Germany 1973

Germany was represented by Danish singer Gitte, with the song "Junger Tag", at the 1973 Eurovision Song Contest. Junger Tag was the winner of the German national final, Ein Lied für Luxemburg, held on 21 February.

The final was held at the TV studios in Frankfurt, hosted by Edith Grobleben. Six acts took part, each performing two songs. Songs were voted on by a 10-member jury who each awarded between 1 and 5 points per song. Unlike in the previous year's final, the result of which had caused a degree of controversy, there was no elimination and revote on the top songs. Junger Tag emerged the winner by just 1 point over Sebastian performed by Tonia, who had been the Belgian Eurovision representative in 1966.

The results:

01. Junger Tag - Gitte, 40 points
02. Sebastian - Tonia, 39 points
03. Schreib ein Lied - Inga & Wolf, 36 points
04. Ich bin ein glücklicher Mann - Roberto Blanco, 34 points
05. Hallo! Wie geht es Robert? - Gitte, 33 points
06. Manchmal - Inga & Wolf, 32 points
07. Mir gefällt diese Welt - Tonia, 30 points
08. Wohin soll ich geh'n - Cindy & Bert, 26 points
09. Das Beste an Dir - Michael Holm, 25 points
10. Zwei Menschen und ein Weg - Cindy & Bert, 25 points
11. Au revoir, auf wiedersehen - Roberto Blanco, 24 points
12. Glaub daran - Micheael Holm, 19 points

On the night of the final Gitte performed 4th in the running order. At the close of voting Junger Tag had received 85 points, placing Germany joint 8th (with Monaco) of the 17 entries.

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Gitte Hænning (born 29 June 1946, Århus, Denmark) is a Danish singer and film actress, who rose to fame as a child star in the 1950s.

Because her name was relatively unique, she was known primarily without a surname in Europe. She moved to Sweden in 1958. Her first hit in Swedish was Tror du jag ljuger from 1961. As a teenager, Gitte sang popular hits in German, English, Italian and Danish. She had five different Nr. 1-Hits in three countries. One in Denmark, two in Sweden and two in Germany. Her first German Nr.1-Song was Ich will 'nen Cowboy als Mann which won the German Schlager Festspiele in 1963.

In 1962 she attempted to compete for Denmark in the Eurovision Song Contest in the Eurovision Song Contest with Jeg Snakker med mig Selv but was disqualified because the composer Sejr Volmer-Sørensen had whistled the song in the canteen of the DR. In 1973 she competed for Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Junger Tag. Her success continued after famous duets with Rex Gildo as Gitte & Rex in a number of popular films. Gitte made an attempt to represent Luxembourg in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1978 with the song "Rien qu'une femme" but she lost out to the group Baccara.

In the 60's she also starred in several music and drama movies and on TV in Germany, Denmark and Sweden.

Gitte was among the most popular Schlager singers of the post-war era, and continued to be popular in Germany and Denmark even as American music increasingly dominated the airwaves in the 1970s. Surprisingly at the time, she recorded a jazz album with The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band in 1968. Through the ensuing decades her singles have still reached the German charts, but never with the same success she enjoyed in the 1960s. In the 80s, she changed her image and performed more adult music. She won some awards as a singer/entertainer. Her chart entries ended in the mid 80s, but since that time, she has been successful as a live performer till today. A number of compilation albums have been recently released in Germany, among them a biographical DVD, all to commemorate one of the most famous singers of the German and Danish languages.

From 2004-2006 she starred with two other Scandinavian entertainers, Wencke Myhre and