Families are full of drama. And apparently that applies to on-stage Sisters, too.

In recent days lots of discussions have been taking place in Germany about the country’s Eurovision 2019 act S!sters. The chatter isn’t only about fan favourite Aly Ryan and the fact she didn’t win on the big night. It’s also about the selection process as a whole.

One widespread complaint is that the Sisters were fast-tracked through the selection process. Or rather they bypassed the intense selection process that opened in June 2018, shortly after the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. The six other acts in the final had to survive a brutal, multi-site selection and songwriting camp — a series of events running from the summer all the way until February 2019.

However, Laurita Spinelli and Carlotta Truman — the Sisters — were added to the final six acts after the songwriting camp and with a song they didn’t help create. Fans have now suggested that the German process might have been manipulated by the broadcaster.

German newspaper Bild.de recently reported on two details that have unsettled some fans. Both concern the international jury, which was made up of 20 musical experts.

First, Johannes Strate, the lead singer of the German band Revolverheld, which appeared as an interval act, gave S!sters his douze points. Many other jury members did, too. But Strate has a special connection to the group, as he was Carlotta Truman’s coach on The Voice Kids a few years ago.

Carlotta told Bild.de that they didn’t have any contact with each other before the German selection and they didn’t even meet on Friday evening during the show. Strate has not made any comment on the matter.

The second point of contention is that Laurita Spinelli is the real-life sister of singer Jennifer Kae. Kae’s manager is Lars Ingwersen, who’s been a part of the organisation team for the songwriting camp.

There is, of course, another side to all of this.

The S!sters — or any other act added late in the game — should not have been a surprise. NDR’s Head of Entertainment Thomas Schreiber stated at the beginning of the process and consistently throughout it that there might be one or two more acts that would be added to the national final. He also revealed that there were lots of artists who simply did not have time to visit the songwriting camp.

Furthermore, Laurita and Carlotta didn’t get any ‘Wildcard’ as a few people have said. They were actually normal applicants as the other six artists were. The reason why it took so long to reveal the seventh act for the selection was down to making sure the submitted songs fit the right applicants — with S!sters singing “Sister” being the best-fitting composition with the best-fitting pair. It takes time to get that mix right.

Finally, we have to remember that the international jury of experts were not the only ones who put S!sters on top of their list. Even though they only got six points from the Eurovision Panel, S!sters won the televote with 25% of the vote. That’s more than 10,000 votes more than second place act lilly among clouds. Even if Makeda — who got 10 points by the expert jury — was put in first place, S!sters would still have won the national final due to their first place ranking in the televote.

What do you think about the German drama? Do you buy any of the conspiracy theories? Let us know down below. 

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erkschnerk
erkschnerk
5 years ago

For sure, the final result was completely designed by NDR broadcaster and Mr Thomas Schreiber ! – which international jury members to choose in order to make sure that sisters are in the lead? And why is there even a German in the jury? We don’t vote for our own country.. should be the same for preselections – which day to choose for the show? Friday, when only old people watch and young people go out. All explanations from Mr Schreiber are just bla bla excuses , he really thinks that we all are too stupid to see through. At… Read more »

S!sters
5 years ago

Two girls screeching at each other like alley cats is NOT my idea of a Eurovision winner

Alex
Alex
5 years ago

Germany will flop unfortunately. what a shame as they are ruining last year’s great result.

Sister is a nice song but it is flat and will go unnoticed unless the pull a major staging. There are already many strong ballads that will do better than Germany.

Melissa J
Melissa J
5 years ago

Why all this hate towards S!sters? It’s a good song, I love the message of it and their harmonies are great! Plus I thought the choreography of walking on the spinning platform was wonderfully symbolic. Aly Ryan wasn’t bad but the song was kind of standard. Oh geez, is she gonna be the new Margaret?
Bottom line: sorry, not sorry, I love “Sister”

Cupcake
Cupcake
5 years ago

I don’t like this entry of ours but i don’t belief in such conspiracy theories either. S!sters won. That’s it. I don’t care about their result in may. I’ll root for other countries this year. Good luck Germany (you’ll need it)

Leah
Leah
5 years ago

What is pointed out in the article is not all that is suspicious. Apart from Johannes Strate being in the jury, there was also a guy from Universal Austria, which is very close to Universal Germany. And guess where the song comes from? Exactly, Universal Germany. Sisters also were the only ones that got a several seconds black/white slomo hugging each other after the performance finished. And most importantly, Lena was there as an interval act, and was rooting to vote for Sisters via her Instagram because one of the girls is her background singer. There were only 345.000 votes… Read more »

Kat
Kat
5 years ago

Usually only older people watch ARD on a friday evening. And to be honest I am sure that people from 60+ like Sisters more than the modern song from Aly. So I guess it is no surprise that Sisters won the televote. But here we also find the problem of the german selection. It is not popular in Germany. They made no advertisment or something else. There were only ~400.000 votes. We have over 82 Million people in Germany. So the result is in no way representing the decision of the majority of the germans! And now a lot of… Read more »

Tajikistan
Tajikistan
5 years ago
Reply to  Kat

I agree completely. For example, I didn’t watch my country’s national final so in effect I’ve lost my right to complain about our song because I didn’t bother to vote, but it annoys me when people complain about what we send to Eurovision without even bothering to watch or vote in the national final (not going to say which country it is, all I’ll say is that we have one of the most disappointing and irrelevant national finals and absolutely nobody bothers watching it)

Jakumata
Jakumata
5 years ago
Reply to  Kat

This is what I am talking about for years. Thanks Kat for putting it so nicely into words.

