USC 1976 IS GERMAN HOSTILE

Again outrageous decitions from UBU 1976 organisers. This time both of them concern Germany. Not only the West Germany (BRD) but as well the East Germany (DDR).

Debacle on "Daddy Cool"
First , as most of you already are aware of "Daddy Cool" with the german supergroup Boney M was considered as non German and was disqualified because the male voices in all their songs is not considered important.Boney M. is a pop and disco group created by West German record producer Frank Farian. The four original members of the group's official lineup were Liz Mitchell and Marcia Barrett (Jamaica), Maizie Williams (Montserrat), and Bobby Farrell (Aruba).
German founder of the group Frank Farian began recording Boney M.'s first LP, for which Marcia Barrett had already recorded some songs with Farian: these were the title track and "Lovin' or Leavin'", both previously recorded in German by another Farian act, Gilla. While Maizie Williams' voice wasn't considered good enough for recording purposes by Farian, and a try-out with Bobby Farrell doing "No Woman No Cry" didn't work, Farian decided to use only Liz Mitchell and Marcia Barrett along with his own studio created deep male voice and high falsetto voice to create the Boney M. sound. But this is not enough for USC. In search in internet you get hits by the combination "Boney M and Germany" more than 2 times more often than "Boney M and Jamaica". Numerous music websites also speak about "the German pop success", "The famous pop group from Germany". If there ever was a soul of Boney M it is definatelly German. Mrs Germany, Liza was forced to replace Daddy cool with another song which she has done now.

Helena paparizou was born in Sweden and has Greek parents and has been living all her life in Sweden but since her "soul" and "nationality" is said to be Greek she can and has represented Greece in USC. How conveniently nice for Mr Babis. Oh, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad who was born in Norway with a Norwegian mother and German father is definatelly Swedish because she moved there and has been singing, recording and living there and so on in Sweden according to Alan . Well, Mr Alan and Babis these arguments is bound to be the same when it comes to Boney M as well. They were, sure born in many different non German countries but has been living for many many years in Germany where they recorded and had their lives just like Frida and the "soul" of them is German by no doubt. Mr Babis claims that some of the members moved back to Jamaica. Sorry, but this is very much a plan to eliminate competition from others. Favours to fav countries Greece and Sweden while poor Germany is standing without the biggest German hit ever in the history of music and it is...yes folks...disqualified on grounds that seams to be no other than that German has special appartheid rules.

Debacle on "DDR in 1976"
Now if this was not enough. As you might remember Germany was devided in 2 back in 1976. West and East. In USC 1975 both west and east germany was participating. In 1976 however DDR (East Germany) is no longer a country. A application to participate in 1976 was formally sent in to the UBU but was refused and DDR has been denied entry in USC 1976. The reason is that it is very hard to found information about if an artist from germany is considered west or east due to the lack of information. Well United News Magazine (UMM) has found plenty of information on artists who recorded and performed in 1976 west as well as east. There could have been a ruling also that east and west Germany can "borrow freely" from one another just like Cyprus and Greece has been allowed to do since their artists also belong to the same "national entity" and let DDR stay in USC but no, it was not the result. DDR stand without a participating ticket even though they had an East German song.

Different rules for Greece and Germany again. UMM has found out in their research that many artists who was either born in east germany or had been working as professional artists was banned from singing by the communists and had no alternative than to be imprisoned or silenced or even sent even futher east. The denial of the existence of a nation called DDR is a humiliating and discriminating scandal for all these suffering artists in music. All these events together makes us draw the simpliest of conclusions: there is a hostile anti-german UBU at the moment.

So for you who love both West and East German music we give you the real west and east german 1976 songs. Greg, Mr France has "no comments". Mr Greece, Babis commented that "history will judge us". Indeed.

Boney M - Daddy Cool (from 1976 TV show)


Puhdys - Lebenszeit (a live performance from 1999, 23 years after the refusal, this song is still loved by almost everyone in the audience).