Here at ESCBubble Towers, we are happy to celebrate the successes of Eurovision icons, and there can be none more iconic than Ralph Siegel, prolific composer of some of our favourite ever entries who turns 73 years old today!

Ralph was born in Munich, Germany on 30 September 1945 and to date has written an amazing 27 songs that have appeared in our beloved contest. These have been for countries as diverse as Switzerland, Montenegro, Luxembourg, Germany and, most recently, San Marino.  He has also been responsible for countless National Final entries for the likes of Austria, Ireland, Ukraine, Moldova and Malta!

His greatest success came in 1982 when the contest was held in Harrogate in the United Kingdom, and the song “Ein Bißchen Frieden” sung by Nicole, won the contest by a country mile.

Ralph’s Eurovision journey however started back in 1972 where he submitted an impressive 3 songs into the German National Final, sadly none of which were placed.

He managed to secure a place at the contest though in 1974, where Ireen Sheer took his composition ” Bye Bye I Love You” all the way to Brighton, representing Luxembourg, where she finished 4th. Ireen went on to enter for Luxembourg again with another Siegel composition “Children, Kinder, Enfants” in 1985, only managing 13th on that occasion.

From the late 70’s up until the early 00’s. Siegel provided some of the Eurofans most loved German entries, from the classic “Dschinghis Khan” in 1979, through to Mekado’s “Wir geben ‘ne Party” in 1994 and Lou’s “Let’s Get Happy” in 2003, which became the last of his German Eurovision entries.

Ralph began to look further afield for Eurovision success, and in 2004, 2005 and 2009, he created a string of entries for the Maltese National Finals for singers such as Eleanor Cassar, none of which managed to be selected.

Siegel songs continued to randomly appear in National Finals in the coming years, including the operatic “Mondo Blu” which very nearly got the ticket for Ukraine in 2012, finishing 3rd behind Gaitana and Max Barskih

2012 will, of course be remembered by Eurovision fans as the debut of Valentina Monetta for San Marino, and it marked the beginning of a long association between the singer and Ralph Siegel. The original “Facebook, Uh, Oh, Oh (A Satircal Song)” was renamed “The Social Network Song” as commercial messages were not allowed in the contest. Valentina and Ralph continued to work together, with “Crisalide (Vola)” in 2013, “Maybe” in 2014 and “Spirit Of The Night” in 2017 – “Maybe” marked the first (and to date, the only) qualification by San Marino into the Grand Final in Copenhagen. Was it the appearance on stage of the great man himself  that pushed San Marino into their best ever result?

Researching this article has revealed some amazing facts about Ralph Siegel and his long association with the Eurovision Song Contest.  Have we seen the last of the Siegel songs? Only time will tell!

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