Eurovision 2016 marked the second year in a row that Germany finished last on the scoreboard. Despite Jamie-Lee’s fantastic voice, unique staging and atmospheric song “Ghost”, she crash landed at the bottom.
It’s part of a broader trend. Over the past four years Germany has not managed to reach the left side of the scoreboard. Eurovision has not gone smoothly, and neither has their national selection. In fact, Germany’s Vorentscheid has repeatedly produced Eurodrama!
In 2015, winner Andreas Kümmert refused to accept his victory and gave his title to runner-up Ann Sophie, stating he was not able to go to Eurovision.
Later it was announced that Kümmert had initially won the superfinal between him and Ann Sophie with 78.7% of the vote. Ouch! In short, Germany did not send its strong preference.
Hoping to prevent something like that in 2016, Germany’s NDR decided to handpick the controversial singer Xavier Naidoo for Eurovision.
His selection sparked a backlash both in Germany and internationally. Protest and a petition (which counted more than 15,000 signatures) forced NDR decided to withdraw Naidoo and hastily stage a national selection.
Our first reaction to Jamie-Lee’s win:
“The Voice of Germany” winner Jamie-Lee Kriewitz won the national contest with her Asian inspired performance and her song “Ghost”. From the beginning wiwibloggers weren’t feeling the song, repeatedly stating that she would repeat Ann Sophie’s last-place finish.
In Stockholm that prophecy came true. Jamie-Lee finished at the bottom — but at least she earned 11 points.
Now Thomas Schreiber, Germany’s Eurovision coordinator, thinks he knows the answer why. Speaking to the Hannoversche Allgemeiner Zeitung, he said:
“The song was neither the big sensible ballad nor the exciting uptempo song. Internationally they didn’t understand why Germany was competing with a manga girl, while we know that Jamie-Lee is a genuine performer.”
Our first reaction to her Eurovision rehearsal:
Schreiber also revealed some details for Germany’s national final in 2017.
“Firstly, we have to search for songs, both nationally and internationally. Then we have to find the right performer. Next to that, the total production is important. The German public will have the final decision about the entry.”
Do you think Germany can finally break its bad results spell with this new method of searching? Let us know in the comment section below!
Read all of our Germany news here
Picture: tz
I wonder if big 5 would do better if they had to qualify? Or is it only me that think that beeing in semifinal is importent. The audiense get their favorites there and they hold on to them.
Well last year italy had no problem but I think this year they should get a better place if they were in in semi. The sama for UK, Germany, Spain and France.
Cro would be an amazing choice he is known internationally and has a gimmick which we all know is very important for eurovision. #croforeurovision2017
If you go to Youtube and watch the ESC videos of the most underrated songs, you always find two countries, Spain and Germany.
It is always easy to criticise after a bad result and point at all the things that did not do well. But then look at the original ratings on blogs like Wiwibloggs and you see that the German and also the Spanish entries are far away from the bottom of the ranking.
Ghost was just a real downer to listen to, repeating the same melancholy chords and downward melodic lines over and over. It didn’t commit to being either a ballad or up-tempo. Ghost was practically identical in tempo to last year’s dud Black Smoke. Practically identical result. Jamie-Lee’s vocal performance was fine but what did her silly costume have to do with the song? She looked like she’d just been entertaining at a child’s birthday party.
Hmm . . . it seems that nowadays, “international” = Swedish.
Unless you’re San Marino.
I don’t get it. This song was pretty good.
just send laing and automatic 3rd place in the final
Bad sign is when you are dressed more Asian than the Asian actually competing in the contest.
Germany is my second favourite Eurovision nation after Sweden, but this year I don’t know what happened, Jamie is an amazing vocalist, the song was just outside my top 10 but it was still good, I think her appearance was the problem. While I congratulate her for being herself and bringing her unique style to the contest, her upbeat, cartoon style just didn’t suit the dark ballad that ‘Ghost’ was. And as in the case of Croatia, the outfit ruined the song. Germany has been doing badly since 2012, I hope they can recover. I’d love to see them win… Read more »
eVERYONE expected Germany to finish last. The song was very good, her voice and the staging too but the whole manga thing was a big WTF moment.
Blame it on the German team for not asking Jamie to perform in a more casual outfit.
Beccaboo1212, I know. The results are always random, Estonia had the best(but honestly not the most the most memorable) song. And they came last….
Dear Germany, I know you are probably jealous while we in Sweden have good music industry, but you don’t need to feel jealous. You have amazing artists. My favourite song in the whole National final season was not swede-penned, and was from your selection. “Mystery of a blood red rose”. So please just select Avantasia and your next eurovision gold will be guaranteed.
Greetings from the country with “the best music industry”
Jamie-Lee’s [undoubtedly] a great singer, but sometimes, the results turn out to be something nobody would expect. 🙁
This is probably a good idea… let’s not forget the successes of 2010 and 2012. Just keep the selection from turning into a drawn-out hot mess like the Lithuanian selection and it’ll be fine.
