Since 2015, Germany has placed 25th or lower six times. In fact, in only one appearance — in 2018 — have they managed to break out from the bottom or near-bottom.
Will anything change at Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool? We got our first clues today with the release of the first eight finalists for Unser Lied für Liverpool — this year’s national final.
Germany’s NDR received a total of 548 submissions through its web site or directly through the broadcaster’s editorial team. NDR used both its internal advisory team and a panel of international experts to choose the eight songs and acts.
Another act — the ninth and final one — will be chosen through the TikTok wildcard round. More than 900 videos were uploaded with the hashtag #UnserLiedFürLiverpool. Some acts submitted their entries to both platforms.
The final will take place on Friday, March 3 live from Cologne. It starts at 22:20 local time and will be broadcast on NDR and also streamed on eurovision.de.
“Unser Lied für Liverpool”: The first 8 participating acts
- Will Church – “Hold On”
- Patty Gurdy – “Melodies Of Hope”
- TRONG – “Dare To Be Different”
- Lonely Spring – “Misfit”
- Anica Russo – “Once Upon A Dream”
- Lord Of The Lost – “Blood And Glitter”
- Frida Gold – “Alle Frauen in mir sind müde”(All the women inside me are tired)
- René Miller – “Concrete Heart”
Six acts remain in Germany’s TikTok wildcard
Starting today and running until 20:00 CET on February 3, fans can vote for the six remaining acts who are up for the TikTok wildcard. They are
Betül – “Heaven”
Leslie Clio – “Free Again”
From Fall To Spring – ” Draw The Line”
Ikke Hüftgold – “Lied mit gutem Text” (Song with good lyrics)
JONA – “10/10”
Mitchy & André Katawazi and NashUp – “Summertime”.
NDR has explained the voting rules on its eurovision.de web site:
“If you want to vote, you need a TikTok account. One vote can be cast per day. The act with the most votes gets the still open place in the preliminary round.”
Alina Stiegler and Stefan Spiegel will announce the winner on February 4 at 18:00 in the first edition of the new show “Alles Eurovision”. It’ll be streamed on eurovision.de.
Which songs appeal to you so far? And which wildcard act are you getting behind? Let us know down below!
I feel a bit the same as with Denmark here; it’s definitely a step up from last year and there’s certainly a more diverse lineup, but I don’t hear a lot of songs that I find really interesting. I kinda like Anica Russo, and René Miller’s song is pretty decent too. I think my main problem here is that they mostly sound just OK, and that’s it…
“Misfit” is nice. “Blood and Glitter” is also ok – but the Lyrics get a bit boring after a while imO. Trong just gets my nostalgia-love bonus. The Song could be better but I just like him. I still have some of his old Songs on my Playlist and I’m just overall happy to see that he’s back in Town. Haven’t listened to the TikTok Songs yet so this is just a first impression.
Frida Gold all the way for me. This will need an artsy, powerful, on-point visual for it to work both in the national selection as well as later in Eurovision. But if executed well, I do think she could win in Germany and at Eurovision earn a solid 15th-ish place.
Ich hoffe das es from Fall to Spring im TikTok Voting zum vorentscheid schaffen und sich dann für Liverpool durchsetzen!rock beim esc ist zwar nicht neu aber Metal war bis jetzt noch nicht dabei!
Den jungs merkt man an das sie bock auf den esc haben und alles geben um in Liverpool dabei zu sein!
Europa wird diese Band lieben, Deutschland würdig vertreten und nicht letzter werden
AWS?
Actually, I thought there are a lot of good songs in the preselection of Germany, even in the tik tok songs. If they choose wisely the wouldn’t be at the bottom. It’s a good start.
Ironic how Moldova, with likely 1/1000 of the resources that Germany has a for a national selection, has a way more interesting and fun offering of songs for Eurovision. There are a handful of songs that Moldova could send and be proud of. What is wrong with Germany?
At least they have a solid song they could send, which would be great if they did (Frida Gold), but knowing Germany they will go with something else and do embarrassingly bad yet again. I really wish they would send Frida Gold, but I know they won’t.
