Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018
Germany participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. The German entry was selected through the national final Unser Lied für Lissabon, organised by the German broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR). Michael Schulte won the national final with the song "You Let Me Walk Alone".
| Eurovision Song Contest 2018 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country |  Germany | |||
| National selection | ||||
| Selection process | Unser Lied für Lissabon | |||
| Selection date(s) | 22 February 2018 | |||
| Selected entrant | Michael Schulte | |||
| Selected song | "You Let Me Walk Alone" | |||
| Selected songwriter(s) | Michael Schulte Thomas Stengaard Nisse Ingwersen Nina Müller | |||
| Finals performance | ||||
| Final result | 4th, 340 points | |||
| Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest | ||||
| ||||
As a member of the "Big 5", Germany automatically qualified to compete in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest.
Background
Prior to the 2018 Contest, Germany had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest sixty-one times since its debut as one of seven countries to take part in 1956.[1] Germany has won the contest on two occasions: in 1982 with the song "Ein bißchen Frieden" performed by Nicole and in 2010 with the song "Satellite" performed by Lena. Germany, to this point, has been noted for having competed in the contest more than any other country; they have competed in every contest since the first edition in 1956 except for the 1996 contest when the nation was eliminated in a pre-contest elimination round. In 2017, the German entry "Perfect Life" performed by Levina placed second-to-last out of twenty-six competing songs with six points.
The German national broadcaster, ARD, broadcasts the event within Germany and delegates the selection of the nation's entry to the regional broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR). NDR confirmed that Germany would participate in the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest on 16 May 2017.[2] From 2013 to 2016, multi-artist national finals had determined both the songs and performers to compete at Eurovision for Germany. In 2017, the broadcaster reverted to a casting show format for the national final, similar to the format previously used in 2010 and 2012. For their 2018 entry, ARD announced on 8 June 2017 that the broadcaster would organise a national final with a new selection format.[3]
Before Eurovision
Unser Lied für Lissabon
Unser Lied für Lissabon (English: Our Song for Lisbon) was the competition that selected Germany's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. The competition took place on 22 February 2018 at the Studio Berlin Adlershof in Berlin, hosted by Linda Zervakis and Elton.[4][5] Collaboration with the production company Brainpool terminated after seven years. Six acts competed during the show with the winner being selected through a combination of votes from a 100-member Eurovision panel, a twenty-member international expert jury panel and public voting.[6] The show was broadcast on Das Erste and One as well as online via the broadcaster's Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.de. The national final was watched by 3.17 million viewers in Germany.
Format
The competition featured six competing acts performing a song especially written for Eurovision and the winner was selected through a combination of votes from a 100-member Eurovision panel, a 20-member international expert jury panel and public voting.[6] The international jury panel consisted of members who had been national juries for their respective countries at the Eurovision Song Contest, while the Eurovision panel consisted of German television viewers selected in cooperation with Simon-Kucher & Partners and Digame through surveys on social media in order to reflect the taste of the wider European audience.[7][6]
| Members of the International Jury[8] | ||
|---|---|---|
| Name | Country | Profession |
| Florent Luychx |  Netherlands |
Radio executive |
| Einar Bardarson |  Iceland |
Composer, music producer, concertist, artist agent |
| Typh Barrow | .svg.png.webp){kind=small} Belgium |
Singer, composer |
| Mark de Lisser |  United Kingdom |
Vocal coach |
| Henrik Johnsson |  Sweden |
Television presenter and producer |
| Maria Marcus | Sweden |
Music producer, songwriter |
| Filip Adamo | Sweden |
Product manager at record label |
| Argyro Christodoulidou |  Cyprus |
Composer, songwriter |
| Gore Melian |  Armenia |
Singer, songwriter, producer |
| Margaret Berger |  Norway |
Singer, songwriter, represented Norway in the 2013 Contest |
| Rafailas Karpis |  Lithuania |
Opera singer |
| Tinkara Kovač |  Slovenia |
Singer, flautist, represented Slovenia in the 2014 Contest |
| Anca Lupes |  Romania |
Music manager |
| Bruno Berberes |  France |
Casting director, producer, composer, coach |
| Ruth Lorenzo Pascual |  Spain |
Singer, songwriter, represented Spain in the 2014 Contest |
| Ferris MC | Germany |
Musician, rapper, actor |
| Helga Möller | Iceland |
Singer, represented Iceland in the 1986 Contest as part of ICY |
| Grzegorz Urban |  Poland |
Composer, arranger, pianist |
| Rennie Mirro | Sweden |
Dancer, choreographer, actor |
| Sasha Saedi |  Austria |
Music manager |
Competing entries
Interested artists were able to apply for the competition by submitting an application between 27 October 2017 and 6 November 2017. By the end of the process, it was announced that over 4,000 applications were received by NDR and an expert panel narrowed the total number of applicants to 211 artists. Seventeen candidates were selected by the 100-member Eurovision panel, who went through a workshop organised by NDR where they received vocal coaching and choreography training and the six competing acts were selected through a 50/50 combination of votes from the twenty-member international jury panel and the Eurovision panel.[7][9] The six participating acts were announced on 29 December 2017.[10] In January 2018, the competing acts worked with fifteen national and international songwriters, composers and producers in a three-day songwriting camp in order to create new songs or edit existing songs for the national final.
