She was the fan-favourite of Germany’s national final Unser Lied für Israel and fans have been dreaming of a comeback from her for Eurovision 2020. But now L.A.-based artist Aly Ryan has confirmed on Twitter that she will not take part in Germany’s selection process and that she’s applied for Switzerland’s internal selection instead. She followed the announcement with a series of explosive Tweets about last year’s selection — and she has a lot to say.
Her statements didn’t come out of the blue: They followed nearly endless requests and questions from her fans about her potential participation in the German selection. She made clear that this will not happen in 2020.
For Germany at least. She is thankful for all the messages but refuses to take part in the current selection format. The only way Aly Ryan would cooperate with NDR again would be through an internal nomination. But even with such an offer, she would only “consider” participation.
In a tweet Aly confirmed that she was not prepared to take part in a German national final. She explained, “I told NDR the only way I would even CONSIDER IT, would be through internal selection.”
To all my @Eurovision fans, I received hundreds of messages from you guys asking me to re-apply for the German national selection.
I AM NOT. I told NDR the only way I would even CONSIDER IT, would be through internal selection & it looks like they are choosing the old process?????— Aly Ryan ? (@alyryanmusic) September 23, 2019
However, this seems pretty unlikely. NDR has been in charge of Germany’s Eurovision entry since 1996 and only once selected internally — in 2009. The failed attempt to select another artist internally — back in 2016 with Xavier Naidoo — proved the risk of an internal nomination.
But even Xavier Naidoo and 2009 internal selection Alex Christensen (Alex Swings Oscar Sings!) had success in Germany prior to their nomination. That’s in contrast to Aly Ryan, who has not yet charted in her native country.
A storm was building
In another Tweet, Aly states that NDR has contacted her, but she declined the offer and stresses her rejection of the current system. This offer is the reason why she’s tweeting about her non-participation now.
But Aly didn’t stop there, and went on tweeting her opinions about the German process. As you’ll recall, she placed first with 44 of the 100 members of the Eurovision Expert Panel, which comprised one-third of the overall score. The televote and jury vote ultimately pushed her down to fourth.
She claims that “votes don’t count” and “opinions aren’t acknowledged”. Things got spicy fast. She then described Germany’s selection method as a system “that lies & cheats” and claimed that Germany did not make the decision, alleging that the show was “rigged” by only a few powerful people.
We should point out that there is no hard evidence of any vote rigging or vote buying, and that no members of the professional jury have corroborated any of these claims.
I love my country & wld love to go for germany but can’t support a system that lies & cheats & I’m talking about only a few people that make the final decision in the national final. If you truly believe germany made the choice, think again. Germany didn’t decide, it was rigged.
— Aly Ryan ? (@alyryanmusic) September 23, 2019
Aly Ryan finished fourth overall in Unser Lied für Israel. While she topped the Eurovision Panel, she finished fourth with the televote and fifth with the jury. She had less than half the televotes of S!sters — the ultimate winners.
The Eurovision Panel, which is made up of fans who are thought to have “predictive power” of how Europeans vote at ESC, is a peculiarity of the German (and indeed Swiss) selection process. There is not a similar panel at Eurovision itself. Doubts about the independence of some members of the international jury began spreading shortly after the show took place. S!sters had ties to two of the jurors.
LOL ja viel Spaß beim wieder Scheisse abschneiden nächstes Jahr so wie dieses Jahr und die meisten Jahre davor ja auch. Das einzige Land mit 0 Punkten von den Fans können Leute wie du ja feiern. Tut mir leid für die Leute in D die gewinnen möchten. Viel Glück nächstes Jahr ?
— Aly Ryan ? (@alyryanmusic) September 23, 2019
Aly proceeded to wish Germany the best of luck and expects another poor result “just like last year and most recent years.” She throws shade towards the S!sters’ televoting result and reminds us that Germany was “the only country with zero points from the fans”.
Will Aly Ryan perform for Switzerland?
She responded to multiple fans that she has applied for Switzerland’s internal selection. Switzerland has no restriction on nationality this year and submissions closed on 16 September. A total of 515 songs were received and will be evaluated by a similar system as Germany has.
A 100-person panel and a 20-person international expert jury will narrow the entries down to one song. The only difference to Germany is the missing national final and thereby the public vote. Switzerland was, in contrast to Germany, extremely successful with this selection method in 2018. Now they’re looking for a successor for Luca Hänni, who placed fourth, and Aly Ryan might be it.