Nobody can denies that it’s an upgraded line-up for Germany, and my absolute fav here is René Miller. Good luck Germany you can do well this year.
Lonely Spring are the ones for me, the 2000s punk-rock/pop reminiscense makes it for me. I’d be ok with Lord of the Lost, TRONG or René Miller. I mean, I don’t want an intrascendent female ballad.
I do think the line-up is far better than last year.
I gotta say, I’m positively surprised! From having a bunch of random songs that were horrible to sit through last year, this is definitely a welcome and much needed change! From the snippets I heard my favorite atm is Patty Gurdy, but yeah… good selection for Germany!
Im hopefull with this selection and hope to listen to the songs soon enough. I think the best song never reached Eurovision from Germany is: Fahrenheit (Amanda Pedersen) – Frozen Silence (2015 selection)
What do you think if this song was the entry of Germany back in 2015 ???
I didn’t know the songs where allready online to click on them! Yes gonna listen then
The song was nice, a real contender. Unfortunately the performance wasn’t that great, so it wouldn’t have been the right song to send.
Send Concrete Heart it’s a great song co-written/produced with Mike Needle, a British songwriter who has worked with many well-known UK artists.
I’m surprised with the amount of negative comments, because I believe this is actually a good selection. If compared with the previous German final (can you remember anything else besides the winner song and that girl forgetting her lyrics?), the improvement is a great surprise. I would personally go with Frida Gold. I really appreciate what she’s doing here and it would be the German entry with more personality in a long, long time. Anica Russo is other that brings a sound I particularly enjoyed. But there are fine options in many directions. For example, Lord of the Lost can… Read more »
Because people have been so burned by Germany sending weak songs that it’s hard to shake the habit to bash Germany. It’s so great to see a good selection from Germany. For once I think I may have been in the minority that wanted to give Germany a chance in spite of everyone writing it off. I’m glad that I turned out to be right.
I can only speak for myself, but I perceive a disconnect between what’s on offer here and what the German music scene provides. I could easily give you eight much more interesting acts just from my last year’s favourites list. And I’m not talking “big names”. Moreover, I just don’t get why there’s nothing electronic in the lineup. Berlin has a world renowned electro scene, yet if you look at this selection, it’s like it didn’t exist. Granted, it’s more diverse than last year, but that wasn’t a terribly high bar to clear. Germany’s selection should be on the same… Read more »
Between rating Malta and waiting for the stream for Moldova, I found a time to actually listen to the 8 German songs (didn’t listen to Tik Tok wildcard entries aside from snippets), and I agree – It’s not on the same level as Italy’s or Spain’s selection. Still… it’s *miles* better than last year, where you had 2 okay songs, 2 ”meh” ones, 2 quite bad ones, and 0 ones that could have been contenters for top 20 at least. This year, you have some better options. Patty Gurdy’s Melodies of Hope has been stuck into my mind since I’ve… Read more »
Like I said, I agree that it’s better than last year, but that cannot be the benchmark for Germany. Spain didn’t have to build towards anything, they just decided to not go with internal selection or casting shows anymore, but put on a real festival and it worked in the first year. There’s no reason why Germany can’t do this. The underlying problem is, in my opinion, that Eurovision is still looked down upon in Germany, the broadcaster is catering to this attitude instead of trying to convince interesting, credible artists to perceive the Eurovision stage as an opportunity, which… Read more »
But Ikke Hüftgold very mich represents what’s going in here musically … as embarrassing as that may be.
*much *on
You may have a point here. Fortunately, it’s not the only thing that’s going on. But to have something like that in the selection might be a bullet I have to bite.
You hit the point. My problem is that because we’re coming from the bottom, the improvement seems a lot bigger than it really is and the music scene in Germany would have a lot more to offer.
I would be interested in the 8 songs if you would bother to name them here.
AB Syndrom – Supermond, Moderat – Easy Prey, Mogli – Animal, Bruckner – Ticket für die Nacht, Levin Liam – Übergang, Schmyt – Abendkleider und Nadelstreifen, Novaa – School Friends, RAZZ – Red & Blue. And that’s just according to my personal taste, and I still have backup, if perhaps Moderat is already to big a name to consider Eurovision. Plus half of them are in German.
