Hallo, grüß dich und let’s do this! Tonight five young hopefuls compete in Unser Song 2017 for the right to represent Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest in May. With a YouTube star, a country singer, an alt rocker, a classical singer and a talent show starlet in the mix, viewers will be treated to thrills and spills and plenty of variety.
You can watch a live stream with English subtitles below.
UNSER SONG 2017 FORMAT
The show will take place at the Köln-Mülheim Studios and TV presenter Barbara Schöneberger is back on hosting duties for the third year in a row. Hopeful for a better result at Eurovision this year, NDR have given Unser Song 2017 a major shakeup.
First the five acts will perform a cover, after which only the three highest scoring acts will progress to a second round. Once there, they’ll each perform their version of the first German song candidate “Wildfire”. The best two will advance to a third round, where they’ll perform an alternative song “Perfect Life”.
Then the audience will pick their top two combinations and one of those will go on to Ukraine in May. The outcome will be determined solely by phone and SMS voting. As the UK’s Molly would say, power to the people!
Unser Song 2017: English live stream
OUR READERS FAVOURITE
Earlier today we asked you to vote for your favourite artist and song combo. The results of the flash poll are as follows:
- Axel Feige — “Perfect Life” (131 votes, 20%)
- Felicia Lu — “Wildfire” (122 votes, 19%)
- Axel Feige — “Wildfire” (93 votes, 14%)
- Levina — “Perfect Life” (63, 10%)
- Levina — “Wildfire” (62, 10%)
- Felicia Lu — “Perfect Life” (53, 8%)
- Helene Nissen — “Wildfire” (39, 6%)
- Yosefin — “Wildfire” (38, 6%)
- Yosefin — “Perfect Life” (26, 4%)
- Helene Nissen — “Perfect Life” (18, 3%)
Things are tight between Axel and Felicia, y’all! To help you make up your mind, wiwiblogger Rick caught up with all of the finalists to ask them about their songs. You can watch his interviews below.
UNSER SONG 2017 ARTIST INTERVIEWS
Levina
Helene
Yosefin
Felicia
No, this time we’re actually spot-on. And that’s horrifying!
I thought people were overreacting, but the beginning is Titanium…
Conchita, fantastic as always.
Conchita just completely re-invented “Satellite!” 😀
Nicole!!! My favourite ever Eurovision winner 🙂 (1982). Wow that was a different century now!
I respect Ruslana as an artist, but I don’t think that Euphoria fits her voice
Ruslana: out of tune and having enunciation issues. Pff.
Ruslana singing Euphoria. I’ve died and gone to heaven.
After singing 5 times, Levina is sooooo out of tune, my ears bled.
If Perfect Life wins it’ll have to be redone because I’m pretty sure it plagiarised Titanium
Oh no… Titanium again!!
At this point, Levina can help herself by choosing to give a more whole-hearted performance of a song she prefers. :-!
Colin is right! Where are the men this year? (Apart from Hovig, Nathan Trent and Brendan Murray.) I should have applied this year!! Do you think San Marino will still have me? 😀 (Rumour has it San Marino are pulling out anyways)
Hopefully either Manel wins in Spain or a guy wins Sanremo or Ukraine sends a man (pff… when the hell freezes over) or there will be no guys among the automatic finalists.
Levina, best of the worst I suppose. Mid-tempo ballad. Echoes of 2015?
I think Germans committed suicide by not choosing Axel’s version of “Perfect Life”. For third year in a row, Switzerland will come last in the semi, and Germany will come last in the final. Mark my words.
Hmmm. Given the choice, “Wildfire” for her I think. But it’s still not good versus the other ESC entries. 🙁
Levina is a good choice! I really like her voice and energy.
And it’s another ballad.
At this point anything but a ballad should/could have been chosen imo.
(Sry for double-posting ^^’)
Aaaand we effed up. How unexpected.
Ah! It’s Levina v. Levina!! 😀
(No, it’s not me)
This guy in a silver shirt being interviewed is dressed to go clubbing later 😉
@ Purple Mask: thanks for the compliment about BC; and I agree with you about Tim!
If they had sent Tim with that song in German tonight, it would have done better in Kyiv. Sad indeed.
Both Axel and Levina are really good live vocalists. The songs are… okay. I am getting used to the after so many listenings, but this is likely not in my top half after all 43 songs are out.
On the plus side, Lena, Tim and Florian actually say some mild criticism too. They don’t seam to be on the same amount of Xanax as the jury in the UK. 🙂
Germany: we’re too embarrassed to sing in our own language or use our own writers, so we’ll just send these American English songs, Sad….
Some comments while I watch the NF.
@esc1234 me too! This outfit is awful!
On the other hand, Lena is well dressed! I like this outfit, it makes her look elegant!
As for the acts, I see a favourite in the German audience. Every time Levina is on stage, you hear a round of applause, which doesn’t happen with the other acts.
@blondboybc: If they are mediocre, they have been extremely successful! Did you see those records?! By the way, I love British Columbia – thanks for watching in the late morning / early afternoon!! 🙂
Did I just hear “Titanium?” No, it’s Levina. A better arrangement. I think she might win, but it’ll be close.
Levina seems like the audience favourite, and obviously so, she’s a great artist. The major flaw is the song quality. I’m sorry, but the songs are dreadful.
The first 30 seconds of Levina’s Perfect Life are a rip-off of Titanium. Really disappointing from a country that constantly blocks all its videos and acts very arrogantly with their copyright issues.
I guess they didn’t have good enough writers in Germany, so they went for mediocre American writers (?). Good lord, Germany, you can do better than this! Sounds a lot like last year’s last place.
Hmmm. “Perfect life” is a better song, but it badly needs to be re-arranged with a modern mix. I can’t stand this band and strings arrangement!
Axel is a good singer, but he’s really lacking in charisma, sorry.
Levina with Wildfire has sounded really good! Tolle performance
Well the good news is that the two best singers (apart from Tim) are in the final two slots. So it’s either Levina or Axel.
@Colin. YES! Is that actually an option? 😀
@Purple Mask – Yeah, let’s vote Tim. At least we’ll hear some German after 6 years. 🙂
Ohhh! Why can’t they send this blonde guy singing now?!!! Haha!
Germany need to send a MALE..Axel will stand out amongst the females so far selected.
Presenter to Axel: “Would you like to perform the song?”
Axel: “Didn’t I just do that?”
*Facepalm* – none of this is working! What an awful comedy.
Oh dear. “Wildfire” sounds so dated compared to, say, “Taken by a stranger.” I’m despairing for Germany. 🙁
1 hour wasted on songs that have no relevance to Eurovision or selecting Germany’s Eurovision act. You know, the whole reason we’re here.
What a dreary cover final this has been so far. 🙁 I hope it gets better when the original songs start!
the presenters outfit is one of the worst things i have seen in my life.