‘Laing’ is horrible in my opinion, Hugh. I’d love to see Trong on Eurovision Stage. He wanted to participate in 2015 so much with his Song “Jaywalk”, gave so much effort in making a Video and was so disappointed that he couldn’t even take part in the national final. And while Ann-Sophie got last place in the Song Contest he went over to Vietnam and won ‘Vietnam Idol’. Really.. screw you, Thomas Schreiber! I have no confidence in your words. Next year will be as powerless as the ones before. I don’t believe there will be a big Change. ARD/… Read more »
Good suggestions here. I think publicity hurt here just like it hurt Agnete. But no hate on Jamie-Lee because she is so young so I can understand it can be overwhelming to be in all the spotlight. Also, I think Germany has recently had WAY too dramatic staging which made it feel cold. Ann Sophie was trying too hard to be sexy, Jamie-Lee was not memorable besides the clothes, Cascada was restricted by that awkwards staircase and uncomfortable dress… I do hope Germany does not resort to Swedish imports. It has a well-developed music industry and lots of talent to… Read more »
But Jamie-Lee and Ann-Sophie had really nice songs and Fantastic voices. thats the aggravating part.
Just go with Laing. In German, a bit of fun, and aiming for 15-20 – let’s be real, that’s a good result for some countries, and Germany is now a part of that club – and musically well-regarded at home and abroad.
National finals are all well and good, until they give us “Ghost” or “Soldiers of Love”. Considering 3 of the top 5 were internal selections it really isn’t the case that the public know better a lot of the time.
Germany should choose Xavier Naidoo next year. It was bad idea not too choose him because of his thought. It was discrimination.
In my opinion Jamie`s creation and dress were terrible… Asian style in Eurovision isn`t good solution.
@David Who
Euro promotion events don’t matter. The show is watched by millions while events (such as the concerts) are attended by far significantly less. The casual ESC viewer will only rely on the 3-minutes on TV, not other promos. Jake & Joe did some promotion, as did Ira Losco and Hovi Star but burned in the televoting. Events do not matter.
And having a song released in late 2015 doesn’t affect performance. Poland 2014 (Slavic Girls song) was released early and longer and did OK, better than Germany.
The germans don’t have a good music taste! Especially that very old guys in the NDR and ARD! If we don’t consider the Stefan Raab entries our last top 10 place with ARD/NDR selection modes has been back in 2001 (already 15 years!) with a schlager song and we’ve been last 4 times in that period. Those guys would rather try to send damn Helene Fischer or that Schlager stuff. All over the world Adele’s 25 broke sale records, except in germany, where Helene FIscher had the most selling album in the third year a row! ARD/NDR should cooperate with… Read more »
the song wasn’t so bad. indeed i liked it when first heard at youtube. but the whole performance, artist’s outfit etc was rather strange and did not fit together….
I always loved this song and it was really underrated, it deserved at least top 10.
@fikri hahaha, yes, that’s what they are most probably trying to say… How pathetic is that? Well, surely not as much as seeing Eye-serbatchan collect all those douze points in 2011 and ranking as high as they did this year…
@Huh: Sanremo is actually still unbeatable when it comes to quality and variety of music … the overhyped Melfest doesn’t come close by any standard. So, perhaps organising a big national final with good songs and would be a good idea, and not only for Germany..
I hope Germany will not fall into the same kind of selection Belgium had in 2014, when barely any of the songs they had got submitted by songwriters internationally, fitted the artists they had selected. Above that, most of the performances were cheap or boring then.
I hope they will kick off with some new format which is as strong as the Scandinavian national finals.
Jaime chose to keep her artistic image and integrity over a good staging that would match the song, and she paid the price.
>>>Jamie-Lee’s performance was indeed a remarkable one, strongly influenced by the Japanese culture, but probably too much refined/original and artsy for a mainstream show like ESC…
You’d think the Germans would be smart when it comes to picking a national selection formula. Because Stefan Raab withdrew from the German delegation in 2013 they couldn’t use the selection that chose Lena and Roman. The selection format in 2013 wasn’t a bad thing but they didn’t keep it and then went to the weird selection in which the wildcard singer went to Eurovision. And if an artist first song wasn’t good you could vote for their second? They should have a selection in theory similar to Lithuania with singers without songs and acts with songs. Although not a… Read more »
Germany, everyone expected last place for you last year and this year again. You choosed mega star Xavier Naidoo and you withdrawed him because some gays were crying, that he is homophobe. The biggest mistake you have ever made. In national final you had world-known Avantasia and you voted for bad Jamie-Lee. You have so great music scene and you are choosing so bad singers and songs. You deserved last places and now you must change everything. Choose Xavier Naidoo again, dont listen hysterical gays, make a good song for him and lets win Eurovision next year.
It would be nice if they would go Sanremo. It wouldn’t be nice if the would go Melfest
My point of view on Germany in 2016 was that Jamie-Lee hardly appeared at any big Euro promotion events in the run-up to the contest (compared to other artists). This was a factor in its failure. Another factor was that the full single (from The Voice in Germany) had already been released on YouTube in late 2015 and was already widely known well before the contest in May 2016. The song was edited down for length, but apart from that nothing was changed. As for the live staging in May – I don’t have a single positive thing to say… Read more »
“international search for songs”… incoming swedish-penned songs! 😛