I can understand your frustration when you see Germany has much more to offer. And I also won’t ever understand why electronic music don’t even appear on the menu (at least, they finally gave some space to rock, another strong genre in German music). But comparing to other national finals, I still believe this is a good (far from great, but good) lineup. For sure, Germany could step forward like Spain did with Benidorm Fest. But if we compare Unser Lied with national finals for countries in similar situations like Denmark (which also improved a bit this year, I would… Read more »
Frustration is probably too big a word. I just don’t get why big countries with financial means don’t see this as an opportunity to build something that will benefit their whole musical landscape in the long run, but rather tend to the old, a little demeaning reflexes towards Eurovision instead.
Danke!
Thanks for the infor, Una, I wasn’t aware of that! Since Tibor said they have better songs than this one, I should definitely check their catalogue, I think I will like it a lot.
I like From Fall To Spring. It gives me Linkin Park vibes. I hope it gets the spot in the final.
It’s the only good song from those wildcard entries.
Yeah, I agree. It’s the best of the wildcard entries and the only one I would listen to in full, even though this is not my kind of music.
This year Germany want to be in the fight! Great songs! There’s something from everybody! I specially liked “Concrete Heart”, “Blood and Glitter” and “Dare to be different” even is a cliché but still cool! There are two songs I didn’t care of: “Misfit” and “ “Lied mit gutem Text”, the latter because I can’t understand the languageand being honest the music wasn’t the best,
Just heard Concrete Heart. Reminds me a little bit of Stones by Zibbs. Both rock-oriented (pun intended!) 😛
Great NF from Germany this year. Patty Gurdy, Anica Russo, Will Church… and mainly Frida Gold. Her song is delightful, emotional and special.
Patty Gurdy or Lord of the Lost for me.
Frida Gold would be my favourite! The ‘Southern’ instruments combined with the German language is a very nice combination that surprisingly works well! But I don’t think the German public will vote for this …
Frida’s song is great and the one Germany needs to pick but they won’t. Instead they’ll pick something else and end up bottom 5 again. And then it will be surprised Pikachu face.
Yes FRIDA has the best song hands down but Germany being Germany won’t pick it. Like Karl said, they will end up bottom 5 and whinge no one likes them. Lol
Just listened to the six tiktok options.
If you don’t have anything nice to say-
Who are the songwriters? They deserve credit, they’re kinda important.
I’m afraid I can’t answer your question. But someone wrote that curiously Ikke Hüftgold’s song and Will Church’s song have a songwriter in common (Patrick Liegl).
I can’t even find it on the eurovision.de page, oh well. Thank you, that’s interesting, considering Hold On does not have good lyrics.
Well … neither does the ‘song with good lyrics’, so it’s kinda fitting. Maybe that bloke is the go-to-guy for bad lyrics? 😛
Also, it’s said that TRONG’s entry was written by Norway’s Elsie Bay, even though it doesn’t sound like it at all.
Okay, there you go: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unser_Lied_f%C3%BCr_Liverpool
Danke!
You’re welcome!
Another distaster for Germany this year. Please, someone take the preselection away from NDR and let someone else, anybody at all, be in charge in future.
Out of the many NF across Europe, Germany’s is often the one with more American flavour given the type of music and songs chosen, many of which have even the US setting in them. I think this may be one of the reasons it is difficult for German entries to do well. Europeans relate more to closer styles such as the ones offered by Italy or the often overrepresented Swedish-made. Maybe Germany should try to develop its own style as France has attempted in the last few years instead of going for generic styles from the US.
I like your theory, but I’m clueless about the ‘French style’. How would you describe it, since I can’t yet spot any similarities inbetween France’s latest entries (other than the obviously inevitable French language or dialect)?
Well, you just need to look at their best results in the decade: Amir and Barbara. I cannot think of any “more French” song than Voilà, bringing the traditional chanson française to a contemporary audience with a great performance. I guess their choice of La Zarra goes in that same direction too (Tu t’en iras can definitely be classified in that same line of French style). Germany, however, does not even promote its own language. How long has it been since they sang in German for the last time at ESC?
