Nearly 100,000 people have now signed a petition calling on the German broadcaster to add Eskimo Callboy to the line up of its Eurovision 2022 selection Germany 12 Points.
Now, in a series of Tweets posted on Tuesday afternoon, Germany’s NDR has made it official that the group will not receive a wildcard to compete.
The official ESC Deutschland Twitter account wrote:
“Dear ESC community, we read your criticism of the selection for the preliminary round and take it seriously. There was also a lot of discussion internally, and there are different positions — but in the end the decision of the jury stands: There will be no wildcard for Eskimo Callboy.”
“It’s a competition with a jury decision. The applicants knew that in advance, the band accepted the result.”
They also explained why they have been deleting comments, which have been flooding all of their threads across social media on a variety of topics.
“In order to enable a fair discussion about the nominees — and also the candidates from the other countries — we remove off-topic comments on the tweets about the respective candidates.”
(1/3) Liebe ESC-Community, wir lesen eure Kritik über die Auswahl zum Vorentscheid und nehmen sie ernst. Auch intern wurde viel diskutiert, gibt es unterschiedliche Positionen – am Ende steht aber der Entschluss der Jury: Es wird keine Wildcard für Eskimo Callboy geben.
— ESC Deutschland (@eurovisionde) February 15, 2022
Eskimo Callboy petition
The petition, entitled “Bring Eskimo Callboy to the Eurovision Song Contest”, argued that the wildly popular band could help restore Germany’s credibility at Eurovision and improve what is widely regarded as a weak and rather safe national final. Among the complaints cited in the petition is that all of the chosen songs basically sound the same.
“For long enough, 0 points have been scored at the ESC and nothing has been learned from the fact that mainstream music and pop songs are lost in the unity of the masses.”
“Our goal is that at this year’s preliminary decision the choice is made not only between one and the same genre in different packaging – we want the diversity that the jury has mentioned frequently and thus a real chance with the choice in the preliminary decision to do something for the success of the ESC cause.”
“In previous years there were so-called ‘wildcards’ — songs and artists that were added to the selection after the official announcement of the preliminary acts. We demand a realistic chance for more than the mainstream at the ESC — send Eskimo Callboy to the preliminary decision!!”
It ended with the hashtag #EC4ESC.
Editor’s note: The band has previously stated that their name is not meant to offend anyone. But, as the New York Times explains, “it is considered derogatory by many who associate it with racist, non-Native colonizers who settled in the Arctic and used the term.” You can read more on the Alaska Native Language Center web site. The band have said they are willing to change their name, as they did not fully understand its meaning when they selected it.
The way NDR is managing this looks as if the Germany’s national selection is a private affair at the expense of the public.
Exactly
The organisators of the German national final might be nuts and nasty jerks. Eskimo Callboy are really unique and deserve to represent Germany!!
And this is the last thing I am going to post as far as the ESC and especially the German entry is concerned. It’s just too disappointing and way too restrictive – there is no fun. I am going to enjoy Eskimo Callboy live (they are touring soon) and wish you all best, guys, – a former ESC fan.
Are you gonna hate Eurovision forever?
No. I don’t hate Eurovision. I’m just fed up with our German selection.
You can’t go your whole life without becoming a fan again.
a former ESC fan. wow, chill
Is Doma never gonna show interest in Eurovision again?
Leaving Eurovision just because of a bunch of jerks in a national selection in ONE country is redundant… other countries have A LOT of good songs too!!
This is German cancel culture! Now the NDR has told to cancel all comments what refer to Eskimo Callboy. What’s next? I guess they will cancel any negative comment as well.Europe should just be aware of the fact that only a NSS (NDR song selection) is going to compete… The winner will represent the NDR, not Germany.
The winner will represent Germany, not NDR.
I guess, Finland will be a winner of Eurovision 2022. All thanks to the band “The Rasmus”.
