Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015

Unser Song für Österreich (English: Our Song for Austria) was the competition that selected Germany's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2015. The competition took place on 5 March 2015 at the TUI Arena in Hannover, hosted by Barbara Schöneberger with Janin Reinhardt reporting from the green room.[4] Like in the previous five years, the national final was co-produced by the production company Brainpool, which also co-produced the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest in Düsseldorf and the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest in Baku. Seven established acts and an eighth act selected through a wildcard round competed during the show with the winner being selected through a public televote.[5] The show was broadcast on Das Erste and EinsFestival as well as online via the broadcaster's official website daserste.de and the broadcaster's Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.de.[6] The national final was watched by 3.2 million viewers in Germany.

Seven established acts were invited by NDR for the competition and were announced on 14 January 2015.[5] The eighth participating act was selected through a club concert wildcard round on 19 February 2015.

Ann Sophie performing "Jump the Gun" during the club concert

Interested artists were able to apply by submitting an online application and uploading a performance clip of either a cover song or an original song via YouTube between 8 September 2014 and 9 January 2015. Singer Andreas Bourani headed the campaign to encourage artists to apply.[4] By the end of the process, it was announced that 1,213 candidates had applied for the wildcard round.[7] The ten competing artists were selected by a panel consisting of representatives of NDR, Brainpool, youth-oriented and pop radio stations of ARD, record labels Universal, Sony, Warner as well as some independent labels.[8] The club concert took place on 19 February 2015 at the Große Freiheit 36 in Hamburg, hosted by Barbara Schöneberger with Janin Reinhardt reporting from the green room.[3] The show was broadcast on NDR Fernsehen and EinsFestival as well as online via eurovision.de.[9] The winner, Ann Sophie, was selected solely by public voting, including options for landline and SMS voting.[10]

Ann Sophie performing "Black Smoke" at Unser Song für Österreich

Andreas Kümmert performing "Heart of Stone" at Unser Song für Österreich

The televised final took place on 3 March 2015. The final featured the seven established acts and Ann Sophie who won the wildcard round. The winner was selected through three rounds of public voting, including options for landline and SMS voting. In the first round, the eight artists performed the first of the two songs bidding for Eurovision, and the top four artists proceeded to the second round. In the second round, the four remaining artists performed their remaining song bidding for Eurovision, and the top two entries, one song per artist, were selected to proceed to the third round. Should the top two songs have been from the same artist, the first and third placed entries would proceed to the second round. In the third round, the winner was selected from the two remaining combinations of song and artist.[11] In addition to the performances of the competing entries, 2014 Austrian Eurovision entrant Conchita Wurst, who won the Eurovision Song Contest 2014, performed her entry "Rise Like a Phoenix". German singer Mark Forster and Swiss singer Stefanie Heinzmann also performed.[12][13]

In the first round, the eight competing artists performed the first of their two songs of their choice and the top four artists were selected to proceed to the second round. The top four artists were: Alexa Feser, Ann Sophie, Laing and Andreas Kümmert.

In the second round, the top four artists performed their second song and the top two entries were selected to proceed to the third round. The top two entries were: "Black Smoke" performed by Ann Sophie and "Heart of Stone" performed by Andreas Kümmert.

In the third round, the winner, "Heart of Stone" performed by Andreas Kümmert, was selected. However, upon the announcement that Kümmert had won, the singer ceded his win to Ann Sophie who came second.[14][15] Kümmert stated that he was not really in the right shape to accept this, and that Ann Sophie was much more qualified and suited. His unprecedented decision to withdraw garnered international media attention.[16][17][18] Following the show, NDR held a press conference confirming that Ann Sophie would represent Germany in Vienna with "Black Smoke".[19]

Ann Sophie at a dress rehearsal for the final

Ann Sophie took part in technical rehearsals on 17 and 20 May,[25][26] followed by dress rehearsals on 22 and 23 May. This included the jury final where professional juries of each country, responsible for 50 percent of each country's vote, watched and voted on the competing entries.[27] After technical rehearsals were held on 20 May, the "Big 5" countries, host nation Austria and special guest Australia held a press conference. As part of this press conference, the artists took part in a draw to determine which half of the grand final they would subsequently participate in. Germany was drawn to compete in the second half.[28] Following the conclusion of the second semi-final, the shows' producers decided upon the running order of the final. The running order for the semi-finals and final was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Germany was subsequently placed to perform in position 17, following the entry from Montenegro and before the entry from Poland.[29]

