contest with ‘Glorious’. See its winning performance in yesterday’s national final here. The song is an uplifting eurodance track very much in the mould of last year’s winner ‘Euphoria’, as Ben Cook was the first to admit in our comments section.
The group are a very big fish by Eurovision standards with over 20 million album sales under frontwoman Natalie Horler’s corset. Their most successful hit ‘Evacuate the Dancefloor’ was a UK number one in 2009, charted highly across western Europe and went platinum in the US. Horler is a highly familiar face.
All this led Nick D to shrewdly ponder the ‘Producers’ Dilemma’: biggest likely name, big song – where do you choose to put it in the running order? First or last makes sense but then there’s a risk you “crown it or kill it”. I’ll add that it also represents one of the ‘Big 5’ who contribute the most financially to the contest.
It’s a bit of a conundrum for punters too.
Firstly, let’s deal with the fact that ‘Glorious’ is so obviously from the same template as ‘Euphoria’. In Cascada’s defence, the latter was hardly original and ‘Glorious’ fits in very comfortably with their established back catalogue of eurodance they themselves helped become mainstream.
Will juries and televoters be so forgiving? Modern Eurovisions have not witnessed two such similar efforts winning back-to-back. There must be a fear that too many people will judge that ‘Glorious’ is jumping on the coattails of ‘Euphoria’.
Another related problem for Cascada is that Loreen’s striking presentation of ‘Euphoria’ helped it transcend the genre, a particular achievement with ballad-favouring juries where it was the runaway winner. Dance tracks had a notoriously bad record in the contest previously. Admittedly most of them had been poor and/or badly performed, but even the effectively if traditionally delivered ‘This is My Life’ failed to reach the top ten for Iceland in 2008.
Loreen came up with the antithesis of this shiny, air-punching triumphalism for something far more dark and mysterious. In hindsight, it was a key element of the winning package. We are not to know how ‘Glorious’ will be staged in Malmo, but it seems highly likely to be a more conventional affair of the kind we saw in the German final, closer to the Euroband model than the ‘Euphoria’ one.
To be fair, Natalie did a tremendous job of selling ‘Glorious’ there. Her vocals were strong, she looked like she was having fun and she worked the stage as much as anyone could be expected to given the demands on her voice. The professionalism she displayed and the nature of the song helped lift the arena, which will be handy come Malmo. Arguably juries won’t ignore that, however much she may suffer with the ‘Euphoria’ comparisons among this constituency in particular.
It will be interesting to speculate how juries mark the German entry relative to the Norwegian club track, ‘I Feed You My Love’. Panos has already speculated that the more “artistic”, less “Eurovisiony” feel and presentation of the latter may be popular among these panels. I’m inclined to agree and that may help Margaret Berger have the edge over Cascada here.
With televoters that may be reversed though we’ll have to see if the Norwegian staging becomes more viewer-friendly. Cascada have a far more mainstream number and the benefit of a ready-made fanbase. It was surely rather favourable to their chances in the national final to have the presenter remind viewers when introducing ‘Glorious’ of their previous success in the UK, Sweden, the Netherlands and France among others.
The flip side of being a big name is that bookmakers and other punters overrate its importance and the price reflects this. Actually, immediate reaction to Cascada’s success was slightly muted on Betfair, where ‘Glorious’ currently stands at close to its best price of 12-1 among the High Street firms. But the name and strong national final performance should see support largely hold firm. Does this make Germany a lay opportunity?
I don’t think it’s this year’s winner for reasons I have given above. But looking for a 40% return from my Eurovision week means that I’m not tempted to lay that outright price anytime soon, especially if as expected it remains among the market leaders.
What about in the Top Ten market? Here I have built up large liabilities before the contest laying fan favourites such as Hungary (2011) and Cyprus (2012). I can’t see myself doing the same for Germany at the moment. This is mainly because Natalie Horler is such a professional on stage compared to what we knew beforehand of X Factor also-rans Kati Wolf and Ivi Adamou, who – to be fair to both – didn’t disgrace themselves.
Cascada have their fans and detractors. I recognise that it’s not sophisticated stuff but I enjoy bopping to ‘Evacuate The Dancefloor’ as much as anybody and I look forward to doing the same for ‘Glorious’. Either way, this kind of big name is only good for the profile of the contest and punters looking to take positions on either side. Where do you stand? Let us know below.
