Rex Gildo

In 2026, the Eurovision Song Contest celebrates its 70th anniversary. With around 160 million viewers, the ESC is one of the world's biggest music spectacles. This documentary looks back on seven decades filled with music, emotions and passion. From its beginnings as a chanson competition in 1956 through flamboyant outfits and spectacular performances to unforgettable victories, bitter defeats and the political debates of the recent past. Stars like Jean Paul Gaultier, Hape Kerkeling, Tom Neuwirth (aka Conchita Wurst), and Germany's first ESC winner, Nicole, share their experiences on and off stage. The documentary paints a multifaceted portrait of the ESC, highlighting its profound influence on music, fashion, and society, as well as on the LGBTQIA+ community, thus becoming a vibrant journey through seven decades of European pop culture history.

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Documentary which looks at how a radical generation of musicians created a new German musical identity out of the cultural ruins of war.

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Germany’s rising chanson star Alexandra, known for her dark, smoky voice and haunting hits like “Mein Freund, der Baum”, died in a car crash at 27 in 1969. In just three years she’d tasted fame’s glory and its price: lost privacy, relentless pressure, and creative compromise.

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A portrait of the German singer Renate Kern who later became known in the US as the country music singer Nancy Wood.

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A "children's birthday party" for adults. Each show featured a celebrity guest who had to take part in crazy, silly and often deliberately "moronic" games. Both presenters had to compete against the respective guest in various games.

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Van Oekel's Discohoek was a Dutch television show, aired on VPRO in 1974-1975. The show, written by Wim T. Schippers and produced by Ellen Jens, starred Dolf Brouwers as Sjef van Oekel, and parodied music television programs of the era. Artists lip-synched their songs, but were frequently interrupted and insulted by van Oekel. The show had a real coup when Captain Beefheart made an appearance.

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A dorky uncle and a nag of an aunt mess up a family, their surroundings and ultimately half of Venice. A comedy bordering on nonsense, abandoned by all good spirits.

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The show was meant to compete with those on West German television. To this end it was fairly successful even attracting a following in parts of West Germany which could receive Eastern TV. Its production values were high. Apart from song and dance numbers and appearances from East German celebrities, almost every broadcast featured well-known stars from the west, often after their popularity had peaked in their home countries.

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Disco was a pop music program that aired in Germany on the ZDF network from 1971 to 1982. It generally aired on the first Saturday of each month at 7:30PM, each show running 45 minutes. 133 shows were produced. The show was hosted by German actor and comedian Ilja Richter. Its lesser known predecessor on ZDF, 4-3-2-1 Hot & Sweet was aired between 1966 and 1970, presenters included Ilja Richter and Suzanne Doucet. Disco generally served a younger pop-oriented audience compared to ZDF's Hitparade, and until 1972, its main competitor was Beat-Club, followed by Musikladen, both on ARD. Repeats of Disco have been aired since 1984 on ZDF Musikkanal, after its closedown in 1989 on 3sat. Since 2004, the digital ZDF Theaterkanal aired repeats of the entire series. In 2007, ZDF Dokukanal began to air reruns, starting with episodes from 1975 and also multiple repeats of the series have been shown on hit24 in 2008. The show focussed on chart hits current at the time of airing, giving about equal airtime to international pop music and German Schlager. Despite its name, it did not particularly focus on disco music although it featured many disco hits as long as they were chart relevant..

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Willi Winzig is a small tax officer with a big heart. He sometimes lets the tax files of his insolvent fellow citizens disappear into the air shaft. But shortly before his retirement, the shaft is so full that Willi has to dispose of the file of a penniless taxpayer in the wastepaper basket. The scam is promptly discovered and Willi is threatened with a hefty fine - even dishonorable dismissal from the civil service. Fortunately, friend and colleague Felix Klein knows what to do.

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