I don’t even think they’ll win UMK, everyone in Finland is talking about and listening to Bess and Younghearted way more than they do with The Rasmus
Wenn wir deutschen schon nicht hinter dem Lied stehen was beim vorentscheid gewinnt!warum sollte Europa für uns Voten wenn sie im Endeffekt nur Zweite Wahl sind! Beste Beispiel als Andrea Kümmert den Sieg abgelegt hat und dafür die Zweitplatzierte Ann Sophie mit black Smoke beim esc teilnehmen durfte!tolle Frau mit einer ganz großen Stimme! Letzter Platz für Deutschland was im Vorfeld leider klar gewesenes. Der Gewinner kann einem jetzt schon leid tun! Drei der Teilnehmer haben sich dafür ausgesprochen das sie kein Problem damit hätten und sich freuen würden wenn Eskimo callboy als 7 Act teilnehmen würde!starkes Zeichen was sie… Read more »
Everybody is trying to replicate last year’s success now by sending rock or metal… or atleast in their national comps. It doesn’t work like that. One year could have a sickly sweet pop ballad win and the following a rock song.
I like some of Germany’s selections.
Yes, and you will have the highest chances to win with Germanies 2022 entries 😀 😀 😀 Maybe on a kids birthday party.
The thing is, that it’s not about winning but about a statement. Last year glam rock won, second place was a really beautiful chanson, electro folk, violent pop and other genres beside pop were successful too. EC are metal core with EDM elements, something different. They don’t have to win, but they would polarise (you love it or you hate it), jurys probably won’t like it, but I guess the public will vote enough for them to let them end at least in TOP 10. They are simply chaotic dorky fun. I would love all the reactions and interviews and… Read more »
Let’s hope that whatever song will xin their selection they will finish dead last in may at least on the televote side !
Maybe the UK should call them and they will get their best result since ages lol.
The guys in the band took it in stride and made a funny video about it, it’s the fans that need to relax.
Eurovision is annual, so maybe another year in the future.
It’s not only the EC fans who are upset, the german ESC fans are fed up with their arrogant broadcaster for not doing what they had announced, more diversity! (and getting bad results year after year, NDR does not want to win) And I, not from germany, am pissed off that the NDR robbed us international EC and/or ESC fans of the opportunity to see the delight that EC would be on stage in Turin. Big loss for Europe too.
I mean, you gotta sympathise for them, one of the biggest music industries in Europe and completely unable to send a good song to a song contest.
only because everything lies in the hands of a few people from the NDR
They’re not unable, they do so on purpose. They rack their brains looking for the worst performing entry possible
i have to laugh
oh god fans need to calm down. Yes, you made yourself clear and NDR learned the lesson. Time to move on and respect the finalists who are all new and not familiar with controversy and online abuse. Be positive and supportive. I agree that EC would stand out in Eurovision but c’est la vie. Maybe NDR will change the format next year. Maybe the German fan club needs to work closer with NDR and put pressure on them next year??? Fan clubs should be useful and help national broadcasters and not only host parties 🙂 So, it is what it… Read more »
No we „fans“ don’t need to calm down. No, NDR has NOT learned the lesson, 100 % NOT. No, not simply time to move on and let one of the biggest or even *the* biggest (?) sponsor of the ESC with the highest budgets simply pass with their incompetence and arrogance just because they don’t have to fear consequences. I also don’t care what NDR has to do. After many years of failure and my money they force me to pay to finance them I now simply expect results. They received a perfect act on a “silver plate” and failed… Read more »
You’re such a hypocrite, Luke.
We were always complaining that no established artist or band will ever participate in our preselection, because they have to loose a lot, when they aren’t successful. Now a band with millions of views and a favorite for reaction channels on Youtube is willing to present us. They are declined. Will they ever try again? Will some other established artist outside the radiofriendly zone ever try now? I think the answer is clear! Damage done!
Lol, yeah Fan clubs should be useful and help, but don’t do it now! Wait til next year. What are you even saying?
