German Schlager Festival 1959
The first German Schlager Festival took place on November 17, 1959 in the Rhein-Main-Halle in Wiesbaden . The organizer was Radio Luxemburg, a radio station popular with Schlager fans at the time . At the start were 22 titles, which were presented by a total of 30 performers. They were all accompanied by the Max Greger Orchestra . The winners were determined by the audience in the hall, the listeners of Radio Luxemburg and the readers of various radio magazines.
The model for the event was the Sanremo Festival , which has been taking place in Italy since 1951 . However, the response to the November 1959 event was very subdued. The competition titles were also hardly to be found in the charts. Only Laurie London reached number 10 in the charts with his song Bum-Ladda-Bum-Bum .
However, the festival made German music producers aware that it was time to do something for popular music in Germany. At first it seemed as if the first German Schlager Festival in Baden-Baden could be held in 1960 in competition with the Schlager Festival in Wiesbaden. But this event was canceled again at short notice, so that in 1960 the Schlager Festival was re-launched in Wiesbaden .
Participant 1959
(has to be added)
| space | title | Interpreter |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | What would it be without you | Ruth Fischer & Will Brandes |
| 2. | Blacky Jones | Rainer Bertram |
| 3. | Jenny-Jo | Rainer Bertram |
Other participants included Chris Howland ( Little Girl from Berlin; Prize of the Wiesbaden Audience), Margot Eskens ( Peter and Susann; Teenage Song Prize) and Laurie London (Bum-Ladda-Bum-Bum).
literature
- Ilse Dirnaichner: German Schlager Festival. 1st chapter. In: memory magazine. Issue 61, 1998, pp. 20-23