EscAU
EscAU
5 years ago

It seems like the eventual representatives of Germany are always a second thought and don’t do well
Elaiza and the others from clubkonzert
ann sophie when andreas declined
jamie lee’s the voice winner’s song after xavier naidoo was dumped

Tomás davitt
Tomás davitt
5 years ago

I think this bitterness over Aly not getting through is going too far. “Wear your love” likely would have suffered the same fate as other pop songs like “je ne sais quoi” or “glorious” – the general public don’t react to these songs (the German public being a preview of that). Sisters is a great song. I can see why some people aren’t into it but to make out that it’s some dire song and wear your love is the next bohemian rhapsody is silly. Sisters are going to Tel Aviv and you still have your studio version of wear… Read more »

Loin dici
5 years ago

If they did have songwriting camps required for the participants, the why would the ones not attending be eliminated, simply meaning they can’t adhere to NDR’s rules? If they were also normal applicants then the one member that applied from 2018 shouldn’t be included. It’s indeed fishy.

James
James
5 years ago
Reply to  Loin dici

I recall NDR made it clear earlier on in the process that they can add any acts not part of the songwriting camp as part of the final line-up of participants and accept song submissions outside.

This is only the second year since Unser Song adopted this new selection method so the jury’s still out there to how effective is this in the long-term.

And I think any doubt about its win should be put to rest if that pivotal one-third of the vote, the viewing public, gave their 12 to Sisters.

Where I belong
Where I belong
5 years ago

It is a,shame that NDR has not been able to keep criticsm away after the preselection process.
They should have known right form the beginning that the way they arranged the preselection would cause problems .
They also should have chosen the members of the jury more carefully to avoid bad publicity for the winning song.
Hopefully better next time.

Laurell
Laurell
5 years ago

Haha what? Lars did not co-write this song and I’ve never met him nor been to a camp with him. Gotta love rumours.

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
5 years ago

i don’t think ndr preferred an act that’ll need a miracle to escape bottom 5

Dave
Dave
5 years ago

Corruption? One of the sisters’ vocal coach was a jury member. Lol

Briekimchi
Briekimchi
5 years ago

Really? Cause that sounds like exactly what the German broadcaster would do!

up!
up!
5 years ago

Well, it will be all water under the bridge on let’s say 20th/21st of May when nobody will care about them anymore… and the ones who will care the least about them will be the responsible people at NDR… just like they did with Ann-Sophie, Jamie-Lee and Levina…

Álex
Álex
5 years ago

But by saying these things, the Sisters could be so dissappointed. They don’t need bad news, just to focus on their job that is once in a lifetime and feel their country is behind them. Some people don’t think of others’ feelings before stating stuff…

Pugna
Pugna
5 years ago

I‘m always gonna be bitter about Aly Ryan not winning this, but if they chose them they should not even invest in such ‘scandals’ bc on the end of the day the won and we all don‘t want a Ukraine 2.0

Sjodni
Sjodni
5 years ago

I think that this song is beautiful and the performance was outstanding, and for that reason, they deserve to go to Tel Aviv. While other songs were good, Makeda’s performance was especially moving, Sisters had a raw quality to it that no one else had that night.

Ric
Ric
5 years ago

I mean…you can throw numbers and theories as you want but in my opinion (despite being indifferent to the Song) if they won the televote no plotting theory can be solid, hence there’s very little to discuss here

Deutsche Welle
Deutsche Welle
5 years ago

In 2014 they could send Unheilig, in 2016 Xavier Naidoo or Avantasia and what they did really send? Germany made many mistakes in last years. Send your big stars with typical German music. But Sisters are ok but next year try to send Xavier again.

Cedric
5 years ago
Reply to  Deutsche Welle

Xavier Naidoo regularly spreads extreme right-wing conspiracy theories so he definitely won’t represent Germany.

Lin
Lin
5 years ago
Reply to  Cedric

Bullshit, Xavier never did such things. He simply is no sheep like you.

keith mawson
keith mawson
5 years ago
Reply to  Lin

true

Where I belong
Where I belong
5 years ago
Reply to  Cedric

Sorry, Xavier Naidoo won t represent Germany anymore as he was dismissed by NDR not very respectfully .
At the moment he is a judge at Germany s Superstar and I haven t noticed any political activities of him for a long time.

keith mawson
keith mawson
5 years ago
Reply to  Deutsche Welle

avantasia was amazing. they totally screwed up

eurovisionberlin
eurovisionberlin
5 years ago

can’t imagine they earned 25% of the televote, neeever!

Jonas
Jonas
5 years ago

I personally prefer “Sister” over “Wear Your Love”, but the fact that the wildcard gets the best running order while the fan favourite gets the worst one (02) tells a lot about the credibility of the selection. 🙂

Emily
Emily
5 years ago

I don’t think it was fair that S!sters were fast-tracked through the system, even if they applied like everyone else. They were among my least favourites in the national final, and I’m disappointed.