Germany 2005

Gracia represented Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 with the song Run and Hide.

The song was composed and produced by David Brandes and written by Bernd Meinunger. Run and Hide stirred some controversy in Germany, when it turned out that Brandes had bought numerous copies of the CD himself so the song would chart high in the German Top 100. The song was temporarily disqualified from the chart listing, but Gracia's Eurovision appearance itself was never in any danger.

The German Final was held at the Berlin Treptow Arena on March 12th, hosted by Reinhold Beckmann. The winner was chosen in two rounds of televoting - the first to select the top 2 and the second to select the winner.

Results:

01. Run & hide - Gracia, round 1: 16.7%, round 2: 52.8%
02. A miracle of love - Nicole Süssmilch & Marco Matias, round 1: 22.7%, round 2: 47.2%

other participants:

Picking Up the Pieces - The Murphy Brothers
Plattgeliebt - Ellen ten Damme
A Million Teardrops - Orange Blue
Unschlagbar - Königwerq
Adrenalin - Vilaine
Dein lied - Allee der Kosmonauten
Wunderschönes Grau - Stefan Gwildis
Alive - Mia Aegerter

At the ESC, Gracia came 24th.

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Gracia Arabella Baur (born November 18, 1982 in Munich), mostly known as Gracia is a German singer.

During her teenage years she took vocal lessons to strengthen her voice. To fulfill her dreams of a career as a professional singer, she started recording demos and passed several auditions. In 2000 she even made it through the first round of Popstars, but was forced out when she forgot the words of her song.

In 2002/2003 she took part in Deutschland sucht den Superstar, the German version of Pop Idol, and eventually reached #5. Pushed by the publicity she released her first album Intoxicated, which peaked at #10 on the German album charts and spawned the hit singles I Don't Think So and I Believe In Miracles. Afterwards, she teamed up with fellow DSDS runners-up Daniel Küblböck, Nektarios Bamiatzis, and Stephanie Brauckmeyer, releasing the charity single Don't Close Your Eyes under the name 4 United.

Gracia was selected to represented Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Run & Hide, produced and composed by David Brandes. After the German national pre-selection for the Eurovision Song Contest it was revealed that Brandes had bought thousands of his own CDs to ensure chart placement, a requirement of the ESC (the single had actually hit the top 30 on the German charts). In contrast to the Swiss entry Vanilla Ninja, who had also had their entry produced by Brandes, Gracia opted to continue her association with the newly controversial figure.

However, Run & Hide, a modern pop-rock song with heavy use of synthesizers, failed to catch the audience's imagination in the Eurovision Song Contest and placed 24th. Gracia, however, was not deterred and went on with her second solo album Passion, released in November 2005.

2004 she recorded Götter der Ewigkeit, part of the German soundtrack of the Walt Disney Feature Animation Brother Bear.

In December 2006 Gracia released the Song Cos I believe together with Marvin Broadie under the name Xantoo. It charted at #39.