2007….. I´m absolutely sharing your opinion
And that was the only year in which some German appear in their songs since 2001! Even worse: both times there were parts in German and English, so to listen to the last full song in German we need to get back to 1998. Switzerland and Austria do not help in its promotion either… And yet German is the most spoken language in Europe as mother tongue!
Well … we’ve had some German sounding gibberish in 2000. Not sure if that counts, though … XD
2007, performed by the late Roger Cicero.
As an American, I can guarantee you none of these songs are “American Style”…
Also, almost 50% of American songs (maybe even more) are written by Swedish producers.
Blood and Glitter definitely comes across as European. It reminds me of watching Eurotrash, I couldn’t imagine this coming out of America.
Hmm.. René Miller – Concrete Heart…
Germany don’t you dare to mess up! Thanks!
i’m actually in love with frida gold.
Me too….
The only song that’s worth it in this selection.
Loving the two rock tracks, Germany has done a very good job.
I think my absolute favourite is Lonely Spring, they are expertly capturing the emo-pop-punk nostalgia thing
I love the sentiment of the song. Don’t conform!
Same as TRONG, but more like they actually don’t care.
I have to be a little sceptical about the non-conformity when the song very clearly slots into a very popular genre of music, but I agree, there is an underdog quality to this track and artist, and I like an underdog.
Germany’s selection being talked about in positive kinda gives me hope
The 2023 season is wild
hey this is actually pretty good Germany ! well done
I’m so glad, Germany will not be bottom 5 this year. That’s some good progress. My favorites are:
Patty Gurdy – Melodies Of Hope
Lonely Spring – Misfit
I just can’t decide which one is better because they are totally different songs. Anyway, Germany should select one of these two. Both of these songs are able to finish on the left side of the scoreboard. My third pick would be Anica Russo – Once Upon A Dream
NDR seems to have a systemic taste level problem.
As a german ESC Fan I am hyped! We have a “diverse” set of songs to choose from ? this is all I wanted for a national final ?? my favourite sp far is Blood & Glitter but who knows, the live performances can change everything ??
Good to see Patty Gurdy here. She did a campaign to get her song in and it looks like for once, NDR are looking at the numbers because her song has had HUGE traction on YouTube! This makes them more redeemable!
I think she originally applied to be one of the tik Tok wildcards, but I guess they thought her song was so good, They made her one of the direct finalists.
I can’t believe it, I’m finally proud of my country. This is one of the best national finals we had in a while, I hope that the viewers won’t pick the worst song, we know what happened in 2019…
What boggles my mind is Germany being by far the largest country by population competing in the contest, and yet they can never seem to offer anything outstanding in their NF. It’s always a mediocre offer of songs every year.
Well, last time we won with Lena in 2010 haters accused us of buying the win, so no wonder we don’t want to win again in the next couple of decades. Anyways, our music scene is not really that spectacular. We’re the county of poets and thinkers…. not exactly musicians. That and the people in charge just have no f-ing clue what to send. Radiofriendly playing-it-safe pop numbers work about as well as mediocre nonsense entries with dancing middle fingers. Even I can figure out that much. Last year we could’ve sent Electric Callboy, who wouldn’t have won, but definately… Read more »
I have to say, this is actually a good selection for Germany, or at least a better one than last year. There’s actually some musical variety and There are a couple songs I might like here. I admit I don’t really care about the TikTok wildcards. I’ll wait until one of them is chosen to make my opinion along with the other competitors. I won’t deny, I’m kind of biased towards patty Gurdy, because I actually randomly stumbled upon her on YouTube couple of months ago and had a chance to listen to her song without thinking about it going… Read more »
“a good selection _for Germany_”
lol
Well, I didn’t say it was the best. There are the national finals who outclass it, but compared to the past it’s better than usual for Germany.
i have joined team LOTL at once and will stick with them until the (bitter?) end.
🙂
The song that’s 10 classes above all these chosen songs did NOT make the cut? If “Joel Zupan – Fear” isn’t chosen, we can clearly say Germany plan to send one of these mediocre songs ‘case they don’t want to win and host, as simple as that!
