Gomez and Badly Drawn Boy are past winners, and share a vaguely similar approach to songwriting, but in the past solo folk/indie songwriters haven't triumphed at the Mercuries.
Its roots are in the second world war and the mutual loathing of both teams and sets of fans intensified after "The Mother of all Defeats", when the Germans famously triumphed over the Dutch in the 1974 World Cup final.
Returning to the stage at the age of 70, she triumphed in the 2001 Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's Follies as Carlotta, singing from the heart "I'm Still Here", the defiant anthem for all female stars with Bergen's staying power.
The only comfort here for progressives is that these spasms prove their side's ideology has ultimately triumphed.
Its executives meet in Berlin next weekend before the Champions League final and were in militant mood after Blatter triumphed over his younger rival, who had promised to repair Fifa's battered reputation and serve for only one four-year term.
They triumphed against India by six wickets with 13 balls to spare, outplaying and out-thinking the favourites.
Earlier this year, Luke Dodd, director of the Observer's archive, triumphed by bringing a major collection of early photographic material from the magazine back into our hands.
Having easily beaten Italy 3-0 in May 1953 at the inauguration of Rome's Olympic stadium, the Hungarians came to Wembley that November and they triumphed again.
In the intensely debated Environment Award sponsored by CAFOD, Guardian environment editor John Vidal triumphed for his article Sold Down the River, which appeared in the Guardian Weekend Magazine.
And when the teams met in Germany's second group game, Hungary triumphed by a massive 8-3.
The headline gains were for nationalist and Eurosceptic parties – witness all those pictures of "evil" Nigel Farage smiling into his pint glass, or of Marine Le Pen, whose Front National party triumphed in France, throwing back her head and cackling.
