Since October, Germany‘s broadcaster NDR has been working through its complicated national selection process. And now it seems the broadcaster had found the six candidates who will compete in Unser Lied für Lissabon. The German tabloid newspaper Bild has published the names of the six acts. And while the names haven’t been confirmed by the broadcaster — they’ve got fans talking.
The six named artists are Ivy Quainoo, Michael Schulte, Natia Todua, Rick Jurthe, Steal a Taxi and . These six artists have gone through the selection process, which started with over 4000 acts, both newcomers and established artists.
The acts were whittled down using feedback from the so-called Europe panel, a group of 100 Germans selected to reflected the music tastes of Eurovision viewers in general.
But is this list of six names correct? ARD’s entertainment coordinator Thomas Schreiber hasn’t denied anything, but he isn’t prepared to confirm the acts yet. In a comment to Prinz Blog, he says, “At the present time, NDR will not comment on the speculation — for one simple reason: of the 6 participants in the preliminary round so far only 4 have reported back. Only when we have confirmations from all 6 participants, will we announce all 6 (planned as soon as possible).”
Schreiber also notes that while it was originally intended to have five finalists, the total has been expanded to six due to feedback from fan groups.
Ivy Quainoo
Ivy Quainoo is one of the best-known artists in the selection. She made a name as the winner of the very first season The Voice of Germany. Back in 2012, she won the show by a landslide and five years later you can still hear some of her songs on German radio stations. Ivy was born and raised in Berlin and her parents are Ghanaian. She currently lives in New York, but for the last few months, she was touring Germany.
Michael Schulte
Michael Schulte was also a contestant on the first series of The Voice of Germany. He made it to the grand final, and while Ivy Quinoo won the series, he placed a very respectable third. In the grand final, he performed a duet with the then-upcoming UK singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran. Since his time on The Voice, Michael has released a number of singles in a folk-pop style.
Natia Todua
Natia Todua is the most recent winner of The Voice of Germany, winning the seventh series just two weeks ago. The Georgian-born singer had previously tried her luck on The X Factor Georgia and The Voice Ukraine — without much luck. Her fortuned changed when he entered The Voice of Germany, after working in Germany for a year as an au pair. The soul singer with a big voice has built up a fanbase in Germany, but fans have pointed out that being a Voice of Germany winner was no benefit to 2015 winner Jamie-Lee Kriewitz who placed last at Eurovision 2016.
Rick Jurthe
Upcoming singer-songwriter Rick Jurthe also performs under the names Ryk and as part of the duo FOXOS. The newcomer may be familiar as one of the many artists who entered into San Marino’s 1 In 360 contest. There his talents weren’t overlooked — he was one of the 69 acts shortlisted for the fan club vote. He didn’t make the cut of San Marino’s ten finalists, but, one could argue, performing in Unser Lied für Lissabon will surely give his German career a bigger boost than the San Marino national final would.
https://youtu.be/at0bn8MZ12I
Steal a Taxi
Steal a Taxi is a four-piece indie pop group, fronted by lead singer Makeda. The group formed in 2010 and describe themselves as “funky, fresh and so good lookin’!” They have been regularly gigging around Germany and have released a number of videos. It is not known whether Steal a Taxi have ever stolen a taxi.
VoXXclub
Are you ready for some Trackshittaz-déjà vu? But unlike the Austrian group, these guys are not rapping, but singing and yodelling – in Bavarian! Known for combining their charming attitude with a modern yet traditional folk music sound, their fanbase is huge. VoXXclub’s song “Rock mi” even counts more than 19 million YouTube views. These five guys are more than ready for Eurovision and were often considered by German fans in the past.
If any of these six acts aren’t on the final list, we can expect one of the following names to be a replacement. Prinz Blog has compiled a list of 16 of the 17 shortlisted acts.
- Benedikt Köstler
- Boris Alexander Stein
- Danyal Demir
- Ivy Quainoo
- Juan Geck
- LaBrassBanda
- Lara Loft
- LauraAubreyWanja/Diamonds
- Michael Schulte
- Natia Todua
- Ryk
- Steal A Taxi
- Vinh Khuat
- VoXXclub
- Xavier Darcy
- ZweiLand
The six acts headed to the national final will be revealed when all the names are confirmed. The grand final of Unser Lied für Lissabon will be held on February 22 in Berlin.
What do you think? Would you be happy for these six artists to compete in the German national final? Who should represent Germany in Lisbon? Share your thoughts below.
The Artists are confirmed and it’s Xavier Darcy instead of Steal a Taxi.
Oh gosh!!! What is that?? A returning artist in the german NF???
Mira-Mira-Miracle!!!
LaBrassBanda Go!!!!!
Jamie Lee
Ivy and Michael are fantastic artists! I hops for good songs for them!
well, among those, my favourite is Ivy. However, without a song it’s hard to tell…
Michael Schulte is my personal favourite, but Voxxclub might do better at ESC. I think it’s time for a German fun entry.