Fun Fact: If you take Switzerland’s internal selection method and transfer it to Germany’s 2019 national final, Aly Ryan still wouldn’t have won. She would have been tied in second place with S!sters, with Makeda winning the show.
What do you think? is Aly Ryan right with her criticism? Do you want to see Aly Ryan performing for Switzerland? Tell us in the comments below!
apart from Michael Shulte Germany have bombed for years. Get a different company to chose internally
She can’t even sing live lol
I’m Swiss, but I wouldn’t like Aly Ryan to represent my country. First of all, she has no connection to Switzerland as far as I know, and secondly, she was not at all my favorite of Germany’s selection last year. I found her song quite generic and her performance, where you couldn’t really see her most of the time, rather odd. My favorite then was Lucy among Clouds with her great voice and song “Surprise”. But anyway, as 2019 has proven, we also have national singers, who can bring Switzerland to the Top 5.
People should not throw shade only to the selection process of germany there are other cases that were way worse for example spain 2017 and don’t forget all the drama with ukraine this year
Enough already, but i would like to add, that from the start “Surprise” was my favourite, while “WYL” was a close second place, but come national-final “Sister” kinda suprised me and my whole family in such a positive way, that couldn’t help but vote for it (i sneaked in another call for Lilly Among Clouds though;). Sure, the whole show might have been in favour of them, but even now i’m still fond of our entry and in my opinion it is at least contradictory to call out haters while bashing S!sters (and/or the german broadcaster).
She might sound bitter but she’s right. The whole thing was very suspicious. The song was a MASSIVE FLOP on radio and media, no one knew them and liked the song. No radio station played it. How come if it topped the televoting? So weird in addition to their last-minute participation….
I do not think Aly stands a chance in the Swiss selection but i would LOVE to see her in Eurovision. Maybe with Austria?
s’isters was appallingly bad. I could not bear to hear it after two listens.
Off-topic: Does anyone know how you can change your avatar here?
In my case, my email address is linked to. WordPress account where I use a particular profile pic that got carried over here.
I’m not sure with the others.
Thank you, I will try. 🙂
Mmmm… she sounds a bit salty here. She would have been a better choice than S¡sters, but the resuslts were fair. Get over it. Also, how do you expect to be internally selected, and get mad if not, when you are a nobody? I mean, if NRD would have decided to go for her, that would have been fine (see Duncan Laurence), but almost no broadcaster would take a risk by choosing internally a non-expert candidate. Friendly reminder: Aly, you probably think you are a star now that a lot of eurofans write to you, but you are not. My… Read more »
I liked her song, but even San Marino wouldn’t take this lady with this obnoxious attitude that she has. :s
Aaand we have a German MIHAI now too.
Speaking up against “haters” is always good, but you have to be aware of your limits (Lol reference to my Paenda. Sorry ^^), so that you don’t come across as arrogant or bitter lemon. At least you can be polite to the S!sters as persons, so Carlotta and Laurita (yes, they even have names!). But “Wear Your Love” was a bop and a bop for Germany or Switzerland would be very nice (although Luca Hänni was bop-ish (?) enough 😀 ). She should just have said “I applied for SUI”. Fin. Well, let’s see. She has to beat Scilla Hess,… Read more »
To be honest… She’s probably not lying. Sisters winning did seem very unrealistic on the night.
Of course she won’t take part in a national final anymore. She is aware that she can’t win any selection with those awful live vocals of her. That high note in the German NF was absolutely dreadful. But judging by her salty behaviour it’s obvious she has much bigger problems than just not being able to properly sing. I personally don’t want to see such people in Eurovision.
She seems so arrogant and bitter. Doesn’t she know less is more? If she’d have just said, “not going to take part this year but good luck to anyone who does”, then noone would have thought any less of her. Ranting like this – it just turns people off because of her poor character. Why would the TV company Rig a result to give them last place overall? The results weren’t even close, or surprising really. None of the songs were that amazing. Compare Aly to someone like Saara Aalto. She tried countless times to go to EV, and every… Read more »
Y‘all acting like she did something wrong with expressing her opinion. First of all, she said those things bc she wanted us to know why she doesn‘t want to participate in the German NF. And the one actual rude comment of her was a respond to a disrespectful comment of her, and she should be able to do that. I would loooove for Aly to return 🙂
Bless her heart.
But “Wear Your Love” was no better than “Sister” though. Lilly and Makeda’s were better options, at least for me.