Right im going to be as honest as I can here, I kind of hyped this up a lot from day one, im going to compare this with loreen a lot now this is all my oppinion. Is the song alone as good as euphoria? Its pretty close in my view they are both catchy dance songs with a similar chorus. Is the staging so far as good as euphoria? No chance in hell euphoria wipes the floor with it in this respect. And lastly I do prefer loreens vocals too. I wasnt blown away with tonights performance but still rate it a contender it still looks to me to be a televote magnet especially when u consider that cascada have the fanbase already. Jury is going to make or break this entry I know most of you guys think the jurys will destroy it but heres a couple of reasons why they might not 1 its got a lot of european chart pottential the jurys rewarded both lena and loreen after topping charts this is not an oppinion its a statistic And 2 well its cascada a well respected eurpean act it might make jurys take them more seriously and the vocals are decent enough anyway.
I noticed a chunk of money in the winner lay market at 14.50, with a market with not the greatest of liquidity someone fancies it. Now i wasn’t the biggest fan of Loreen’s euphoria, however looking back she was far better staged than Cascada’s Glorious maybe it was all those snowflakes, but to me Cascada doesn’t look as fresh. I think germany would of done better going with Betty Dittrich’s LaLaLa. My gut feeling is this may strugle for top ten even with an army of fans, but it’s funny after Emmelie de forest stage presents and Margaret berger song, Cascada falls alittle short.
To be honest, I don’t get the comparisons with Euphoria at all. Yes, Glorious is an uplifting eurodance track like a 100 times heard before while Loreen was moody, dark and with lot more tempo changes. This is cheap and if it wasn’t a “big name” I wouldn’t hesitate for top10 lay but there is plenty of time for it as I learned last year.
This is no Euphoria. Where’s the unique, almost intriguing staging? Where’s the irresistable hook? This to me is one of those songs that you listen to and moderately enjoy, and then forget you ever heard it 30 seconds after. We wouldn’t be talking about it if it wasn’t Cascada.
I’ve not come on here since December!! So much to read, so much to enjoy.
Germany aren’t going to win with that. Everything about it is average. It’s not even one of Cascada’s better songs.
I agree with Daniel and Ben Cook – this is basically Euphoria-lite, and light in every sense of the word:
– A lighter set
– A lighter mood to the song
– A lite-r version of Euphoria, in that the chorus starts to come close and then stops short of the intensity of Euphoria.
= NO WIN = for Germany.
With word play, and insight like the above, I should definitely make sure I comment more often as we gear up towards May.
Not a great song. Nat should ditch her djs\producers. The too dated.
The melody of Euphoria and Glorious is way too similar to be just a coincidence. It’s a cheap copy in my opinion. On top of that the music is a rip off of Swedish House Mafia’s Don’t you worry Child! Anyone noticed that? I don’t think people will vote for it as it is so similar to last year’s winner, especially when in most cases the winner has been more like the opposite of last year’s winner.
Hi Daniel, I think we got a strong top 10 contender last night in the Greek entry. Will you be writing an article? I don’t want to steal your thunder by posting my thoughts too quickly!
Hi Justin, article has just been finished. Will be uploaded in the next few hours so hold on. Thanks 🙂
I am not saying this is what will happen, but the juries were never shy in marking down well known performers (Engelbert Humperdinck, Dana International, Blue) or composers (”Get You”, ”Ovo je Balkan”, ”Ik ben verliefd (Sha-la-lie)”, ”That Sounds Good To Me”).
Cascada will win ESC 2013 with Glorious.
Best song and singer!
Really! This sounds like a Ibiza disco at 6 am.
An attack to my healthy neurons…
polluted
I enjoy Cascada’s song Glorious very much.
Germany will win.
Is no-one going to mention the elephant in the room. the massive wave of anti German sentiment sweeping across Europe on economic grounds. Will this really not influence the tele-vote? Given the goings on in Cyprus, I believe it will have a negative influence on the song.
Wasn’t last year also the case of ‘anti German sentiment’ (that didn’t hurt Roman’s televote btw) or am I mistaken?
It’s only southern Europe. Greece and Cyprus won’t vote for Germany but that shouldn’t make a huge difference.
Germany and Cascada will win and Natalie Horler will be Eurovision Song Contest Queen in Malmö.
The video on Youtube got 1,8 million klicks. I guess a new record.
