Taken by a stranger

Taken by a stranger
Lena
publication	February 22, 2011
length	3:24
Genre (s)	pop
Author (s)	Gus Seyffert , Nicole Morier , Monica Birkenes
album	Good news
Cover version
2017	The BossHoss

Lena

Taken by a Stranger (English for "Fascinated by a Stranger") is an English-language pop song with which the interpreter Lena came tenth in the Eurovision Song Contest on May 14, 2011 in Düsseldorf . It was written by Gus Seyffert , Nicole Morier and Monica Birkenes and produced by Stefan Raab and Reinhard Schaub for Lena's second studio album, Good News .

History of origin

The musician, lyricist and producer Gus Seyffert already worked with The Bird and the Bee . He lives and works in Hollywood. When Taken by a Stranger was created , he played a few chords to a beat and sang along with it. Nicole Morier and Monica Birkenes were involved with ideas and melodies. The song was recorded within a day and a half.

Stefan Raab and Lena selected Taken by a Stranger and eleven others from around 500 songs for the TV show Our Song for Germany on February 18, 2011. In the show, the audience voted the song in the final runoff as the winning song and thus the German contribution to the Eurovision Song Contest in their own country. On February 22, 2011, the song was released as a single.

Musical style

Taken by a Stranger is in the key of C minor and is notated in 4/4 time . The tempo is given in 160 BPM .

construction

The song consists of 132 bars.

The eight-bar intro is followed by the first verse of the same length. The line of text “Hey, mind if I take this chair?” Leads on to the second stanza. This is followed by the refrain "Taken by a stranger", which has sixteen bars. This is followed by the third stanza. The transition to the refrain begins with the line of text “Can't help it if you like it cause I won't be here tomorrow”. This is followed by an interlude of sixteen bars, followed by the fourth stanza, with only a bass drum and no melody instruments . The line of text “Hey, mind if I take this chair?” Leads back to the refrain. The song ends with a four bar outro.

Intro	1st verse	Reconciliation	2nd stanza	refrain	3rd stanza	Reconciliation	refrain	Interlude	4th stanza	Reconciliation	refrain	Outro
8th	8th	8th	8th	16	8th	8th	16	16	8th	8th	16	4th
	A.	B.	A.	C.	A.	B.	C.	D.	A.	B.	C.

Harmoniously, the stanzas consist of four-bar periods that are repeated as required. Only C ⁵ is heard for three bars . In the fourth bar there is a movement from the tonic - to the seventh -, then to the dominant - and finally back to the seventh chord, so that you can start over again or lead into the refrain. This is then very different from the previously played. It starts in the subdominant and then returns to the tonic after two bars. After jumping to the seventh, the melody is then routed back to C via E flat, in order to run through the chord progression of the last bar of the stanza period again in the last bar.

The Bridge brings with As not only a new chord root, but with G / B another chord structure; on this chord the third sounds instead of the fifth . Here, too, the characteristic tonic-seventh-dominant-seventh movement sounds at the end.

Characteristic of this song is the mixture of the simple, constant, very economical basic accompaniment - for example "4 on the Floor", " Power Chords " - and interspersed effects that arouse interest, attention and curiosity in the listener.

Music video

The music video for Taken by a Stranger was shown for the first time on February 24th, 2011 on Das Erste , right before the Tagesschau . The video was shot in Berlin under the direction of Wolf Gresenz .

There are two cut versions of the video, the original version broadcast on the first and a newer version published on the online platforms about a week later. In the new cut version, scenes with the background dancers in silver dresses are missing in the last third of the video. These scenes were replaced by further recordings with Lena. The CGI scene was also post-processed with a cracking mirror at the end of the video, so that Lena now appears in the mirror when she leaps into the mirror. In addition, the entire video was color-edited. The official online versions have now all been replaced by the new cut version.

Eurovision Song Contest 2011

→ Main article : Eurovision Song Contest 2011

Awarding of points for Germany

Points	number	countries
12 points	0 ×	-
10 points	1 ×	Austria
8 points	4 ×	Belarus , Denmark , Latvia , Switzerland
7 points	2 ×	Slovenia , Netherlands
6 points	3 ×	Iceland , Italy , Sweden
5 points	2 ×	Belgium , Norway
4 points	2 ×	Greece , Poland
3 points	4 ×	Bosnia and Herzegovina , France , Spain , Turkey
2 points	1 ×	Lithuania
1 point	1 ×	Croatia
0 points	22 ×	Albania , Armenia , Azerbaijan , Bulgaria , Cyprus , Estonia , Macedonia , Finland , Georgia , Hungary , Ireland , Israel , Malta , Moldova , Portugal , Romania , Russia , San Marino , Serbia , Slovakia , Ukraine , United Kingdom

Chart placements

Charts	Top ranking	Weeks
Chart placements
Germany (GfK)	2 (21 weeks)	21st
Austria (Ö3)	18th (8 weeks)	8th
Switzerland (IFPI)	29 (2 weeks)	2

Web links

• Music video on YouTube

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Michael Pilz: "Taken by a Stranger": In Lena's music video a lot breaks. In: Welt Online . February 25, 2011, accessed February 26, 2011 . 
2. ↑ eurovision.tv, May 15, 2011, accessed on May 15, 2011.
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Chart sources: DE AT CH

predecessor	Office	successor
Satellite (Lena Meyer-Landrut)	Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest 2011	Standing Still ( Roman Lob )