Image: VDPictures
For the Eurovision Song Contest this year, Germany brought back their national final titled ‘Unser Lied für Liverpool’ (Our Song for Liverpool) where winners Lord of the Lost became victorious. Now, they will represent Germany at Eurovision 2023 with their song ‘Blood and Glitter’. Want to know more about the metal band from Hamburg? Keep reading to discover more about their glittering (pun intended) career so far!
Who are Lord of the Lost?
The band were formed in 2007 by singer and guitarist Chris Harms, starting out as a solo project where he would publish his songs on the social media platform MySpace. Chris actually originally called his musical project ‘Lord’, but changed the name to ‘Lord of the Lost’ to avoid any possible name disputes with past Finnish Eurovision winners ‘Lordi’ and German band ‘The Lords’. As the project continued to grow he recruited other band members from the Hamburg music scene, and now alongside Chris is guitarist Pi Stoffers, bassist Klaas Helmecke, multi-instrumentalist Gared Dirge and drummer Niklas Kahl. In total they have released 8 albums with charting success across Germany, including their latest album also titled ‘Blood and Glitter’ hitting number one. In 2022, they accompanied the heavy metal legends Iron Maiden as special guests in an 18 show tour across 16 European countries. It’s safe to say they are a household name within the gothic metal scene.
Winning Unser Lied für Liverpool
Fans were definitely excited to see a band with a point of difference on the line-up for Germany’s national final this year and after the final line up was confirmed, Lord of the Lost certainly stood out. The producers also thought this, placing them last in the running order which only boosted their chances of winning.
With a lot of pressure for Germany to switch up their Eurovision approach from fans, it was no surprise to see them win Unser Lied für Liverpool with the public vote (146 points). They did however come 5th with the international jury (43 points), which gave them a final points total of 189.
Because of the way the German broadcaster NDR broke down the points, this meant it was enough to leap forward the rest of the competition despite their 5th place jury finish. The televote points up for grabs were the exact same amount of points you could get from the international juries, rather than the standard Eurovision voting system.
The Song: Blood and Giltter
As touched on, Germany has been criticised in Eurovision for sending safe, radio-friendly songs. This has been the criteria the delegation have looked for in their Eurovision entries: nice songs for playlists, but not really for a competition. Now, Germany have gone completely in the other direction with a song that really comes to life on stage thanks to the glam rock genre their 2023 entry represents. Not only does the musical aspect of the song take you on many twists and turns – with changes of pace and the contrast of Chris’ deep vocals to screams – the lyrics of ‘Blood and Glitter’ also have many sides, bringing together the harshness of life (the blood) and the joys of life the (glitter). The song expands on how these two opposites of life can exist and we should embrace them both as one.
Eurovision 2023
Now of course the big gig awaits Lord of the Lost – Eurovision 2023. As very seasoned performers, the stage show is certainly something that viewers can look forward to at the Eurovision grand final. The national final performance was exactly what many expected with the band dressed up in their red and gold costumes complete with heavy make up. Not forgetting the fire and pyro of course! Speaking to the Liverpool Echo, lead singer Chris expanded on their further staging plans for Eurovision:
“We’re still hoping for red fire rain because in the music video, we have this blood rain but this isn’t something you can do on stage because it looks way too brutal. I liked it in the music video from an artistic perspective so what I want is this gold rain in a red colour. We’re still working on that because while it’s technically possible it’s super expensive and not easy to create.”
Chris Harms speaking to the Liverpool Echo about Lord of the Lost Eurovision staging
The bands stage show aesthetic gives so much identity to them as well as the song, so it’s great to see that they are looking to go bigger than what they already did at the national final.
Overall, it’s great to see Germany take a different approach to the Eurovision Song Contest and with a band that has as many accolades as Lord of the Lost does, we’re sure they will put on a performance that will make their country proud.
What do you think of Lord of the Lost’s song for Eurovision 2023? Let us know in the comments and on our Twitter and Instagram!