After the line up completed and so many mid tempo and ballady songs I think its safe to say that if Germany gets drawn for the first half of the final Cascada will open the show. It fits perfectly, a party starter plus it will be no offence, as i dont think Germany˝s keen to win again after only 3 years. But I think it will still do respectably well even if it will open the show, because of grand fan base and little competition in the dance genre in the lineup.
Betty MacDonald fan club Eurovision Song Contest Song Contest Voting 2013 was very exciting. ESC fans from 40 countries took part.
Germany, Cascada and Glorious got the most points. In fact it wasn’t a big surprise that Cascada got most votes from neary every country. We never had a result like this although we are doing
ESC votes for 4 years.
Our ESC fans did it very well because our favourite became ESC winner every year. So the fans did a very good job.
According to Betty MacDonald fan club ESC votes Germany will be Eurovision Song Contest 2013.
Go for Cascada!
You can get Germany Top 10 @ -120 on Betfair. Surely Cascada with her name and popularity around Europe is guaranteed Top 10?!
I’d day we are going to meet each other in Berlin 2014 because Germany and Cascada will win Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö.
Glorious singer and song.
I just saw Cascada’s video on Youtube.
It got over 2 million clicks. It’s silly to say that there are only german fans who like it.
You can see Cascada has so many fans all over the world. Natalie Horler is brilliant!
We’ll vote for Cascada and Germany.
It’s the best entry and it should win.
By the way Germany didn’t receive many points from Greece or Cyprus in the past. Just the opposite.
I just checked it in my Eurovision Song Contest books and was very amazed regarding the votes of Greece or Cyprus. I seems it has nothig to do with the current political situation in Europe.
Is there still a way to see form where a video on youtube was most watched from? (some time ago there was a map at every video with shades of green indicating where views were coming from)
You can see the member profile on Youtube.
Most of them incl. the country the viewers are from.
In case of Cascada and Glorious the viewers are from all over the world.
I know many german ESC fans would be delighted if ESC 2014 would be in Germany.
ESC in Düsseldorf 2011 was a great experience.
I’m not german but I believe that they’d deserved to win some more ESCS,for example in 1962, 1975, 1977, 1979, 1981 and 1999. They only won twice.
ESC Düsseldorf 2011 was a great experience and we’d love to return to Germany.
Cascada should be the winner because this would be very positive for Eurovision Song Contest.
We don’t need one hit wonders any longer. You don’t hear anything from most winners after their victory. If Cascada wins ESC and we hope so very much it would encourage more famous interprets to take part. This would be Glorious for the future Eurovision Song Contest. Go for Gold, Cascada and rock Malmö. We love you.
Betty MacDonald fan club Eurovision Song Contest voting was really amazing.
Many ESC fans from 40 countries voted and the most votes in history got Cascada and Germany.
They got many points from every country.
There is a Betty MacDonald fan club ESC voting since 2009 and their winner became ESC winner every year.
I’d say it’s Germany with Cascada. Glorious is the best song and Natalie the best singer.
You think Betty MacDonald would also vote for Cascada? 😉
Seriously, Natalie winning seems inevitable so I will do all-in, see you guys in Hawaii in two months.
I don’t know what Betty MacDonald would vote.
I only know that many ESC fans from 40 countries voted for Cascada and Glorious!
They are doing this since 2009 and their winner
later won ESC every year. Why not this time?
In 2009, 2010 & 2012 even my cat could tell you the winner. Plus, after 4 consecutive successes, it is statistically time for a #fail.
What did your cat say in 2011?
Wrong, I guess.
What it really was amazing that we never had a wínner before with so many points.
As I said thousands of ESC fans from 40 countries
voted and Cascada got so many points. It’s a new record and you think they all are wrong and you are right.
We continue our Betty MacDonald fan club Eurovision Song Contest Voting because it’s so exciting this year. More ESC fans are very welcome. You can take part til May 10 and you can win two tickets for the final.
Thousands of Eurovison Song Contest fans already took part. Good luck!
Thousands of ESC fans in 40 countries voted for Cascada?
What’s the reason why? I’m amazed and surprised.
Perhaps it’s because the other songs are so bad.
I don’t like too many songs this year.
My Top 5: Iceland, Germany, Sweden, Uk and Ukraine.
I thought it was a rip off of Swedish house mafia too. The whole thing was unoriginal. Made a fool of herself in my opinion for copying on so many levels.