Over the past few months, the selection process for the German national final has been slowly but surely whittling down almost one thousand singers. And now broadcaster NDR has revealed the names of the six acts who will compete in the national final.

The national final — confirmed as having the name Unser Lied für Israel — will include Aly Ryan, BB Thomaz, Linus Bruhn, Gregor Hägele, lilly among clouds and Makeda.

The acts were selected by two juries. One jury was the Eurovision Panel, made up of 100 German fans, who were demographically selected to match the tastes of general Eurovision viewers. The other jury was a group of 20 international experts.

From 965 original entrants, the jury members viewed videos of the auditioning artists and whittled the number down to the six who will compete in the national final.

While these are the six acts that have been confirmed, there is a suggestion that there may be more to come. NDR has said that they are “currently in contact with other acts whose participation in the show is yet to be decided by the two juries.”

But for now, let’s meet the six confirmed acts.

Aly Ryan

Aly is a German-born multi-instumentalist who now makes her home in Los Angeles. She moved to the United States at the tender age of 16 to further her music career, but now it seems she’s turning back to Europe. She specialises indie pop and enjoyed some success with her 2017 debut single “No Parachute”.

BB Thomaz

BB came to fame last year as a contestant on the seventh series of The Voice of Germany. However, the self-taught musician has much experience, including an award-winning collaboration with Grammy-nominated producer Kyle K2 Stewart II. Here’s her audition from The Voice, where she proves her chops as a powerful R&B vocalist (and rapper) with “Bang Bang”.

Linus Bruhn

Linus is another alum of The Voice of Germany. He competed in the 2015 edition of the show and made it as far as the Knockout stage. He also has a popular YouTube channel where he performs covers. Earlier this year Linus released his single “Pink Glasses”.

Gregor Hägele

Gregor also got his start on The Voice of Germany. He competed in the 2017 season and was eliminated in the semi-final. He also does covers on his YouTube channel, including a popular cover of Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect”.

lilly among clouds

lily among clouds (also known as Elisabeth Brüchner) plays piano and guitar and focuses on English language song. She released her first EP in 2015, and her first album in 2017. Earlier this year, she released the single “Wasting My Time”.

Makeda

Makeda is the lead vocalist of the group Steal A Taxi, who were strongly rumoured for Unser Lied 2018. She’s back as a solo artist. Makeda has also worked in musical theatre, playing the lead role in the hit show Bodyguard. Here’s a live session with her band “Steal a Taxi”.

Next, the songwriting camp

We’ve heard what the six acts have been capable of in the past, but what about their Eurovision entries?

The next step is for the six acts to work on their potential entries for the national final. They are doing this now at a five-day-long songwriting camp. They will be joined with 24 lyricists, composers and producers from both Germany and further afield.

Together, they’ll be writing and developing songs with Eurovision in mind. From these songs a “collective decision” will be made to pick the one song each artist will sing at Unser Lied für Israel.

The national final will take place in February. Tickets are expected to go on sale in mid January.

Which Unser Lied für Israel act are you most excited about?

We don’t yet know what the six acts will be singing at the national final, but based on their previous work, which act are you most excited about? Tell us what you think and vote in our poll. You can vote for as many acts as you like, but you can only vote once — so make it count!

[polldaddy poll=10159048]

Read more Germany Eurovision news here

Image credit: Eurovision.de

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Eyal
Eyal
5 years ago

I’m wondering why last year it was “Unser Lied für Lissabon”, and this year is “Unser Lied für Israel” and not “für Tel Aviv”, as one would expect, since last year the name of the host city appeared in the title and not the country’s. Just wondering…

Julian Geiser
Editor
5 years ago
Reply to  Eyal

There is no big reason about it. Thomas Schreiber stated in an interview von eurovision.de that the acronym “USFI” (= Unser Star für Israel) would suit the format more than “USFTA”. That’s it:D

Where I Belong
Where I Belong
5 years ago
Reply to  Eyal

Using the host country s name in the title of the show was first practised in 2011 with “Unser Song für Deutschland”. Again in 2014 and 2015 with “Unser Song für Österreich” and “Unser Song für Dänemark”.
Beside a more suitable acronym, simply variaties of show titles might be the reason . Also avoiding too many syllables as in Düsseldorf and Kopenhagen or too less as in Wien should be taken into consideration.

Eyal
Eyal
5 years ago
Reply to  Eyal

Thank you both for your answers 🙂

Anita
Anita
5 years ago

Sorry, but nothing there I can become excited about.

vf99
vf99
5 years ago

My wig flew halfway across the country when I read that Lilly would be in the national final. I want her to represent us so badly omg. Wasting My Time is such a bop, if she can deliver something like that again I will root for Germany for the first time since Lena.