This overall seems very promising. Personally looking forward to Steal a Taxi and Voxxclub
Seriously, I don’t care who represents Germany as long as they get a good song. Songs are Germany’s problem, not the artists.
Germany twenth-something
Ivy Quainoo did also record “Black Smoke”. 😉
Maybe she woulf have donne better than Ann Sophie..
The only singer I properly know is Ivy Quainoo (I actually own two of her albums which are quite good). I have a very vague rememberance of Michael Schulte from the first season of TVoG (I wouldn’t have recognised him if it weren’t stated in the article that he competed). I remember him doing a not-so-good cover of “Video Games” which was surprisingly well received by the judges. I don’t remember anything else though. I wouldn’t mind an indie artist to be chosen as long as the song is of high quality and not too “arty”.
I still hope Lara Loft is in, her voice is amazing and her songs are very experimental!
But does Germany need something experimental?
Jury loves Australia and Sweden.
Germany and Russia should focus on televotes.
Ivy is the only logical choice
I hope the international jury kill any chances Voxxclub might have. Sending them would be just another disgrace in the long line of abysmal acts from my country.
Then your country deserves its fate. Or maybe Germany’s purpose is to save 25 countries from being last.
I am from Germany and I think Voxxclub is the best choice. It is something different and it stands out at the contest. And Voxxclub is the absolute opposite of the entrys that we sent the last three years
Voxxclub can be higher than SunStroke Project, because they have also that traditional element that always helped balkan countries. Don’t worry that the fans don’t see Voxxclub successful by now. Who thought that SunStroke Project will do well?
Please send Rick or Ivy. or maybe michael schulte, he would also be ok. But please no natia or voxxclub, that would be a shame
I can’t believe how much German music sounds like UK music, and they wonder why the rest of Europe doesn’t care about it.
For me is VoXXclub or nothing.
Well, it’s not ”german music”… The candidates listed here are either not famous or aren’t succesful in Germany (except VoxxClub, they’re well known I think…). And nearly every Country in Europe produces the same kind of Music, you can’t really speak of UK music.
Voxxclub isn’t german, it’s bavarian. Speaking for the rest of germany: it’s crap and every true german would be ashamed to send this
Why people keep saying : it’s not German, it’s Bavarian? Do you own a map?
He’s just a Saupreiß, ignore him.
”every true German would be ashamed to send this” Wtf? I don’t know about you, but I’d prefer VoxxClub over Levina, Jamie Lee, Ann Sophie or any boring act by miles. You can’t just say crap like that, because the music doesn’t Appeal to you. Btw it’s not really bavarian… Many bavarians already said so.
Ah nice shade 🙂
Nothing could be worse than their 2017 entry. Definitely looking forward to the show. Viel gluck!
I think with a good song Natia could rock the house and bring us to top 10 or even better next year. With a bad song on the other hand this might rather creep the voters out. No Lara Loft makes me sad- I hoped for something cinematic like ‘I will return’ from destiny 2. Overall this would be a REALLY good line-up with lots of variety. I just hope they don’t mess up the songs ^^
please not natia, she has a horrible voice and can’t speak german.
I’m quite happy with the finalists tbh. But I’m really worried, that everybody will vote vor Natia, because she just won The Voice of Germany… She’s the least experienced in songwriting and the Music Business Overall and her voice is…. well, difficult! 😀 She’s a good singer, but I don’t think she’ll be abled to Control her voice or find a song, that Highlights it the way it should.My favourite here would be Ryk. His voice is absolutely stunning and his song ”You and I” gives me goosebumps every time I hear it. I think he could (theoretically) even compete… Read more »
HOW could they not accept LaBrassBanda’s application!?!?!???
Btw, why did they have to go through such a big selection process when in the end it turns out to be a standard German NF lineup just without the really big names? 3 Casting Show winners, 2 Indie Nonames and 1 Schlager/Volksmusik outlier.
And I hope that the people won’t choose the Voice of Germany winner again just because of being used to voting for them, like they did in 2015 and 2016…
Who needs big names? Give us good songs! That ts a thousand times better than biiiig names with crapy songs…
NDR was criticised for choosing too boring and similar candidates (see 2017 selection or ‘Clubkonzert’ participants). This is why they gave away the responsibility to select the participants.
Personally I think this is a great selection! But in the end the song will be the most important criteria. I hope they will put as much effort in finding quality, edgy songs as they have put in artist selection process.
Thats exactly what I do not understand. Leaving out last year there seems to be not much of a change in comparison to the 2015/16 selections. Too many casting people is the biggest problem imo.
Ryk would be amazing. He might be an underdog but in Germany you never know what will happen.
(Elaiza, Ann Sophie, nobody knew them)
At least, Elaiza were very successful based on sales figures.
Steal a taxi would be an interestong choicefor Germany. I wish there were more groups in ESC.