Germany wants you to wear their love at Eurovision 2022 in Italy. And apparently they think rebooting their national final is the way to go.
As our friends at ESC Kompakt report, Germany is resurrecting its Unser Lied für Turin format. The news was confirmed by BAYERN 3, a radio station belonging to the country’s Eurovision broadcaster ARD. Five acts will reportedly face off in a public-vote showdown sometime during March.
BAYERN 3 says that aspiring contestants can apply with their song at eurovision.de/bewerben, though that site isn’t yet live. A special jury will choose the five artists for the national final.
German radio stations are expected to play a role in the process, but those details haven’t been revealed yet. The stations said to be playing a part alongside Bayern 3 are: Antenne Brandenburg, Bremen 4, HR 3, MDR Jump, NDR 2, SR 1, SWR 3 and WDR 2. A swoop of German radio stations previously played a role in the process, as seen through Unser Lied für Malmö in 2013.
ESC Kompakt points out that reports so far discuss “a song for Turin” — so simply Lied für Turin — though they rightly speculate the show will likely end up being called Unser Lied für Turin, which would follow the format of recent history.
The national final follows two years of internal selections. Ahead of the cancelled Eurovision 2020, the broadcaster selected Ben Dolic with the song “Violent Thing.” And in 2021 they went with Jendrik and his feel-good number “I Don’t Feel Hate”.
Germany’s last national selection was 2019’s Unser Lied für Israel, which resulted in S!sters singing “Sister” in Tel Aviv. They famously received zero points in the public televote at Eurovision.
However, the format also gave Germany its best result of late. Michael Schulte placed in the Top 5 at ESC 2018 after winning Unser Lied für Lissabon.
Are you excited that there will be a public vote? Who do you hope to see on that shortlist? Let us know down below!
ESMIKO CALLBOY need to be Germany’s entry would be amazing and probably funny as F too
Better be Eskimo Callboy
I’d love to see Eskimo Callboy join Eurovision this year, they’ve got such a unique sound and the band members have amazing personalities.
lilly among the clouds has made,surprise,surprise a very good 21th place in aussievisions top100 yesterday! 🙂
timeless song!
I am sorry for saying this but German music sucks so much. Even Ukraine, a country half the size and 5 times poorer, has more innovative, dynamic and interesting music industrcy
For now I’m glad there’ll at least be a national final. But there’s a good chance the people in charge will still mess it up – and if they don’t, ARD’s core audience likely will.
Most of the times, the average ARD viewers are like the truffle pigs of terribleness. If they have five gems and one big fat pile of **** to choose from, they’ll usually go for the latter.
2019 German NF was so rigged by Schreiber – while Aly Ryan and Lillie among Clouds been Top10 material.
So I hope without Schreiber we get a fair competition
hehe – wiwiland is aly ryanland. ;
some greetz to all my enemies – life is hart. 😀
How much songs among the 5, will be in german ? Did 2022, could be the first year or will every the BIG5 countries all sing in their own languages ?
For the first time in 25 years since 1997 ?
I doubt it. At most there will probably be one song in German, but you know an English language song will win
There are strong rumours, that the popular german metalcore band “Eskimo Callboy” will try to be one of the finalists in the national german selection. They just released a banger song in September …..
yeah!
D1NdGBldg3w
Internal selection isn’t a means to avoid bad quality, it’s a means to circumvent the public vote, because in these national finals people usually vote for what they think will do well at Eurovision rather than what they really like themselves. The result is a ‘typical’ Eurovision song which never stands out in the competition.
Why only 5 songs? Give the audience more variation to chose from!
Quality over quantity 🙂
But we’re talking about Germany, everyone knows they’re capable of selecting 5 “I Don’t Feel Hate” -like as contestants for their selection
maybe also lilly among the clouds has a new good song?
i’ve never understood,why team wiwibloggs has ignored her so hart and not placed her in the the wiwibloggs top50 (not choosen NF songs) ?
fun fact – she has won the 2019 german second chance contest against the strong german aly ryan bubble,because musicquality is what matters. 😀
lilly 2019 has not underperformed.
I’d like Nicole to perform at this final to celebrate the 40th anniversary of her win.
That would be so sweet.
Great idea. I thought she looked better in the recent anniversary show than in 1982!
ok,but it must be a metalsong.
yeah
I would like to see Cascada get a second shot. She was robbed blind in Malmo and has been blamed consistently for Germany failing at Eurovision ever since.
i’d be okay with that as long as her song doesn’t sound 70% the same as last year’s winner like glorious did with euphoria
Tired of this myth. The Cascada sound was in place long before Euphoria. And why would you want to “copy” such (in my view) an awful derivative 90s song. Imagine if Malta or San Marino had sent it in.
it was the year after euphoria and has an extremely similar sound. sorry, but there is a reason that glorious was a flop and the very apparent copying of loreen’s success from the year before is a big reason behind it
germany is a different case when it comes to unoriginality than malta and san marino as it has hundreds of times more people than both nations combined thus millions of more people who could come up with something unique
Would like to see the format where the record labels get involved again, with some stellar acts and no wildcards.
thats funny tell another one
the illusion of choice…
Hopefully queen Aly Ryan will compete
That would be the worst thing to happen for this competition. Either she wins, or she cries.