Weißbrot
Weißbrot
5 years ago

I’m genuinly happy with the contestants we have… Some of them are more interesting than others (Lilly for example, you should look up her other work. It’s great!). However: I’m worried that the ,,professional songwriters” influence the artists too much and make the songs more boring and unoriginal. I hope our contestants are confident enough to do their own thing and won’t let themselves be influenced too much if they don’t want to. But I have to say that some of them might not be capable of writing their own songs, so for them this camp might be helpful. Let’s… Read more »

Anita
Anita
5 years ago
Reply to  Weißbrot

But what is there own thing – nearly all of them are singing covers?

Weißbrot
Weißbrot
5 years ago
Reply to  Anita

Well, Lilly among clouds, Aly,Makeda and Linus have all published at least one song. And if one song isn’t enough, I’m sure they still all have their “thing” or a vision for what Kind of song they want.

Mr. Vanilla Bean
Mr. Vanilla Bean
5 years ago

I looked at the picture of the article and I thought “hmm this one is cute”, scrolled down and saw him covering Ed Sheeran presumably in his bedroom and thought “please, not another one of those”. Out of these six acts, it might be better to pic one of the girls. Maybe lilly with the dancer in her video.

Esclisagermany1
Esclisagermany1
5 years ago

So.. again no top 10 for us!!!

It's the BBC's fault, not the UK's
It's the BBC's fault, not the UK's
5 years ago

I hope they don’t do what they did in 2017, feed the singers dreadful songs (written by Lindy Robbins and Dave Bassett), who were meant to be top songswriters…clearly not!

Hopefully Germany will officially get back into Eurovision again, as things could go downhill again next year!

sunrise
sunrise
5 years ago

Aly and Lilly are my favorits

Sabrina
Sabrina
5 years ago

It’s a very promising lineup! I’m especially curious about what Aly, Lilly and Makeda can bring to the table. I feel there’s a risk Linus and Gregor may cancel each other out if they go with songs in the same vibe.

Héctor
Héctor
5 years ago

lilly among clouds and Makeda would be my choices for Germany. I don’t know how the general public would received them, but I like them. lilly has a Florence & The Machine sound, that could help with the right choice or maybe she could fall in an indie pop song that would appeal to some (like me), but not to the general public.

Onetimeuser
Onetimeuser
5 years ago

Are all of these from the original top 20?

ESCFan2009 (male, 22, German)
ESCFan2009 (male, 22, German)
5 years ago
Reply to  Onetimeuser

Yes! 🙂

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
5 years ago

I hope that they allow the artists to come up with their own songs and ideas. What they did in 2017 (preparing two mediocre songs to give to the singers and forcing them to sing them) was disgraceful, I hope they learned from that mistake.

Candy
Candy
5 years ago

I don’t think that all of them are capable of writing own songs, to be honest.

Regina Phalange
Regina Phalange
5 years ago

Omg Aly Ryan yas! I love “No Parachute”

chiara
chiara
5 years ago

HI ARGY

beccaboo1212
5 years ago

This is a tough one. For the moment, my favorite is Lily Among Clouds.

NickC
NickC
5 years ago

I have a feeling they will go for a female artist.
Anyway, seems like they are slowly finding their mojo, so good on them.

KAZAKHSTAN
KAZAKHSTAN
5 years ago

Why germany always insist in having only nobodies in their nf??? A lot of big German stars want to represent their country!!

Breebroo1
5 years ago
Reply to  KAZAKHSTAN

No big artist wants to. They all could be here if they only had applied lol. And what about fame. Nobody knew Lena, nobody knew Roman, not THAT many knew Michael. There is no solid point for fame being nescessary for success…

Sas
Sas
5 years ago
Reply to  KAZAKHSTAN

Well, as a German i can say that no really big star really cared about Eurovision the last couple of Years.

James
James
5 years ago
Reply to  KAZAKHSTAN

Eric Braeden is a little busy at the moment.

Nora
Nora
5 years ago
Reply to  KAZAKHSTAN

Why would famous artists participate in a song contest anyway? They are already famous and they might put their career in too much risk if they participate. You know not everyone does well in Eurovision.

Zhuz
Zhuz
5 years ago

I like Lilly

Liam Lindsay
Liam Lindsay
5 years ago

Safe to say that Aly Ryan will represent Germany this year. No real competition for her

Esc Vegi
Esc Vegi
5 years ago

Better artists than last year !