Germany made a mistake sending S!sters, but I guess I understand why German televote thought is a good idea. After Schulte success, Germans thought that songs about emotions and feelings are the recipe. They thought S!sters are what they need, but those two girls looked like two spoiled brats that never had a problem in their life. Nothing in common with Schulte.
You got it. Songs need to be authentic! Whether it’s a sad song about loss (Arcade, YLMWA), a cheeky feminist anthem (Toy) or a lyrically “basic” fun song like Fuego or She Got Me… artist and song need to fit together. This is something that can be achieved by having the songwriter perform their own song, but also by making wise choices…
Very well explained. Schulte became the benchmark for the kind of song they were looking to send in the future. But the idea for sending another song like this backfired on Germany for the following reasons: (1) Schulte co-wrote his song; someone else wrote the S!sters’ song; (2) Schulte’s song is a reflection of his own life experiences; the S!sters’ song was a facsimile of someone else’s life experiences, and they’re not even sisters. The televoters at Unser Lied didn’t pick up on the farcical attempt to repeat Schulte’s success. Unfortunately, the more the bookies saw it, the more they… Read more »
I mean I just don’t see how people jury can differ so much from televote if people jury are suppose to be representative of the public. In addition, some in the juries had worked with Sisters before. I don’t think their system is good to be honest. I’m glad Spain and U.K decided to change it up a bit. Best wishes to Germany and Aly Ryan! I think she could had rephrase it a bit differently but ultimately I agree with some aspects. But I will not shame her for speaking her mind. Nothing threatening was said and she just… Read more »
People jury = representative of European televote
Televote = German televote of typical ARD audience
That’s the difference.
Germany deserves 0 point for sending “Sister” that’s true, but Aly doesn’t have to act like this actually…
The year they sent the awful Ghost they had at least 3 better songs
It’s her take and there’s nothing holding her back so we should just move past that (even I do it sometimes). Either way, Switzerland should really consider her.
I feel like Germany would receive 0 points just for her attitude… I couldn’t even end reading article because of quotes.
My God.. She is such a shady diva. I wanted her to win based off the studio version. But listening to her live performance… I wasn’t a fan anymore. She didn’t deserve to win the national final. And so didn’t sisters. I think Lilly among clouds should have taken the win. The songs I venereal were strong.. But the voting system need to be changed. It’s necessary.
There is no need for her to attack Germany like that, but she was ultimately by far the best choice that they had and if she brings a bop for Switzerland then I’m happy. I would love to see her represent Switzerland, the Swiss deserve another great result after being robbed so many times in the 2010’s
I understand that she’s upset about her score in the NF, but she really comes off as full of herself in those tweets – like, you didn’t win, just accept it. She may take part or not, it’s her choice – it’s not like NDR will abandon the whole project just because Aly Ryan said she wants to be internally selected. Sorry, the world doesn’t revolve around her. I kinda liked “WYL” (tho I was rooting for “Surprise”), but if choosing Aly meant bringing that toxic atmosphere to Rotterdam, I’d much rather stick to the current format.
So fool of herself, she didn’t even win the public vote. She was certain of her victory, even tho her song isn’t any masterpiece and the staging was boring as hell.
She’s being quite sassy for someone whose loss has to be (partially) attributed to her own vocals, including some moments where her voice just broke (bridge leading into final chorus key change). While Wear Your Love is a bop and would have definitely placed within the top 20, the song is more like vintage Britney Spears and combined with Aly’s reliance on sex appeal and her inconsistent vocals, would have been very off putting for the jurors, and both jurors and televoters would have gravitated to Tamta anyways as that’s just a classier version of the same thing.
YEEEEESSSSS WE STAN ALY ?
Aly speaks what all other contestants of “Unser Lied” are thinking, but reading all of this then perhaps her approach could’ve been gentler. At the end of the day though, I don’t think she’s mad about the fact that she didn’t win as she eventually placed 4th in the end, but bitter and angry about the atmosphere surrounding it all because it indeed looked shady. Seeing that Germany ended up with zero points from the public vote only amplified that the best entry didn’t win unless people think that no other song in that selection could’ve done better with the… Read more »
I stand by her side, she isn’t diplomatic and why should she be? She states her opinion and that’s the right thing to do, I don’t think she is snobby, I just think she is honest – and I respect that, because a lot of singers pretend to be nice and everything, but in their minds they are the opposite of that. Hope she gets selected for Switzerland – I’ll never understand how Sisters won.
