Taken by a Stranger
February 22, 2011
Taken by a Stranger ( " Fascinated by a stranger " ) is an English pop music titles with which the interpreter Lena Meyer -Landrut in 2011 took part in the Euro Vision Song Contest on May 14, 2011 in Dusseldorf, reaching the tenth place. It was written by Gus Seyffert, Nicole Morier and Monica Birkenes. He was Produced by Stefan Raab and Reinhard Schaub for Lena's second studio album Good News.
In the TV show Our song for Germany the audience chose the song on February 18, 2011 at the final ballot for the winner song and thus for Germany's contribution to the Euro Vision Song Contest in their own country. On 22 February 2011 the song was released as a single from the album in stores.
Genesis
The musician, songwriter and producer Gus Seyffert has worked with The Bird and the Bee. He lives and works in Hollywood. Most of his songs are produced on the Guitar: Seyffert playing some chords on the guitar, looking for a tune to both taken up the phone and finally produced the finished song in the studio.
With the emergence of Taken by a Stranger, he played a few chords on a beat and sang. Nicole Morier and Monica Birkenes were involved with ideas and melodies. Within one and a half days, the song was recorded.
Stefan Raab and Lena studied Taken by a Stranger and eleven other of about 500 songs for the TV show Our song for Germany. The television audience chose these twelve songs from the song, with the Lena at the Euro Vision Song Contest 2011 occurred.
Musical Style
Taken by a Stranger is in the key of C minor and has been listed in 4/4-time. The tempo is specified in 160 BPM.
Construction
The song consists of 132 bars.
After the eight-bar intro followed by the first verse of the same length. The line " Hey, mind if I take this chair? " Leads us to the second verse. It is followed by the refrain " Taken by a stranger", which has sixteen bars. This is followed by the third verse. With the line " Can not help it if you like it cause I will not be here tomorrow" begins the transition to the chorus. After a sixteen -measure interlude is inserted, followed by the fourth stanza follows, with only the bass drum and without melody instruments. The line " Hey, mind if I take this chair? " Comes again to the chorus. The song ends with four bars outro.
Harmoniously composed the verses of four-bar periods, which are repeated as needed. Three bars long heard it only C5. In the fourth cycle, there is a movement from the tonic to the seventh, then the dominant seventh chord and finally back to the more back can start from the beginning, where appropriate, or to direct the chorus. This will come very much on the previously played. It begins in the subdominant and then returns after two cycles back to the tonic. After a jump to the seventh, the melody is then passed over it back to C, and then in the last bar again to go through the chord over the last cycle of the Strophe period.
The bridge brings with As not only a new chord root, but with G / B another chord structure; in this chord, the third is heard instead of the fifth. Here, too, heard at the end, the characteristic tonic - dominant - seventh seventh movement.
Characteristic of this song is the blend of the simple always constant very economical basic support - for example, " 4 on the Floor ," " power chords " - and interspersed effects that arouse interest, attention and curiosity in the audience.
Music Video
The music video for " Taken by a Stranger" was first shown on German television on 24 February 2011 in the First, just before the evening news. The video was shot and directed by Wolf Gresenz in Berlin.
From the video, there are two interface versions, the original broadcast in the first version and a newer one, about a week later published on the online version platforms. In the new version cut scenes with the background dancers are missing in silver clothes in the last third of the video. These scenes have been replaced by more shots with Lena. Similarly, the CGI scene with the shattering mirror was edited on video end so that Lena will appear also in that the jump in the mirror. In addition, the entire video was edited color technically.
The official online versions were now all replaced by the new interface version.
A third, temporary version was filmed directly after the third show of Our Song for Germany in the television studio and should be bridged as a live version of the waiting time until the final video.
Effect and reception
Stefan Raab describes the song as unconventional, bold, distinctive and contemporaneously. The song take one with, have that certain something and fall on, especially by the performance. Raab feels the song as a kind of detective story. In addition, in it was all in there, he was revolutionary for the Euro Vision Song Contest, similar to Satellite last year, and have extraordinary opportunities. At Taken by a Stranger could be remembered best.
The song is also Lena's favorite because it " fully different," and was a very good alternative to other songs of the competition, which they referred to as " scream around " and "Fireworks". While the song at the beginning still WOULD strange, we find at the end of a liking to him. You can even relax with this song. Furthermore, Lena finds it amazing the one hand, that it had the song to the finals, on the other hand it was foreseeable.
The author Gus Seyffert looks with the song great chances of defending the title. Juror Barbara Schöneberg called the song a " cracker", which contains an internal tension. He would go to the front and was Lena's song. Adel Tawil describes the song as " spooky " and " strange", but exactly Lena need to be successful. According to SWR 3 musical director Uli Frank the song vermittele a mysterious feeling, much like a thriller. In addition, there was a "cool, very modern" beat. 1Live music director Andreas Löffler thinks the song 'll take a right, grab the people and is therefore also his favorite.