She could do both too lol
The Bayern3 link in your news report does not work, maybe wrong news? No confirmation by NDR anyway! Why spreading no confirmed news?
It’s on the official German Eurovision website (Eurovision.de).
I actually like the fact that there will only be 5 songs… I’d prefer an internal selection for Germany but we shall see.
I can’t imagine this will work well for them. 5 is extremely little in comparison to how many songs you’d see in pretty much every other national final. In theory there could be five great songs, but knowing Germany in Eurovision, maybe there’s like, 2 of them and one of the other 3 ends up going to Italy. Calling it now.
Five acts and public vote, good like with that! They will want to give the audience 5 different genres, and the public will pick the worst song.
I agree with both Apollo and Polegend here. Germany’s NF vote is skewed by its demographic and it’s certain type of taste (to put it politely). Occasionally this will prop up a gem like Michael Schulte, but otherwise it will lead to something that doesn’t appeal to the rest of Europe.
Actually one of the best non-German people to ask about this is probably William, since (as I recall) he was on one of the juries at the last German NF.
Anyhow, there are lots of amazing musicians in Germany, so fingers crossed for a good NF.
team “Eskimo Callboy – WE GOT THE MOVES” here – forget the rest! 😀
A NF is exactly what Germany needs, as we’ve seen in the past that their internal selection isn’t great. HOWEVER, Germany’s NF vote is DOMINATED by people in their late 40’s to early 60’s, so it doesn’t reflect the actual Eurovision audience. I hope they somehow change their voting system so the input of younger voices is equal to the larger middle-aged voting audience.
Then why aren’t younger people watching the national final so they could have their say?
Young Germans aren’t watching their national final because it’s boring. Why would they waste their time watching a two-hour national final full of outdated songs?
Their last national final was actually a good one, the only problem came from the fact they allowed a last-minute act to participate and… we all know what happened.
Written by the same person who gave neighboring Switzerland its best placement in years and one of the worst finishes for the UK, all in the same year.
Indeed. What a paradox.
She reminds me of those movie directors that spend their carreers directing one studio movie after another and nobody actually knows what’s their signature. From her Eurovision entries, the one I like is “Stones”.
I am a big fan of Empires for Poland 2020, which she co-wrote, Bigger Than Us really grew on me (still have it on my 2019 playlist), and I think that Stones should have qualified. Both Switzerland 2019 and Cyprus 2021 are prefectly solid entertainment. Only Sister ended-up weak, and that’s more due to the lack of chemistry and direction, than for composition itself. The thing is that Barker didn’t write any of these songs alone, so it’s impossible to know which parts she made. But judging by her resume, she does have talent. Just like many Swedish songwriters who… Read more »
My problem with her entries is that they usually sound too impersonal. I understand it’s an expected side effect when you’re prolific and always co-writes songs with different people, but I’m not a fan of this approach. Ironically, in my opinion “Sister” is one of her best attempts in terms of storytelling, but I agree that there was a lack of chemistry between the performers and for some reason the staging in Eurovision was much worst than the one in the national final. A song about a deep bond was presented in a very disconnected way.
Interesting point. Some of them perhaps sound somewhat impersonal on paper, but I definitely felt the connection, and thus elevation when performed. Actually it was Michael Rice’s video of BTU that sold me the song completely. Suddenly, this love wasn’t something ficticious. It was very real for me. El Diablo and She Got Me are party songs whose superficial approach didn’t deflect much from their entertainment purpose. On the other hand, I feel like Empires and Stones do sound genuine and passionate, with their more layered lyrical approach. Sister would be a perfectly solid musical theater entry within the right… Read more »
I agree about all the others, but “BTU” never convinced me, even if I respect Michael did everything he could. The intense repetition kills my mood right away. I keep forgetting that “Empires” is also hers, but the truth is that I haven’t listened much to it since the contest was cancelled. Anyway, no matter how I feel about Laurel’s work, she’s just doing her job and I’ll never blame anyone for loving Eurovision to the point of wanting to come back all the time. Hopefully when she comes back (we know she’ll) it will be with something that pleases… Read more »
I have no idea why BTU’s repetition in the chorus isn’t a deal-breaker for me, because I usually don’t like this approach. I can only guess that the musical aspect is actually developing in chords and variation underneath? Perhaps Purple Mask could elaborate on that better than me. I totally get others not liking it. I mean, even if I do like it a lot, I understand that it wasn’t people’s top 5 choice in the finals (which, despite my initial skepticism, turned out to be pretty good). I am always supportive of artists and writers who love ESC, and… Read more »
A Eurovision Flashpoint Paradox. 🙂
Another being that Germany’s song was very feminist, and Switzerland’s was… not.
there’s always very valid entries in germany’s nfs, the problem is that the public has a tendency to go for the tackiest acts that will tank at esc.
Their 2018 NF was overall excellent. All of those 6 songs were quite good, and since the best song won, 4th place was more than deserving. 🙂
In 2019, I absolutely loved Makeda’s song, with Aly Ryan, Lilly Among Clouds, and Gregor Hagele also being much better options. I have no idea how Sisters won… But it’s not like the whole final was a bad idea.