Can someone start a petition to revoke ARD/NDR’s rights? It honestly should go to the hands of a PRO7 or RTL in Germany at this point. We could share the petition with EC, Aly Ryan and all the other artists that didn’t get the treatment they deserved over the past years by rigged processes and very obvious favouritism, I’m sure it would be backed by them and their fans to get media attention (needed to have an impact..).
#EC4ESC
I’m from Germany, 53 years old and enjoyed last year the finnish Band Blind Channel the most, but alltogether a broad variety of genres. The resault showed, that at least the public was fed up with standard pop songs and craved for something different and special. When Eskimo Callboy announced, they wanted to participate, my hopes were high, that we can show the world, that Germany finally has the balls to send something daring and outstanding. So I was shocked, that they aren’t nominated for the preselection and signed the petitition for the wildcard. I hope people in Germany will… Read more »
This is such a pity. This is the first day I get to know this band and they are absolutely brilliant. What a loss for Germany.
Yes, AlexC, that would have been a great party! A pity that Europe will be deprived of it. I’m glad that I will see them at least live in concert. We will have our own “Eurovision party”, Blind Channel will be special guest and I can’t wait to see both bands. There is a tiny hope, that the NDR will give in, if we are persistent. So please sign the petitition!
Just imagine what gems may have been among the huge number of applicants…
A national final of 20 songs may have been a way to allow for a bit more diversity. Then again, looking at Malta’s and Romania’s selections, it is still possible to have a field of songs blending into each other even if you choose to have over 40 entries included.
One NDR staff memeber, Thomas Mohr, said in a podcast, that he thinks all the other submitted songs were probably bad anyway and no gem was lost. He hasn’t heard them but he’s happy to tell that lie, the NDR has told us that lie for years now. (And then they act surprised when artists hate to work with these assholes.)
I know people though who were involved in past years as the “ESC Fan Jury” who told me there were amazing songs that were just ignored for no reason.
I love how the fandom wants Pump It and Give the Wolf a Banana and Eat Your Salad and Lolita Zero. I guess we are at the point now that fans just want to reward joke entries and then they’ll complain the show is turning into a joke….I remember back in the day when Ireland sent a Turkey the country was shamed for not taking contest seriously—now it’s an everything goes and anything that is a serious song is not good enough. Sometimes people get the show they deserve.
There is a difference between enjoyable „jokes“ and a turkey on stage though.
‘We got the Moves’ simply is a legitimately good song which would find good success even without any comic elements in the performance. Also, joke entries don’t necessarily mean bad entries. Verka had a brilliant tune – Buranovskie Babushki … well, not so much.
Hey, I liked party for everybody. That makes me smile. A good joke entry makes you Laugh and smile even if it’s nonsense. A bad joke and treat just irritates the hell out of you.
Some of the songs you mentioned are actually just good songs. Just because they’re presented in a humourous way, doesn’t detract from what.
And unless it’s completely obviously (like Dustin The Turkey) who’s to say what’s an joke entry or not? Was Dadi Freyr a joke entry? KEiiNO? DoReDoS?
DoReDoS was a staging with a really annoying and lame song in the background actually.
The issue are with “joke acts” usually is that are just bad songs by non-musicians. Dustin the Turkey was a trash song and its whole purpose was to be a bad song.
Eskimo Callboy are serious musicians making good music but they still have humor. You can tell that they care about what they do.
The point of their music is to be good music but… in a fun way. The quality of the contest wouldn’t suffer with acts like them. That’s the difference.
The jury was right not to include them.
Why so?
They are not a good example for anybody to follow, especially not under the name of the country.
Ok lol but this isn’t the JESC?!
Okay, I’ve heard ”Pump It” now, and I’m personally not feeling it. However, I can say that it would produce a reaction. Even if it’s a negative one, there would be an immediate reaction.
That was also true of Jendrik.
Actual question – pump what? I don’t believe it is the gym they’re talking about, and even if it is, they know very well that their listeners will see another meaning behind it.
I think it’s a double meaning deliberately.
