A bit of peace

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A bit of peace
Nicole
publication 1982
Genre (s) Pop , Schlager
Author (s) Ralph Siegel , Bernd opinion
album A bit of peace

A little peace is a song that was composed by Ralph Siegel as a German contribution to the Eurovision Song Contest in 1982 , the lyrics were written by Bernd Augener and presented by the then 17-year-old singer Nicole . It was the first German and after Merci, Chérie ( Udo Jürgens , 1966) the second German-language title to win the Eurovision Song Contest .

History of origin

Nicole herself had recently released two singles, Don't Fly So High, My Little Friend (released June 29, 1981) and The Old Man and the Sea (December 7, 1981). With the title Do not fly so high, Nicole had missed the preliminary decision for the Eurovision competition in 1981, but was able to achieve second place on the German charts . Ralph Siegel contributed the German contribution to this competition, which has been held since 1956. The motifs for the text were the emerging Falklands War in March 1982 and the ongoing retrofitting debate . The song apostrophizes the longing desire for peace in the world, which has to experience many warlike events. Opinion's text longs for supra-political peace and humanity. The text builds up to the end, where a choir sings the chorus , while Nicole lyrically involves the listener in a superimposed counterpoint melody .

The music recordings for A Bit of Peace were supervised by the music producer Robert Jung in the Olympia-Studio (then in Munich-Bogenhausen), which belonged to Ralph Siegel; Conny Jahn acted as sound engineer. The song was one of 807 compositions submitted to the jury of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutsche Musikwettbewerbe , 24 of which were presented to listeners by six broadcasters. A little peace only came in last. In the preliminary round, however, the young singer won confidently. After the radio semifinals, Nicole reached the German preliminary decision Ein Lied für Harrogate on March 20, 1982 in Munich , which she won with a large lead. In addition to the song, the visual presentation staged by Ralph Siegel also had an effect. Sitting on a stool, Nicole appeared in a demure-looking dress and accompanied herself on a white guitar. A harpist and the orchestra playing in white suits on white instruments (Ralph Siegel played the black piano) and white pedestals were also part of the scene. The color white is the peace color.

Eurovision Song Contest

Nicole: A Little Peace (1982)

At the Eurovision Song Contest on April 24, 1982 in Harrogate , England , Nicole appeared as the last of the eighteen participants. With the exception of Luxembourg, the piece received points from every country; nine countries gave the German contribution the highest number of points. In the end, he achieved first place with a total of 161 points and a hitherto unique advantage of more than five high scores, corresponding to 61 points over the runner-up. Until 1997, the point average was the record in the history of the competition. At the subsequent presentation of the winning title, Nicole performed parts of the song in English, French and Dutch.

Publication and Success

The single Ein bitchen Frieden / Thank You, Merci, Danke (Jupiter Records 6.13400) was released in Germany on March 22, 1982. After its release, the song was able to maintain its status as number one hit in Germany for five weeks, but remained in Austria two weeks, in Switzerland even eight weeks in first place. First places in other, non-German-speaking countries such as Belgium (three weeks), the Netherlands (four weeks) and Great Britain (two weeks) underpinned the commercial success of the song. The song was number one 500 in UK chart history. The peace ballad stayed in first place the longest at 11 weeks in Sweden . In Germany there was a gold record for over 250,000 units sold ; Thus, A Bit of Peace is still one of the best-selling German hits since 1975. The single sold over five million copies worldwide.

criticism

The song thus corresponded to the zeitgeist of the time. According to Jan Feddersen, the performance had vocal weaknesses, which, however, strengthened Nicole's authenticity. The ballad is satisfied with a "little peace", while pacifists demand "total peace". From the peace movement was a little peace therefore more added critical and sometimes perceived as provocation.

In the German press, the victory at the Eurovision Song Contest met with divided echo. The Stuttgarter Nachrichten described Nicole as "neither rhetorically trained nor particularly musically gifted" and judged the song: "The most important human need, namely peace, threatens to become a fashion gag. (...) Here a general concern became naive hit ". The FAZ, on the other hand, found that one could "be pleased that the wish for peace - articulated in the hit song - had received so much response, and at the same time regretted that the subject had become so topical".

After the Eurovision Song Contest, allegations of plagiarism arose. On the one hand, it was claimed that the chorus of the song was taken over from the interlude of All Love of this Earth sung by Julio Iglesias (melody: Bert Olden; text: Christian Heilburg). There, the defendant countered the allegation that he had not thought of this interlude when composing and that the corresponding tone sequence could not be subject to copyright law, since it was general and well-known music that lacked originality. The plaintiff obtained the approval of the complaint before the regional court in Munich, the appeal dismissed it. The legal dispute led to the Federal Court of Justice , which overturned the judgment of the last instance and referred it back there for further clarification of the facts.

Another allegation, according to which the text of the song was based on pieces from the musical Winnetou , was rejected by the Munich Higher Regional Court as unfounded.

Versions in other languages

In addition to German , the song was sung by Nicole in seven other languages:

There are also translations into other languages, such as:

The singer Eleni Tzoka recorded a Polish version called Troszeczkę ziemi . The singer Ralph Glomp produced a version in Esperanto called Iom da Paco .

In 2008 Panzerballett released a cover of the song on their album Starkestücke .

In 2011 the minimal electro band Welle: Erdball released a (German) cover version of the song on their album Der Kalte Krieg.

Chart placements

year title Chart placements album
DE AT CH UK NO SE NL BE
1982 A little peace ( Nicole ) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 A bit of peace

literature

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ Ingo Grabowski, Martin Lücke: The 1000 hits of the century. 2008, p. 66 f.
  2. ↑ Ingo Grabowski, Martin Lücke: The 1000 hits of the century. 2008, p. 66.
  3. ↑ ... «A little peace» -Nicole? In: schweizer-illustrierte.ch. May 12, 2011. Retrieved March 29, 2012 .
  4. ↑ Jan Feddersen: A song can be a bridge. Hoffmann and Campe Verlag, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-455-09350-7 , p. 196.
  5. ^ Holger Stürenberg: Forever Young. 2001, p. 63.
  6. ↑ Jan Feddersen: A song can be a bridge. 2002, p. 194.
  7. ↑ Stuttgarter Nachrichten , quoted in in "Voices of Others: Marketed Longing for Peace", Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , April 30, 1982, p. 2.
  8. ^ WWS, "Friedens-Hit", Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , April 26, 1982, p. 23.
  9. ↑ Federal Court of Justice, judgment of February 3, 1988, Az. I ZR 142/86. In: New legal weekly. (NJW) 1989, pp. 387-389. (available online) .
  10. ↑ Oberlandesgericht München, judgment of March 24, 1988, Az. 6 U 1983/86.
  11. ↑ Entry about the musical in the Karl May Wiki (with reference to the legal dispute).
  12. ↑ A little peace at diggiloo.net.
  13. ↑ A little peace at coverinfo.de.
  14. ^ Sources: DE AT CH UK NO SE NL
predecessor Office successor
Making Your Mind Up
( Bucks Fizz )		 Winner song of the Eurovision Song Contest
1982 		Si la vie est cadeau
( Corinne Hermès )
Johnny Blue
( Lena Valaitis )		 Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest
Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest
1982 		Consideration
( Hoffmann & Hoffmann )