Music industry: His dream: Again to the ESC – Ralph Siegel becomes 80

Ralph Siegel describes himself as the old ESC rabbits. And the old ESC hare has a dream: he wants to be there again at the Eurovision Song Contest. “It just excites me to start with Germany again,” he told the German Press Agency. He is 80 years old today. He wants to celebrate the rounds in the Freundeskreis.

The composer can look back on a long, successful and headlined career, with ups and downs, with gold records and financial setbacks. His passion for music has always remained.

Siegel wrote more than 2,000 songs, not just “Fiesta Mexicana”. The list of hits he composed and/or produces seems endless: “You can’t always be 17”, “Greek wine”, “a bit of fun must be”, “Moscow” and, and, and.

The over hit “a little peace”

And then of course there is the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), which used to be called Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson. In 1982 he made it in 1st place when the only 17-year-old singer Nicole with Siegel’s song “A little peace”, texted by Bernd opinioner, started. Overall, he made the second place three times between 1974 and 1999, twice the third and twice. Later, when the top positions failed to materialize, he received a lot of malice. Swam over it.

Ralph Siegel is a music enthusiast that is difficult to imagine in retirement. Despite health problems, he is full of energy, which can also be felt in the telephone interview.

“Life demands a lot from you, I have to say. I have been active in this profession for more than 60 years, so of course I also drove a bit of overexploitation,” he confesses. “When it got late in the past – and it was usually very late for us – I also liked to look too deep into the glass. I didn’t hold back there and feel quite fit with 80.”

He survived cancer and heart surgery. Now polyneuropathy is being troubled by him. “But I thank the dear God for every year that he gives me.” Also because he is happy with his fourth wife Laura, as he says. The 80th birthday also means “some coping with the past because there are many people with whom I have spent part of my life and which I can no longer invite”.

Seal: too little German music on the radio

Otherwise he is always confronted with memories: “I have just seen a ZDF interview from 40 years ago. I predicted many things about the future of music in Germany, namely that one day there will be 20 and more TV channels. I have already said that more German-language artists should be played on radio.”

Seal, 50 percent of the program, should be German -speaking. “Now 40 years have passed and it is sad to see how few artists managed to survive this time.” Of course there are Udo Lindenberg and Otto, Herbert Grönemeyer and pure. Fortunately, his artist was also paid a lot of attention.

How little German music is played on radio and television in this country in this country, he finds “simply unbearable”. It is very different in France or Italy. He himself could still live from his music, others could no longer. “The CDs have disappeared. Everything is only digital. Of course, the shares of the so -called authors and makers are incredibly low and you hardly dare to produce something because you no longer record what it costs.”

He doesn’t really see light at the end of the tunnel. There are no longer any television shows like the “Hitparade” in which artists could present themselves. At best, newcomers to the profession still have opportunities as a singer-songwriter because they could then earn money through appearances, says Siegel. “Of course that’s great if you can do it, like Howard Carpendale, Peter Maffay or Roland Kaiser, last so long.”

Concentration on musicals

A matter close to the heart is Ralph Siegel his second career: “I have a great pleasure that I still succeeded in autumn of my life what I wanted for a lifetime: to bring musicals on stage.” The play “Zeppelin” can be seen again in the Festspielhaus in Füssen from October 16. “Incidentally, I am working on two other musicals that are almost finished, but to bring it onto the stage, it takes years.”

Overall, he is very grateful to life, says the composer. “I am a happy person and I hope that I can live on this actually very nice earth for a few more years – and that these incredibly terrible times we are experiencing by.” In view of the bad events in the world – whether Ukraine or Gaza – he is happy “that we wrote this little song:” A little peace “”.