The stage show featured Ann Sophie dressed in a black jumpsuit, high heels and a single large gold earring with black feathers. Ann Sophie began the performance with her back turned to the audience and then performed a routine that included walking, gesturing and dancing. The stage lighting was black and white with yellow spotlights and smoke being displayed on the background LED screens. Another element of the performance were large stage prop lamps that emitted a yellow light.[25][26] On stage, Ann Sophie was joined by four backing vocalists: Giovanna Winterfeldt, Bibi Vongehr, Lan Syreen and Kayna Okwuazu.[30]

At the conclusion of the voting, Germany finished last in twenty-seventh place, failing to score any points.[31][32] The nation initially tied with Austria as both countries finished with zero points, however, due to a tiebreaker rule that favours the song performed earliest in the running order, Germany was placed twenty-seventh, while Austria, which performed in position 14 during the final, placed twenty-sixth.[33] This was the sixth time Germany finished in last place and the third time the nation received nul points, the previous occasions being in 1964 and 1965.[1]

Voting during the three shows consisted of 50 percent public televoting and 50 percent from a jury deliberation. The jury consisted of five music industry professionals who were citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury was asked to judge each contestant based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury could be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member were released shortly after the grand final.[34]

Following the release of the full split voting by the EBU after the conclusion of the competition, it was revealed that Germany had placed twenty-fifth with the public televote and twentieth with the jury vote. In the public vote, Germany scored 5 points and in the jury vote the nation scored 24 points.[35]

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Germany and awarded by Germany in the second semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows:[32][36][37][38]

Germany did not receive any points at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest.

The German jury comprised the following five members:[34]

• Johannes Strate – Chairperson – bandleader, singer, songwriter
• Leslie Clio – singer, songwriter
• Mark Cwiertnia (Mark Foster) – singer, songwriter
• Sascha Reimann (Ferris MC) – musician, rapper, actor
• Swen Meyer – music producer

Split voting results from Germany (Semi-final 2)
Draw	Country	J. Strate	L. Clio	M. Cwiertnia	S. Reimann	S. Meyer	Average Jury Rank	Televote Rank	Combined Rank	Scoreboard (Points)
01	Lithuania	12	3	9	15	14	10	10	11
02	Ireland	8	4	7	5	3	4	12	9	2
03	San Marino	17	17	17	17	17	17	15	16
04	Montenegro	16	10	13	11	10	13	11	12
05	Malta	13	8	11	6	7	9	17	14
06	Norway	3	1	3	4	2	2	8	4	7
07	Portugal	7	9	14	12	13	11	9	10	1
08	Czech Republic	5	13	6	2	12	6	7	7	4
09	Israel	6	6	4	9	9	5	2	3	8
10	Latvia	1	2	1	1	1	1	5	2	10
11	Azerbaijan	11	16	8	7	16	12	13	13
12	Iceland	14	14	15	16	8	16	16	17
13	Sweden	2	5	2	3	4	3	3	1	12
14	Switzerland	15	12	10	13	11	14	14	15
15	Cyprus	4	11	5	14	5	7	6	6	5
16	Slovenia	9	7	12	10	6	8	4	5	6
17	Poland	10	15	16	8	15	15	1	8	3

Split voting results from Germany (final)
Draw	Country	J. Strate	L. Clio	M. Cwiertnia	S. Reimann	S. Meyer	Average Jury Rank	Televote Rank	Combined Rank	Scoreboard (Points)
01	Slovenia	15	8	19	13	10	10	23	20
02	France	21	25	12	6	22	17	25	22
03	Israel	9	7	6	18	8	9	7	6	5
04	Estonia	6	6	5	12	6	6	14	9	2
05	United Kingdom	20	20	26	14	23	23	26	26
06	Armenia	17	23	23	21	25	24	19	23
07	Lithuania	10	11	9	25	13	11	21	19
08	Serbia	16	22	17	19	11	15	9	11
09	Norway	4	4	4	3	2	3	15	7	4
10	Sweden	3	5	2	2	3	2	5	2	10
11	Cyprus	11	18	13	23	21	16	16	18
12	Australia	8	9	8	4	9	7	3	4	7
13	Belgium	5	3	7	7	4	5	4	3	8
14	Austria	7	10	11	10	5	8	17	12
15	Greece	13	19	16	22	18	19	13	17
16	Montenegro	19	16	25	16	14	20	24	24
17	Germany
18	Poland	22	26	14	17	20	22	8	13
19	Latvia	1	1	1	1	1	1	12	5	6
20	Romania	18	21	24	15	16	21	11	16
21	Spain	14	13	20	9	19	14	20	21
22	Hungary	12	17	10	20	15	13	10	10	1
23	Georgia	24	12	15	8	12	12	18	14
24	Azerbaijan	25	14	22	24	26	25	22	25
25	Russia	2	2	3	5	7	4	2	1	12
26	Albania	26	24	18	26	24	26	6	15
27	Italy	23	15	21	11	17	18	1	8	3