Good luck for 2022, Germany! 🙂
5 entries sounds to limited for a final. Why not 10? 5 only works if you have 5 really great songs that could win ESC. But 5 middle of the road entries won’t make any difference..
Well you’d assume they’d choose the 5 best songs out of the ones they received. 10 middle of the road songs don’t make a difference to 5.
good that another country brings back a proper, televised national selection show. i just wish it could have done way bigger: -slightly more competing songs (8 to 12), but all with good quality -held in a Eurovision-standard venue (as they did in 2014 in Lanxess Arena) -produced as if it was the main Eurovision show (only Sweden so far could do this for their Melodifestivalen final), that is why the venue should be Eurovision-standard -voting system similar to Eurovision (giving 1-8,10 and 12 points) or 2011-2017 Melodifestivalen (giving 1,2,4,6,8,10 and 12 points) . if it’s not possible for 2022, at… Read more »
You know, I really admire your ambitions sometimes but feasibility and effectiveness are key measures as well. Just a small piece of advice 🙂
An Eurovision standard venue or not and the voting system are not very important for the success of a NF and not decisive for the quality of the show but it’s rather its content and its outcome, however you can have very good NFs with a small scale, Israël, Czech Republic, Iceland, Norway do that very well for example. The quality of the songs and of the singers is decisive for the outcome, the more quality you have, the more interest you will get from the people and from the eurofans which is always a good thing, the more chances… Read more »
well, I don’t say the venue standard and/or the voting system are more or less important than the quality. I’d prefer having a WHOLE package (just like what Melodifestivalen’s final sometimes has), but if not, at least the high song quality and the one-song-for-one-artist-only format should be prioritized, and the show’s scale can be slowly-but-surely upgraded from year to year as the interest keeps growing and growing.
Melfest is not only a NF for esc but it determines what will be on the swedish charts and radio during the year ( San Remo is like that too for Italy), so it makes sense they try to do that bigger as they can, it’s THE show of the year for them even more important than esc for them, it,’s not the same system and the same approach in the others big 5 countries for their music markets for ex.
Ngl I’m happy the national final is back. What’s good thing is that the winner will be chosen purely by televoting which is miles better than international juries. Well, Germany is something like France in Eurovision. Sometimes they send excellent song and end up in TOP 5 (Germany 2018, France 2021) and sometimes they send pure crap. Still better than UK and Spain.
you do realize that the televote also gave 12 points to Sisters in 2019?
I do not trust televoters one bit…
not to mention what happened in Norway this year because of the same system.
I wanna know who voted for them ough.
The selection in 2013 was good, as it was in 2014 and 2015. It’s just that the voting should’ve been done with public vote & some sort of jury. Seems like ARD keeps pushing that panic button every year faster and faster.
This could go either way depending on the quality of the entries. If there are five great interest, he has a chance to not finish close the last place, but if they’re all crap, then it’s another 25th finish.
Let’s hope they keep clear of any song submissions from Laurell Barker then. Because SISTERRRRR was NOT It…
Five candidates sound too limited, but it could work if all candidates share a decent quality. If not, then it will be another waste of time.
The problem is never in how to select an entry. The problem is in their inconsistencies, they either select a very promising song or a very concerning one.
Germany had a great song in 2020 that would have done well if the contest hadn’t been cancelled. They should’ve gone with that particular internal selection formula (which has also worked well with Switzerland).
Jendrik was also internally selected, and He placed poorly. Germany really needs to get its head out of the sand
I doubt Jendrik was the best option they had. I imagine he was chosen because Germany wanted to capitalize on the popularity of songs like Think About Things, On Fire, and Uno that had a quirky vibe.
Always happy to see a country returning to a national final, it fills the eurofans agenda, and we can say that for this future season we are spoiled, national finals everywhere, so happy for Germany but why to do it at the last moment in March it has been proven that being among the last to reveal your act is not an advantage at all …. I hope we could listen to the potential songs well before then.
And yes I prefer only 5 very good acts instead of 20 average acts, even if in both cases a single very good one is enough, but the higher the quality is in a NF, the better the winning act will be, and that means quality sent to Eurovision.
At least we will even have a choice. 5 acts is fine to me, just hope there are interesting ones.
Just 5 acts? Sounds like last place, again.
That depends on the quality. It could be five bad songs or five great songs. We’re not gonna know until they’re out. I’d like to see Germany do better next year.
Not connected but idk where else to write it. The croatian HoD was fired today, allegedly for using the station’s money to pay for a lunch for the delegation in Rotterdam when the hotel was full and they couldn’t eat there. Also for buying the red carpet outfits for the dancers, announcing the Dora 2022 song submission too early (even though the TV station’s director had to approve this before it goes public??) among other bizarre small things. She wasn’t perfect, but at least she tried to give Croatia something go look forward to. The new HoD is the same… Read more »
But she was also the one who was controversial in the national final this year with Nina Kraljic and Bernarda who is a legenddd
As a German I like to see the national final returning, but I’m a little sceptical for now…