True, I was expecting a marmite effect for Jendrik, and a higher televote, but nope. I still don’t see any of the current finalists doing much better, sadly. Maybe I’m wrong, and Germany gets an okay result.
arent we glad that Jendrik’s garbage didn’t get rewarded? Even the inexplicable 2 points from the Austrian jury were too much.
If it’s a double meaning, wouldn’t that make the “kill that…” lyric especially horrible? This song came out two months ago, not ten years ago.
I honestly hope *that part* isn’t in a double meaning (I just read the lyrics, I was listening to the song in the background).
you need to loosen up sis… you’re giving pensioner
I don’t know that band but based on the “Pump it” song, I’m not sure how exactly they were any better than any song already in the German selection? And don’t even get me started on the racial slur in the band name and the sexist lyrics… Germany is worth so much better than this band.
So much true. This reminds me of those stereotypical Brits who think sending something extraordinary to Eurovision guarantees good result just because it’s extraoridnary.
The way no Brit has ever said. Might want to go outside more and join everyone else in the real world lmao
yes i hate the sexist lyrics and i am 100% sure the jury took them into consideration among other factors (band name) and i believe they cannot say that in public.
NDR definitely wouldn’t be choosing them because if they even were somehow given a wildcard they would easily win the televote by like 95% surely lol. And NDR as it seems wants “tight competition” (among the worst songs they could pick). I truly wonder who’s gonna be the wild card, whether it is going be the same “radiofriendly” type song or something unique. In 2019 I remember the song selection was pretty decent, but they basically sneaked in “Sisters” as a wild card for “self-sabotage”, after they saw that the public loved those songs in the initial selection. Sometimes I… Read more »
You misread that, there won’t be any wildcard at all. For no one.
What do you mean “I misread it” ? Didn’t the delegation already confirm few weeks before the songs were revealed that they will introduce a wild card? I am pretty sure I read that somewhere.
No, unfortunately not. We’ll have to stick with those six. 🙁
Really? I was sure that I read something similar on Twitter. What a total shame…
twitter is not a reliable source..
Not true at all. There a lot of ESC related accounts there. It was already said that there will be a wild card introduced.
No, that’s simply incorrect. It happened in 2019 for no reason, so people demanded for it to happen again this year. Maybe you’ve mixed that up. But NDR never stated any intent to give someone another wildcard this year.
At least they got what they deserve with Sisters.
“You reap what you sow”.
Yet again, people are still being mean to the Germany broadcaster. 🙁
Deservedly!
How would you feel if Germany won Junior Eurovision?!
That’s a different broadcaster
I understand including mid-tempo radio-friendly songs in your selection, but why not offering anything else? Especially considering how many of this genre fails to ignite interest on Eurovision. Was there nothing more immediate or original than Soap or Hallo Welt? Among more than 900 applications??? I think that Anxiety and Rockstars are quality entries, but I think more daring entries should have been featured alongside them. Then, if public still wants something cozy, it’s okay.
Two huge opportunities were missed this year for Eurovision. The one was Irama for Italy and Callboy for Germany!!
Last year Irama had a better song than this year. I think we will see Irama back with a good uptempo song next year. I hope so!
I saw your comment for Callboy before it was deleted. This is the first time I listened to Eskimo Callboy and I think they are amazing. It reminds me a bit of Little big. This band would have been great addition to this super boring year. Can you imagine them performing at a big stage? In regards to Irama, I believe this year it was fantastic and it had a huge chance to win ESC.
NDR is the german broadcaster and is financed with tax money ….and year by year they work against the public. Why don’t they listen to the ESC experts ….why is it necessary to have 6 songs in the live show which are “radio friendly”? Is Maneskin radio friendly or Jamalas 1944? First they said, every genre would be very welcome and that they wanted diversity ….and 940+ songs they recieved. Suddenly they changed the rules and said “Sorry guys – only songs which are radiofriendly are allowed” …wtf is going on in my country? Was Hatari from Iceland “radiofriendly”? Germany… Read more »
If I would be Georgia or another country that has internal selection (and not released the name of their act) ….I would give Eskimo Callboy a call. EC had 2 songs in the final 24 songs (“Pump It” and the song “We Got The Moves”). WGTM is for me a clear contender for the TOP 10 in Turin.