It’s very questionable why the worst song won the national selection. Germany had 3 songs that could’ve at least got them into the top 15. I get the feeling NDR are too afraid of success after Michael’s success, so went back to their usual bottom 2 of the scoreboard.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, Thomas Schreiber needs to step now ASAP! Let someone new and fresh takeover or Germany will most likely stay at the bottom of the scoreboard!
Why would they need be afraid? They are the money bags of Europe and probably would host if Australia won. They might be afraid of sending good music for some reason, but definitely not of winning and hosting.
Some broadcasters don’t want to win, because it’s the cost of hosting the thing (i.e. Ireland, Spain, UK). Hosting Eurovision is a mammoth task! With the 3 countries that I gave examples for, after a good result they’ve nearly always come back down the next year.
Germany wants to win. You can’t tell because they send awful stuff. But that’s just because they’re clueless.
Except those countries can afford to host ESC easily, and after Kyiv being largely a success no country has the excuse of finances and instability when it comes to hosting. The countries you mentioned don’t have the strategies to consistently get good results but it’s not out of fear for hosting.
All Big 5 broadcasters have big annual budgets and they can afford ESC easy. 15M is nothing for them.
Wait. Why would Switzerland need to select her? No! Don’t you dare, Switzerland. You have your own singers to choose from. Plenty of them. Particularly some gentlemen and ladies in your Italian part come to my mind.
Just like how Eleni Foureira represented Cyprus after being snubbed by Greece I would be happy to see Aly represent Switzerland given what she said happened to her at the hands of the German broadcaster.
You can’t just compare this crybaby to Eleni Foureira. She has zero singing abilities. Wtf
quite snobbish for someone whose wikipedia article has been deleted FIVE times for irrelevance.
LOL
This is some funny trivia though, thanks for sharing.
LOL The song is good compared to Sister but her live performance was not good. I don’t think anything was wrong with the process when she competed. People chose what they wanted and you should respect that.
I posted twice but neither time it showed up. What word can I not use? R*gged?
Ah, the R word.
I loved her entry and it would have done better than “Sister”, (which is not difficult)but, she comes across as very arrogant. Some friends of mine had already claimed that before, but I did not believe them . Today, while I checking her Twitter account, I also saw that she retweeted a post which showed 3 pictures with persons pointing at her on how Germany would have received MORE than 0 points.
Her behaviour is totally unacceptable.
I liked neither of Germany’s options and she definitely wouldn’t have competed for any top spot, but it isn’t hard to imagine that she’d have gotten more than zero. lol
Yeah, since minus points don’t exist ..
They totally should, though.
Aly did have quite a sexy live performance, as I recall. That on its own might have scored points.
The song was quite catchy too.
There were other great performances in the German NF though – like Lily Among Clouds and Makeda. Are they also complaining about the “fix”?
I think Aly believes that being the “fan favorite” somehow entitles her to victory.
Ah, thx for reminding me. I did like one of Germany’s pics. That Makeda girl who sang “It doesn’t matter, I’ll forgive you even if I shatter”. And the cloud girl I also partly liked, I think.
She definitely seems like a bad loser. If she had gotten a bad result in Tel Aviv, she probably would’ve started crying “unfair” then too. Like I tried to post earlier, the German system is flawed, but I don’t believe it is r*gged. Some people just have bad taste.
Probably because the national selection is organized by ARD, which is predominantly watched by older people.
The younger German generation would never send songs like Perfect Life, Sister or whatever, that’s why people don’t take the contest serious here lol.
Hmmm. Well both Spain and the UK have dropped their NFs for next year. Aly Ryan has appeared to confirm that Germany are keeping theirs. Interesting.
Well, if people keep reaching out to you on social media again and again every day the bomb might just burst one day.
the esc bubble that follows her on twitter has probably only feeden this attitude. She has stayed very cool under it untill now. Too bad she’s throwing shade on s!sters though, they are very sweet.
Someone should print these tweets out to give to Thomas Schreiber, who is undoubtedly on the hunt for yet another bottom feeder like S!sters to become his personal pick. Having said that, Germany doesn’t need her in the slightest. But I like the sass. I’m always up for sass.
I think it’s a flawed system, but I don’t believe it was rigged. Sorry, Aly, it seems like you are using very flimsy circumstantial evidence to confirm what you already believe.
Wow. 🙁