Also Seelemann – repariert and kleiner fingerschwur were better
Frida stands out here for sounding like she has any soul at all; I feel like I could come around to liking “Once Upon a Dream”
When I think of once upon a dream, I think of Disney’s sleeping beauty.
i know you I walked with you once upon a dream
selection is actually good this year. i’d go with lord of the lost, a very outstanding act that can put on a performance.
Lord of the lost ….or Patty Gurdy …..one of those should bring Germany back on ESC-track.
OMG Germany IS you ?
I think its a good selection with a Big potential.
I love (so far) :
. Patty Gurdy
. René Miller
. Will Church
. Lord of the Lost
. Anica Russo
. Lonely Spring
But i prefer Patty, René & Lord of the Lost.
For wildcard , I Hope for “From fall to Spring” or for “Jona” but Please no Ikke !!!
Same as last year. And 5 years back. So predictable…
The only one I already knew is the Patty Gurdy one, she’s a very attractive woman but the song sounds just like typical ESC fluff, unfortunately…
I feel like there’s an alternate reality where she sent something I’d really dig but this song ain’t it.
The one salvageable one here is Frida Gold. But watch Germany eff it up.
*The only
I think this is not a bad selection as some people are painting it to be. First–miles better than last year. Second–very varied music genres. Third–all sound like something that you’d hear on the radio/spotify. Fourth–all well produced as none look like amateur our or demos that you hear in some other national selections. I really wish I could love TRONG as much as I love the whole package they are presenting, but those lyrics are CRINGE, so the dancing/melody/uniqueness for ESC only gets me so far once I start listening to what they are saying. I think this lot… Read more »
That’s a stupid reason to call selection bad because it doesn’t have a song in a particular genre you like. It should be judged based on the quality of the entries, regardless of their genre. Also, when you call your song dare to be different and it’s actually a bland entry, you’re setting yourself up for ridicule.
What a great selection!
Anica and Rene FTW!
Ok firstly, kudos to Germany for having a better selection than last year. Ik that mightn’t seem difficult but they have some decent entries here that could potentially do well (and also I hope it’ll make the live show being the selection more entertaining to watch). Here are some of my thoughts on the entries: Will Church: 99% this won’t get selected but honestly its solid. I like his vocal it stands out and the song itself isn’t bad, I could see myself listening to this. Patty Gurdy: I find it interesting how some non esc fans from ireland I… Read more »
Bottom 5 vibes lol
The downvotes are screaming “cope”
I upvoted this comment because it’s sadly true.
Germany, is this the best you can do? Can I say that I liked last year’s national selection songs more? Most songs sound just uncompetitive and I just feel fans are desparate in wanting Germany to actually do well so they say how the songs this year are good. I didn’t notice any song which could escape bottom 5.
Totally agree
And I totally disagree ahah
EVen though some songs are not that competitive, I’m pretty sure German selections will suffer for a long time of the german image we have of them. Fans tend to judge the german NF very harshly and this year, there is clearcly songs with a decent to good production. And read the comments, there is food for everyone !
I dare to say it: it is objectively an upgrade NF from last year, and I havent listend to the tiktok songs yet
At this point it has to be clearly self sabotage by Germany
In Germany Eurovision is totally disconnected from the actual music market. It’s basically it’s own little world with little crossovers. So the big names won’t go there.
Germany used to have interesting options in their NF around 2013-15 but misguided voters were choosing really poor stuff like Cascada’s entry instead and that started a downward spiral from which the Germans clearly still haven’t recovered, I think it’s also the public’s fault to an extent.
For me it’s actually Jona. There’s something there.
Jona’s 10/10 song is 0/10 and shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the front door.
Personally I’m really adore the vibes the Frida Gold song is giving me plus the visual from the music video could work well on the Eurovision stage and Patty Gurdy song would be a interesting choice if she can get the staging and her style right. However I think Rene Miller song will be the winner as he has a very strong fanbase on Instagram and Spotify plus Concrete Heart currently have 195,000 streams already and he has a backing of Warner record company to promote his song. Truth be told I could see him getting a decent place in… Read more »
Frida Gold is not bad but it’s still something that will land around 20th place.