Meet the six acts hoping to sing for Germany

NDR has revealed the six candidates that will compete at the German national final for the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. They will compete performing original songs in ‘Unser Lied für Lissabon’,  which will take place on 22 February in Berlin.

For the last few weeks, twenty candidates have taken part in workshops with music experts, vocal coaches, and choreographers trying different songs of a wide range of styles. The Europe-Panel and an international expert committee have selected the finalists that will compete in the live show based on preview videos that showed their potential:

• Xavier Darcy
• Ivy Quainoo
• Ryk
• Michael Schulte
• Natia Todua
• voXXclub Band

“Congratulations and thanks to our six acts! In a multi-stage process, they were selected by the members of our international jury and the 100 women and men who represent the international ESC viewers. They found six participants that promise to deliver a very exciting, diverse ESC semi-final. The goal is to find the best song for Lisbon now.”, said Thomas Schreiber, Head of Entertainment at ARD.

Singer/Songwriter Xavier Darcy (22) from Munich has British and French roots. This year, he released his debut album “Darcy”, which was in the Top 50 of the iTunes charts. Before this, he had already launched two EPs. He has performed at numerous festivals, was a guest in “Inas Nacht” on the First German Television channel, among other things, and was the support act on tours of Rea Garvey and Joris.

Ryk (Rick Jurthe, 28) studied popular music at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media. Since completing his studies, he has been working as a composer, singer and producer for projects reaching from film to variety shows. In recent years, he released several EPs, until 2015 under his old stage name, FOXOS. Since 2016, Ryk has been the musical director and composer for the most successful Europe-wide acrobatic show: “Fireworks of Gymnastics”. He has won several renowned newcomer prizes and has played at numerous international and national festivals.

For her debut album, Ivy Quainoo (25) from Berlin received a Gold Award right off the bat. In 2013 she received the German Music Industry Award ECHO as “Best Artist Rock/Pop national”. She toured Germany with her band for the third time in November 2017. Since 2012, Ivy has been the most successful winner of the first German season of “The Voice of Germany” up to now. She has been living in New York for the most part for the past two years and is studying at the renowned acting school The American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Michael Schulte (27) appears in front of a huge audience – online: His YouTube channel has had more than 50 million views and has nearly 200,000 subscribers. A large portion of his more than 1.2 Spotify stream-accessings each month comes from Sweden, Norway, England and the USA. By now the singer/songwriter has successfully released seven albums and EPs. He grew up on the german-danish border in Dollerup and now lives in Buxtehude near Hamburg.

Natia Todua (21) came to Germany from Georgia to fulfill her dream of living her life as a musician and as a singer. She worked as an au-pair and lives now in Bruchsal. Two weeks ago she won the 7th season of “The Voice of Germany” by a landslide. Natia Todua currently tours Germany.

The style of the Munich band voXXclub is referred to as “new Volksmusik”. voXXclub consists of five singers from three countries. Its members, Florian Claus, Stefan Raaflaub, Korbinian Arendt, Christian Schild and Michael Hartinger mix traditional with modern music and back it up with groovy beats and sounds. Their videos have been clicked on millions of times on the Internet. Their debut “Alpin” went Platinum and they have already been nominated for the German Music Industry Award ECHO three times. Their third album came out in 2016.

What’s next?

It’s time to work on the songs! A three-day Song Writing Camp will be held in Berlin during which up to 15 composers, producers, and record labels will work along with the finalists to write original songs for them.

‘Unser Lied für Lissabon’ will be developed jointly by Florian Wieder and Jens Bujar (Lodge of Levity), and the voting experts of digame mobile and Norddeutscher Rundfunk (member station of ARD network). Director is Volker Weicker, commissioning editor Thomas Schreiber and Christoph Pellander.

The German final will take place on 22 February in Berlin. Tickets will be available to purchase in mid-January.

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