NDR has finally announced their plans for the Eurovision Song Contest. The next German entry has been selected by two independent juries, so the public won’t have any power on this year’s decision.
After the unuseful results at he last year contest in Tel Aviv, the German broadcaster has decided to change the selection format for Eurovision. This year, NDR appointed two different juries to choose their entry for Rotterdam, a Eurovision Jury composed of 100 people from all over Germany and a 20-member expert panel made up of international music professionals that have been part of their home country’s national final juries in the past.
Thomas Schreiber, Head of Entertainment at ARD, talking about Germany finishing 2nd-to-last in 2019: “Of course we were unhappy with our result in Tel Aviv. In Rotterdam, we want to repeat the success we had in 2018. The national and international experts were enthusiastic about our act and it prevailed in competition with a group of fantastic participants. We are confident that our selection will be met with very broad approval among the Eurovision fans and – we hope – with great enthusiasm.”
Both juries have already evaluated all the entries submitted to NDR and have come up with a decision which will be revealed on February 27th at 21:30 CET in the 45-minute TV show Unser Lied für Rotterdam (Our Song For Rotterdam). This special programme will be hosted by Barbara Schöneberger.
Christian Blenker, Head of ARDs Team for the Eurovision Song Contest: “Our 2 juries possess great musical expertise and a unique Eurovision instinct. Through this process, we have also gained much more time for preparing the staging. We have already received the initial exciting ideas provided by internationally successful choreographers and staging professionals. In addition, the 600 artists who were present during the selection process are still protected. None of them has lost, and some of them may be participating again in the coming year.”
Alexandra Wolfslast, Head of Delegation for the German entry in the Eurovision Song Contest: “We know that many fans have been waiting for information for a long time. But we need the time to already concentrate on the many things we need to prepare for Rotterdam. So we are all the more pleased that we will be able to present this fantastic act on February 27th.”
Will this new selection method bring Germany back to a Top place? How much are you looking forward to knowing the 2020 German entry?