Sandra Studer's leap: Germany was "a size too big" for her – but suddenly she is presenting the ESC in front of the whole world

Then, says Sandra Studer, it was just the two of them left: she and the shepherd from Andalusia. "We looked into the valley, and he talked. Hour after hour passed. The day passed. My TV crew had long since moved on."

What exactly did the Andalusian shepherd tell her about?

But Studer can't continue. "Sorry," she says, and her Zurich dialect on the phone becomes a hectic me. "The shuttle bus just arrived, I have to move on."

When we speak, it's still a week until Studer hosts the Eurovision Song Contest. 150 million people will be watching her. Every step and every sentence has to be perfect in Basel's St. Jakobshalle; Studer is almost constantly busy with the ESC. It's the biggest and most complex show she's ever taken on.

Her selection as Eurovision host came as a surprise. She will be joined by Michelle Hunziker and Hazel Brugger, the radiant Italian star and the comedienne whose mischievous eccentricity Germans love so much. Brugger and Studer will host the semifinals, and Hunziker will join them for the final. But why Studer? A woman who has recently performed on relatively small stages, such as as a musical singer in Zurich's Maag Hall?

Her nomination can only be understood as a commitment to Suisse profonde. No one exudes its flair more reliably than she, Sandra Studer.

Her career began spectacularly internationally in 1991, when she performed at the Eurovision Song Contest. As an unknown student, she traveled to Rome, the daughter of a Zurich real estate entrepreneur. She called herself Sandra Simó, after her mother's surname. Although it's Spanish and not Italian, it definitely sounds more southern than Studer. She says today that she couldn't perform at the Eurovision Song Contest as Studer. "It just didn't sound international."

Up until then, she had gained little experience, recording a few melodies for Aargau pop singer René Baumann, aka DJ Bobo. Her ESC song "Canzone per te" is an acoustic hall of mirrors: a love song about an unwritten love song with which the lyrical self attempts to ignite the other person. It was composed by a now largely forgotten Ticino native, Renato Mascetti. Sandra Simó sings his song with a rich timbre, even more flowing hair, and a Jelmoli dress . Her fifth-place finish is her ticket to European, if not global, show business – in fact. But the young Zurich native has more modest plans.

After her Eurovision appearance, she calls herself Studer again. She gets a job with Swiss television and belongs to the new generation in Leutschenbach, which is gradually replacing the bratwurst-and-citro clique around Wysel Gyr. A little more sophisticated, a little more diverse, too, sometimes cheeky, but never rebellious. A well-tempered cheerfulness for a Switzerland that has overcome the dark years of Schwarzenbach and is now subtly Mediterraneanizing itself.

The Studer of that time seems like a counterpoint to Nemo. She doesn't wrestle with her identity, doesn't quarrel with Switzerland and its people, and doesn't have a global career in mind. Instead, she makes do with travel shows with titles like "Dream Destination" or "Simply Luxurious." These are shows whose journalistic value is rather dubious, but which allow the presenters to spend many days in beautiful places.

"That's what paradise must be like!" ran the headline in the "Sonntags-Blick" (Sunday View) in the winter of 1992, after the television station sent Studer to the Caribbean. One could easily forget that one had come there to work, the tabloid quoted the young presenter as saying. "She puts her interview materials aside and jumps exuberantly into the 28-degree warm, crystal-clear water," the "Blick" journalist wrote. Today, Sandra Studer views her former shows more critically, deeming them "no longer contemporary."

She still remembers the Andalusian shepherd from that time. Back when she traveled through the Spanish countryside to get to know the customs and people. She wanted to talk about the shepherd and his wisdom before the ESC shuttle arrived and she had to hop back on board. The bus took Studer to a location shoot with Hazel Brugger. A few hours later, she was able to talk again, albeit only for a few minutes. She had just been sitting with the head writer; the woman who writes the presentation texts with her.

"It's a little crazy right now," says Sandra Studer. Her voice now echoes muffled as Studer sits inside the shuttle.

At 56, Sandra Studer is the oldest presenter in Eurovision Song Contest history, and at the same time – when it comes to the big stages – the least experienced of the Swiss trio. Unlike Brugger and Hunziker, she has decided against international showbiz. But not before making a few attempts: In 1999, she hosted the German Eurovision Song Contest preliminary round at Bremen's Stadthalle, and in 2006, she appeared on the ZDF program "Persönlichkeitstest," for which she interviewed celebrities about their love lives. She soon realized that this wasn't her world, Studer says now, sitting in the bumpy shuttle. It was all just too much for her.

"I preferred to lead a quiet life. I wanted to be able to be the normal Sandra." Leutschenbach was glamour enough for the presenter: Whether there was a show celebrating Paola Felix's birthday or a gala celebrating Kurt Aeschbacher's retirement, Studer was there. She also toured the Swiss cabaret scene as an actress and singer. She provided television commentary for the Eurovision Song Contest and hosted the Swiss preliminary round.

"Sandra embodies Switzerland," says Daniel Rohr, the busy theater director who runs the Haus Rigiblick on the Zürichberg. It's Studer's home theater, and she performs there frequently. Studer is characterized by her reliability and friendliness, Rohr enthuses. "She's the opposite of a diva, a complete team player." And, of course, she can also sing and act, dance, and present brilliantly.

Rohr is right: Sandra Studer is a very Swiss celebrity, if not a truly Swiss person. This is also reflected in her private life, which the "Glückspost" and "Schweizer Illustrierte" happily and thoroughly report on. Her family has four children, lives on Zurich's Gold Coast, and also has a vacation home in the Münstertal valley. Studer's husband is a business lawyer specializing in fintech.

Whether cryptocurrencies advance humanity? Sandra Studer says she doesn't presume to judge that.

To this day, it's still noticeable that the presenter was socialized in a more carefree time. Anyone who watches her first shows in the Swiss television archives is gazing at a bygone era. It's the early 1990s: colorful shirts, broad mustaches, and a Marco Rima who's still really funny.

In her first quiz show, the young Studer apologizes elaborately, saying she's just new to the business and "a little nervous." Today, that would probably be met with vitriolic Instagram scorn and the whiny remonstrance that she really doesn't want to pay any fees for this .

When Studer began presenting, things were different; Swiss television was still left alone. It was also a time when the Swiss Confederation seemed less complex and geopolitics considerably less threatening than it does today. "Blick" recently anxiously asked why our country was no longer among the happiest countries in the world, after Switzerland plummeted in the "World Happiness Report." Perhaps Sandra Studer, as a contented Swiss woman, is now more exotic than she thinks.

Studer leaves no doubt that she wants to inscribe her own narrative into the major Basel event. A career from ESC to ESC: "For me, things have come full circle." She already feels a slight rumble in her stomach, she says on the phone before she has to leave for the next rehearsal. "I'm sure I'll get even more nervous in the coming days, that's normal." She wants to embody a Switzerland that radiates optimism, is cosmopolitan, and modern, she says.

But what was it like back then, with the shepherd in Andalusia? The man impressed her, Studer says once again as her shuttle drives to St. Jakobshalle. "He showed me that even a modest, monotonous existence can be satisfying." But Sandra Studer adds that she wouldn't have wanted to swap lives with him.