Georgia very much has an act:) It’s a good idea otherwise – fancy coming to the UK and giving the brexiteers a collective aneuryism? It would be epic..
Yeah, screw NDR. I sincerely hope the National Final will see disastrously low ratings so it’ll slap them in their faces as hard as possible.
For my part, for the very first time since 2000, I’ll definitely not watch it.
You just wanna throw eggs and rotten tomatoes at German’s finalists, don’t you?
At this points Germany needs to withdrawn … we do not need every year 41 countries … Italy did before too
It doesn’t take a withdrawal, but NDR simply mustn’t be involved any longer.
How about ARD and ZDF?
NDR and other regional broadcasters are part of ARD.
Withdrawal isn’t the answer. Switching broadcasters is better.
They could switch every year like Belgium and Russia so they try to do better than eachother.
Don’t count on Germany to withdraw from Junior Eurovision, either!
Most the time, online petitions don’t work in getting what you want, and I’m not surprised that Eskimo cowboy isn’t included in the lineup.
honestly we should start a petition to remove to ndr from the responsibility to search the german act
I’m not a fan of Eskimo Callboy, but their song is just objectively better than the six songs now in contention. I really don’t understand the reasoning of the German jury in rejecting them. Just let them participate, what does the broadcaster have to lose?
The braodcaster doesn’t want Germany to win and to then host Eurovision. That’s it.
Of course they said no, anything that has the potential to not come last is a problem to them
They clearly want to get another 0 points. That su*ks!!!
Germany’s goal is actually to avoid nul points.
You sure? LMAO
Yep.
The song choices here would clearly suggest the opposite.
I guess it’s one point minimum. Nul points is Germany’s nightmare despite all these bullies.
They want 12 points in total.
others try to win, others try to not get 0. Thats quite pathetic
Give them a few years and their delegation will collapse just like the spanish one did. Incompetent delegations can’t survive forever, fortunately.
But they’ve already had a lot of years. Even the ‘new’ lady in charge f***ed up twice already – it took her two years.
Tbh NDR have been in charge of song selection for like 27 years. As you can see it yourself now, incompetence replaced incompetence
No matter how much petitioning and campaigning you do, unfortunately there’s not a lot you can do about incompetent broadcasters/HoDs.
Because in all honesty, none of the songs in the German NF are going to place above 20th place…
…unless the German representative lights the stage in Turin.
Good. No act with a racial slur in its name should ever be part of Eurovision.
The people downvoting your innocuous statement are really telling on themselves. And I imagine they’ll continue to do so.
exactly, i agree with you 100 %. no free pass for racism ever.
also in the editor’s note the band says they didn’t realize it was a slur when they selected their name and would be willing to change it — wondering why don’t they just do it?
Until all the fuss about their name I have had no idea that E-word is a racism. Call me stupid, but simply I’ve never heard about it. Probably they also.
Oh they’d heard. They just didn’t care until they saw a chance at fame from Eurovision.
They don’t need eurovision to be famous. Have you seen how many people have watched their videos?
Let’s not be naive here. Nearly 200 million watch Eurovision. EC have already seen increased fame by merely associating with it. They aren’t interested in going out of charity to Germany.
EC are not big names in Germany, lol. They might be known to the fans of the genre and gone viral 1-2 times but that does not make them established acts with massive popularity. I cannot find them in the charts btw!
YT views????? It is not difficult nowadays to get millions of views.
of course they wanted to do Eurovision for the extra exposure. They saw Maneskin going viral, they saw their friends from Finland smashing streaming so they realised doing ESC will boost their career. Also, the element of humour always works in Eurovision and they are tacky/camp too.
Nope, they didn’t know because they weren’t really famous (outside Germany and the “little” world of metal, I mean) until they released their song “Hypa Hypa” in 2020.
