Carola Conze, Germany’s new head of delegation for Eurovision 2016, is ready to avenge the country’s last place finish from Vienna. To that end she’s announced that she’s ending the Clubkonzert for unknown artists. For the past two years the Club Concert has selected the wildcard for Germany’s national selection, resulting in Elaiza (2014) and Ann Sophie (2015) performing at ESC. Are you relieved, just a little?
Ms. Conze doesn’t mess about and she is aiming high. Speaking to eurovision.de, she doesn’t rule out winning again. In her mind it’s all a matter of “taking all the way up” once Germany is back in the game. It’s a case of go big or go home.
It appears that the Clubkonzert would interfere with those plans. After discussions with execs at ARD, she “sees little future in it”. It’s actually a very soft way to describe the show, which has produced an absolute zero and a meh-midtable song. Prior selections, including the early years of the Unser Song für…format, gave us Lena (winner!) and Roman Lob (eight place!). And it did that without any Clubkonzert creating sympathy for an outsider.
Germany’s decline in recent years began in 2013, when fan favourite Cascada finished in a pretty unglorious 21st place in Malmö. After that wildcard Elaiza wasn’t right for Copenhagen and finished 18th. And wildcard Ann Sophie became a zero of our time with “Black Smoke”.
Conze doesn’t elaborate on whether she will give a wildcard to an unknown performer, thereby allowing them to compete with the established acts (as in past years). The wildcard may very well still exist.
The issue we have with the televised Clubkonzert is that it builds so much hype for the wildcard that Germans may be tricked into feeling too much for them. This clouds their judgment in the national final and they may rank the wildcard higher than they normally would. Who of us doesn’t respond to David as he fights Goliath, or an amateur singer defying the odds to beat a sea of established acts? That’s the main fear of wiwibloggers Padraig and Luis, as you can see in our video reaction to the news below.
Would a third amateur in a row secure Germany yet another poor placing? Who knows: it could all be very Lena or very Ann Spohie. Who’d have thought the “Black Smoke” singer would have finished last with zero points anyway? Well, actually, wiwiblogger William did a night before the final (skip to 8:34)…
Who is in charge of selecting the Spanish entry this year?
Germany’s national selection is ridiculous. If you don’t like an artist first song then you can’t hear their second song. Imagine if Denmark did that in 2013 and instead of only teardrop emmelie de forest performed something like drunk tonight and didn’t progress. They should just have a selection like 2010 and 2012 however Stefan Raab came up with the idea and since he left I’m guessing they didn’t want to keeps using his system. Or popular artist wanted to enter songs. I think the selection used in 2013 made more sense than 2014/15. Maybe they should do both. Have… Read more »
@Franco: I have no doubt that Ann Sophie will enter again. Although it doesn’t sting as bad as the disgrace that Jemini suffered after being the U.K.’s first nul-point entry (under the 12-point system), I’m sure she doesn’t want to leave the ESC stage with that mark on her record. Methinks she ought to get a D.J. as her producer if she tries again. @Robyn: And yes, they may have to apply new rules to deal with the potential aftermath of Andreas’ win. I’ll bet his withdrawal had the opposite effect on his career. And how much did it cost… Read more »
I think the problem the the Clubkonzert is not the artists. They were all talented, songs were basically good as well. I think for the Clubkonzert entries, they then should have taken notes from Ukraine and done more polishing and tweaking. Tick Tock went from OK to top 10 finish during the time from being chosen and taking the stage.
Don’t forget that Ann Sophie didn’t actually win the national selection. She was chosen because the actual winner gave up his spot, so it’s not fair saying that Clubkonzert acts have a better chance at winning the national selection (only Elaiza did).
I think it’s a bit unfair to say Clubkonzert is a total failure, considering its status as a big 5 country and how poorly it did in the 00s, Germany did okay in 2014 with 18th place. The real start of the decline was Cascada- not Elaiza.
Ann Sophie was one of the better acts in Vienna
aw
I really liked this
it led me to like three good bands that I would have never heard of otherwise
Fahrenheit should’ve been selected IMO. Even if their live isn’t good at least their song presentation was mesmerizing.
Good move. Germany has lots of established artists who participate in their national final. They should be the ones going to ESC if Germany wants to stand a chance.
With Saint Lu and her song Craving , Germany would be in TOP 5 in 2013 and maybe won the contest, becuase her song is for me is far better then Only teardrops from Denmark.
This isn’t a completely fair criticism. Ann Sophie didn’t win the national vote; in fact, she lost it by quite a wide margin. It was only because the winner didn’t want to go to Vienna that she went to Eurovision.
However, it’s probably a good idea to just mix the unknown artists and known ones together period. If one of them has a good song and performance, they should win regardless of how known they are.
Honestly, there were some shaky contestants during the two recent Clubkonzert that made the winners inevitable because they simply sounded better, not because they had a winning song.
It was good whilst it lasted. The two songs that it produced were good (atleast better than 2013), but not amazing like their 2010-2012 streak. However, Elaiza is one of my favourite acts to come out of Eurovision and I still listen to their music (Without and Green being my favourites).
It’s ok, I suppose.
If Anne Sophie wants to give a second shot at ESC and avenge her zero points (and I hope she does), she can compete in the national selection since she’s no more an unknown artist.
I don’t like Germany’s national selection anyway, but this is a step in the right direction. I think if you are gonna enter, you do it with one song though, not two.