Hop on the bandwagon! With more countries using an international jury to help in picking their entry for Eurovision, Germany has decided to go down that road too. The names of who will be in this year´s Unser Lied für Lissabon jury have now been revealed, with some familiar names in the group.
The international jury in Germany has 19 jurors from all over Europe. It’s a fine selection of artists, songwriters, musicians and choreographers, with jurors hailing from Iceland all the way to Armenia. There’s also some carefully selected people from the music and theatre industry in Germany.
What’s more, there is no shortage of previous Eurovision contestants and composers in the mix.
Unser Lied für Lissabon: International Jury
An immediate standout name is Norway´s Margaret Berger. She, of course, came fourth in Malmö with “I Feed You My Love”, Norway’s last top 5 placing. Can she help steer Germany in that direction too?
Also jumping out are two Eurovision acts from 2014. Spain´s Ruth Lorenzo and Slovenia’s flute playing Tinkara Kovac will both be on hand to help Germany make their decision.
Iceland brings two Eurovision related jurors. Einar Bárðarson was the man behind the country’s 2001 entry “Angel”. There’s also Icelandic Eurovision queen Helga Möller, a member of the country’s debut act ICY, back in 1986.
One of the Cypriot jurors is Argyro Christodoulidou. His name may not ring many bells immediately, but that’s because of his work behind the scenes. Those who followed Cyprus´s national selection in 2015 have Arygro to thank for Hovig’s “Stone in a River”.
The rest of the jury is made up by a versatile group from the media industry. Germany are clearly determined to step up their game and make sure that all aspects of the songs are considered:
- Germany: Sascha Reimann (Rapper & actor)
- Lithuania: Rafailas Karpis (Opera singer)
- Cyprus: Gore Melian (Singer/Songwriter)
- The Netherlands: Florent Luyckx (General Manager for Q-Group)
- Romania: Anca Lupes (Media industry professional)
- Sweden: Maria Eva Lundin (Producer & songwriter), Henrik Johnson (former content producer for Melodifestivalen), Rennie Miro (Dancer & choreographer) and Filip Adamo (Production Manager, Sony Music Entertainment in Sweden)
- Belgium: Typh Barrow (Singer)
- France: Bruno Berberes (Former Head of Delegation)
- United Kingdom: Mark De Lisser (Vocal Coach)
- Poland: Grzegorz Urban (Composer & Pianist)
The international jury helps Germany make its decision on February 22. Which one of Xavier Darcy, Ivy Quainoo, Ryk, Michael Schulte, Natia Todua and voXXclub will they support?
What are your opinions about the jury members? Is this the right step for Germany? Let us know in the comments below.
LOL Argyo Christodoulidou is a SHE!
These juries are disqualified, cause they missed the rule that Iveta Mukuchyan and Olga Salamanka must in every international jury this year.
The jury seems a bit ‘top hevy’ with over half of the members coming from Germanic countries. This slightly defeats the purpose of having an international jury. But perhaps they’ve had a different aim, focusing on getting a diverse group of professions. Someone like Henrik Johnsson for instance is not what I’d call a music professional, but he has produced and hosted plenty of music TV and radio, so he understands the format. From what I understand these people also helped picking the six acts for Unser Lied. And they’ve all served on their respective national juries at Eurovision. So… Read more »
Germany and San Marino made the greatest effort this year. Also, last year Levina had the biggest promotional tour, but that was not helpful. San Marino had promotion too, but what can you do?
This year both countries put effort to have a good national final and a good song in the end.
I can’t wait to hear the result.
btw. Martina Barta (Czech Republic 2017) is competing in German Idol 🙂 https://www.rtl.de/cms/dsds-2018-martina-barta-bricht-nach-ihrem-auftritt-in-traenen-aus-4140806.html
I saw that in German TV yesterday and I was like ”What.The.Hell.Is.She.Doing”. Like, German Idol is the worst of all TV Shows. Unlike the Idol of every other Country out there, DSDS is a pile of crap. How can an artist be so desperate?
I totally agree. Out of all kinds of talent searches on German television, DSDS is probably the one with the worst reputation.
About esc stars in talent shows, I guess they just want to promote themselves, to have a new market, being in a talent show is just free promotion, something instead of touring. Why would they want to be on tour, when they can be on TV.
well, Czecho-Slovak Idol is horrible too, it is not what it used to be many years ago 😉
Off topic but I can´t see any pictures on your front page, just titles? Have you removed them deliberately or is it some trick from my own browser
Yeah, I have the same ”problem”…
I’m not sure, but I think that happens when there’s to much information to be posted, so they “spare space” in the timeline. It also happens during the ESC week.
Well, this is just a beginning of the Eurovision season 🙂 if you are getting hit with the traffic now, what are you going to do when Super Saturdays or the real Eurovision kicks off ? 🙂
I see, so it´m s not my laptop being old and senile. well, understandable.
but maybe you can try different colors for titles or something. it is a bit difficult to find a specific article in that checkerboard of titles. or maybe it is not good cause it will be even heavier on the eye
One issue is that I have to refresh the page everytime I want to read new comments.