And now, they’re learning about the meaning behind the E-word and they share the process with their fans on YouTube.
People also need to stop upvoting hateful comments about Germany’s finalists.
I Swear To God might not do so bad, I quite like the tune. I’m not big fan of their music, so I don’t mind not having them in competition, but the point is that German national final doesn’t really have anything unique or strong enough to offer.
No worries ! They won’t finish in 26th place !
They will now.
Exactly
tl;dr:
“Yeah, we saw this but we do not care. Stop spamming, we’ll delete it anyway”
So who will have the honour of awarding Germany 0 points this year? Mika? Laura Pausini?
None of the above because I’m sure Germany is trying to avoid nul points.
Honestly, even though they seem very “Eurovision”-y with the overall style. Their lyrics contains swears. ‘Pump It’ would not really sound the same without it if they chose that song, or else they would have to write another one. Another factor is how women are portrayed in their music videos. There are a lot of “Yikes” that NDR probably decided it would not be suitable for ESC as a whole.
Yesterday the eurovision_de team told us, that “hallo welt” will be cut and the names of the social media platforms will be also cut. The song is 30 second too long. I think that ec would have changed the nasty words…. Latvia also don’t sing the p word ion their song.
the latvian song’s xxx line is just one word in the beginning and it’s beeped. no changes really.
Pump it would need a rework and the music video is very very sexist and i doubt they would change it… i am sure NDR did not like them because of this controversy.
They had to take a dozen F bombs out of the Latvian song, the hook is ‘being green is sexy as f**k’
I don’t know the band. But about the name change… Are we really importing the cancel culture from US? I think I’m still in denial. How can this be considered offensive? There is a band called Portugal.the man without any connection to Portugal and I don’t think that hurts my Portuguese soul. We cannot cancel those who want to cancel others but we can try to fight them. If the band wants to change the name just to be accepted by this type of people they automatically lost any potential support from my side.
What a way to show 100 000 of your own fans, audience and taxpayers a giant middle finger. But the show’s not over yet, because the German Eurofans still have an opportunity to flip the bird right back at the broadcaster. My proposal: Everyone who were going to vote for Eskimo Callboy- easily a large enough majority to blow every other competitor out of the water- should instead vote for the worst song out of the whole selection, guaranteeing their victory and Germany an even more disastrously result than last year. And after said guaranteed last place position in May,… Read more »
How do you select the worst song out of that bunch when they’re all equally hopeless?
they are not bad songs, they are just bland. it is unfair to call them bad when there are many young artists that have crafted their music with their own expenses and trying to break through.
I think chosing the worst song out of the NF is a standard in Germany anyway, so we shouldn’t be worried about that
True story.
I love your humour and maybe just for a joke I will pay money for Hallo Welt.
I am afraid Hallo Welt will win even without troll voting. The public in Germany has no taste.
I dunno, the amount of signatures on the petition would disagree…
I’ m not German and I signed it
Honestly even if the German public voted the worst song NDR wouldn’t give two f**** lmfao. I mean that is their aim. They take ESC as a joke and dont care if they finish the last. You should rather hope that the “wild card” that is gonna be revealed is better than the current 6. Otherwise…….
Remember the TISM petition for Australia? This reminds me of that
It was the expected outcome, as we all know by now that they deliberately chose the worst songs from 900+ applicants just to make sure they don’t win and an act that would probably have a good place in Turin would ruin their chances, even when they have the money to host Eurovision almost yearly. As someone said in a previous article related to Germany, the best would be to boycott Germany: * the participating acts should withdraw for their own sake and artistic integrity, I think it’s insulting to find out you were selected because the jurors thought you… Read more »
“Dear ESC community, we read your criticism of the selection for the preliminary round and are pleased that we were able to exceed your worst expectations of how low we can go.
For long enough, 0 points have been scored at the ESC and we will do everything in our power to hold up this proud tradition.”
Yours sincerely,
NDR
🙂
The German broadcaster would never say that in actuality.