Commentary: Lena Brings the Promethean Fire (Satis Shroff, Germany)

Lena Brings the Promethean Fire (Satis Shroff)
Subtitle: Lovely Lena in European Orbit (Satis Shroff)

It was a long time ago that Nicole sang her ‘Ein bisschen Frieden’ at the Eurovision Song but now Lena Mayer-Landrut has put Germany back on the charts again. We Germans are usually judged according to the annals of history in almost every field for the damocles sword of the cause of World War II still looms in the heads of the people of this world.

In this year’s European Song Contest what the world expected was a teutonic run-of-the-mill singing machine like the rest of the participating nations. What came was an authentic, unpretentious 19 year old girl who’d just done the equivalent of the GCSE ‘A’ level (Abitur) and was out to discover the world of music akin to Alice in Wonderland. Lena Meyer-Landrut was young, sympathetic, not at all perfect, didn’t have any star allure. She was just herself, a genuine lady from Hannover and she evoked sympathy in the hearts of the audience. You could feels the hormones working on her and you had to go with her. She rose to the occasion in Oslo, and even donned a red-blue knitted cap with the Norwegian colours during a ship ride with other participants of the Eurovision Song Contest.

In the German single charts Lena landed on the fourth place with her Eurovision title ‘Satellite’ because she her song was in English and not in German. Rapper Sido managed to get the second place. Knaan with ‘Wavin’ Flag’, a soccer song through the courtesy of Coca Cola, was the winner. The band Unheilig (unholy) was the third with the song ‘Geboren um zu leben’ (Born to Live). Lena brought out a debut album ‘My Cassette Player’ which bears good contemporary pop-songs.

Like at every Eurovision Contest, which is also a great feast of languages in the European community, you could see different neighbouring nations supporting their own immediate political and cultural neighbours or distributing their votes to nations that weren’t favourites due to diplomatic reasons. Even the countless votes from east european countries couldn’t bring Safura 17, to the top. The 18 year old Anna Bergendah with ‘This is my life’ didn’t make it either. ‘Ik ben verliefd (Shalalie) sang a charming 18 year old Sienke from the Netherlands. But it was Lena who stole the show. Lene’s to be seen in almost every German channel, even on You Tube.com.

Israel, for instance, didn’t vote for Germany. The hoary past seems still to play a role in cultural decision-making, which actually should bring the people of different countries together. This is a chance to bury the hatchet and not to nurse old wounds. A case of the ratio at work instead of the emotio in the heads of those responsible in Tel Aviv. Forgivess, Shalom, Miteinander (togetherness) ought to be the order of the day.

Nevertheless, a good many European nations were delighted by 19 year old Lena who sang a love song in which she hovered like a Harrier-jet or rather a satellite around the man she was wooing in her song. It was a wonderful lyric, a declaration of love, that suited Lena’s personality and character. She developed ‘butterflies in her stomach’ as we put it in German. The audience swooned when she came on-stage and performed. She came, sang and conquered the hearts of the Europeans with her Promethean fire. Es hat gefunkt.

Meyer-Landrut is like an infection and has taken Europe by storm and has reached pandemic proportions. It that doesn’t get you, then nothing will. To quote the Bard:

When Love speaks, the voice of all the gods
Makes heaven drowsy with the harmony.

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Autor Biographie

Satis Shroff ist Dozent, Schriftsteller, Dichter und Kunstler und außerdem Lehrbeauftragter für Creative Writing an der Albert Ludwigs Universität Freiburg. Er hat sechs Bücher geschrieben: Im Schatten des Himalaya (Gedichte und Prosa), Through Nepalese Eyes (Reisebericht), Katmandu, Katmandu (Gedichte und Prosa mit Nepali autoren) Glacial Whispers (Gedichtesammlung zwischen 1997-2010). Er hat zwei Sprachführer im Auftrag von Horlemannverlag und Deutsche Stiftung für Entwicklungsdienst (DSE) geschrieben, außerdem drei Artikeln über die Gurkhas, Achtausender und Nepals Symbolen für Nelles Verlags ‚Nepal’ und über Hinduismus in „Nepal: Myths & Realities (Book Faith India). Sein Gedicht „Mental Molotovs“ wurde im epd-Entwicklungsdienst (Frankfurt) veröffentlicht. Seine Lyrik sind in Slow Trains, International Zeitschrift, World Poetry Society (WPS), New Writing North, Muses Review, The Megaphone, Pen Himalaya, Interpoetry publiziert worden. Er ist ein Mitglied von Writers of Peace, poets, essayists, novelists (PEN), World Poetry Society (WPS) usw.

Satis Shroff lebt in Freiburg (poems, fiction, non-fiction) und schreibt über ökologische, medizin-ethnologische und kultur-ethnische Themen. Er hat Zoologie und Botanik in Nepal, Sozialarbeit und Medizin in Freiburg und Creative Writing in Freiburg und UK studiert. Da Literatur eine der wichtigsten Wege ist, um die Kulturen kennenzulernen, hat er sein Leben dem Kreatives Schreiben gewidmet. Er arbeitet als Dozent in Basel (Schweiz) und in Deutschland an der Akademie für medizinische Berufe (Uniklinik Freiburg). Ihm wurde der DAAD-Preis verliehen.