| Shortlisted acts |
|---|
|
| Artist | Song | Composer(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Ivy Quainoo | "House on Fire" | Jörgen Elofsson, Ali Tamposi |
| Michael Schulte | "You Let Me Walk Alone" | Michael Schulte, Thomas Stengaard, Nisse Ingwersen, Nina Müller |
| Natia Todua | "My Own Way" | Loren Nine Geerts, Ricardo Bettiol, Martin Gallop, Jaro Omar |
| Ryk | "You and I" | Rick Jurthe |
| voXXclub | "I mog Di so" | Merty Bert, Mike Busse, Philipp Klemz, Lennard Oestmann, Joe Walter, Martin Simma |
| Xavier Darcy | "Jonah" | Xavier Darcy, Loren Nine Geerts, Axel Ehnström, Thomas Stengaard |
Final
The televised final took place on 22 February 2018.[9] The winner, "You Let Me Walk Alone" performed by Michael Schulte, was selected through a combination of votes from a 100-member Eurovision panel (1/3), a twenty-member international jury panel (1/3) and public voting (1/3), including options for landline and SMS voting.[7] In addition to the performances of the competing entries, German singer Mike Singer performed his single "Deja Vu".[11] 427,519 votes were cast in the final.
| Unser Lied für Lissabon – 22 February 2018 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Draw | Artist | Song | Eurovision Panel |
International Jury |
Televote | Total | Place | |||
| 1 | Natia Todua | "My Own Way" | 630 | 5 | 122 | 6 | 37,343 | 6 | 17 | 6 |
| 2 | Ryk | "You and I" | 931 | 10 | 169 | 8 | 35,700 | 5 | 23 | 3 |
| 3 | voXXclub | "I mog Di so" | 718 | 6 | 118 | 5 | 121,336 | 10 | 21 | 5 |
| 4 | Xavier Darcy | "Jonah" | 770 | 8 | 185 | 10 | 45,010 | 7 | 25 | 2 |
| 5 | Ivy Quainoo | "House on Fire" | 736 | 7 | 148 | 7 | 47,639 | 8 | 22 | 4 |
| 6 | Michael Schulte | "You Let Me Walk Alone" | 1,015 | 12 | 218 | 12 | 140,491 | 12 | 36 | 1 |
| Detailed International Jury Votes | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Draw | Song | NLD |
ISL1 |
BEL |
GBR |
SWE1 |
SWE2 |
SWE3 |
CYP |
ARM |
NOR |
LTU |
SVN |
ROU |
FRA |
ESP |
DEU |
ISL2 |
POL |
SWE4 |
AUT |
Total |
| 1 | "My Own Way" | 5 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 122 |
| 2 | "You and I" | 10 | 7 | 10 | 6 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 12 | 8 | 10 | 7 | 6 | 10 | 10 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 169 |
| 3 | "I mog Di so" | 6 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 10 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 118 |
| 4 | "Jonah" | 8 | 10 | 7 | 8 | 12 | 8 | 12 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 8 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 12 | 6 | 10 | 12 | 10 | 185 |
| 5 | "House on Fire" | 7 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 12 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 148 |
| 6 | "You Let Me Walk Alone" | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 8 | 12 | 8 | 12 | 12 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 8 | 12 | 8 | 12 | 12 | 10 | 12 | 218 |
At Eurovision
The Eurovision Song Contest 2018 took place at the Altice Arena in Lisbon, Portugal and consisted of two semi-finals on 8 and 10 May and the final on 12 May 2018.[12] According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. As a member of the "Big 5", Germany automatically qualifies to compete in the final. In addition to their participation in the final, Germany is also required to broadcast and vote in one of the two semi-finals.
Points awarded to Germany
| Points awarded to Germany (final) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Televote | ||||
| 12 points | 10 points | 8 points | 7 points | 6 points |
| 5 points | 4 points | 3 points | 2 points | 1 point |
| Jury | ||||
| 12 points | 10 points | 8 points | 7 points | 6 points |
| 5 points | 4 points | 3 points | 2 points | 1 point |
Points awarded by Germany
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Split voting results
The following five members comprised the German jury:[13]
- Mary Roos – Chairperson – singer, represented Germany in the 1972 and 1984 contests
- Max Giesinger – singer-songwriter
- Sascha Stadler – artist manager
- Mike Singer – singer-songwriter
- Charlotte Rezbach (Lotte) – singer-songwriter
| Split voting results from Germany (Semi-final 2) | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Draw | Country | Jury | Televote | |||||||
| M. Roos | M. Giesinger | S. Stadler | M. Singer | Lotte | Average Rank | Points | Rank | Points | ||
| 01 | Norway | 6 | 14 | 4 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 4 |
| 02 | Romania | 14 | 10 | 10 | 13 | 14 | 13 | 13 | ||
| 03 |  Serbia | 11 | 15 | 12 | 11 | 6 | 10 | 1 | 5 | 6 |
| 04 |  San Marino | 9 | 17 | 18 | 18 | 17 | 17 | 16 | ||
| 05 |  Denmark | 7 | 12 | 14 | 14 | 9 | 11 | 2 | 10 | |
| 06 |  Russia | 12 | 13 | 16 | 10 | 15 | 15 | 12 | ||
| 07 |  Moldova | 5 | 11 | 8 | 12 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 6 | 5 |
| 08 | Netherlands | 8 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 8 | 3 |
| 09 | .svg.png.webp){kind=small} Australia | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 4 | 7 |
| 10 |  Georgia | 13 | 9 | 13 | 15 | 12 | 14 | 15 | ||
| 11 | Poland | 10 | 7 | 9 | 6 | 18 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 12 |
| 12 |  Malta | 4 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 11 | 5 | 6 | 17 | |
| 13 |  Hungary | 15 | 16 | 17 | 17 | 8 | 16 | 3 | 8 | |
| 14 |  Latvia | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 10 | 14 | |
| 15 | Sweden | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 11 | |
| 16 |  Montenegro | 18 | 18 | 15 | 16 | 13 | 18 | 18 | ||
| 17 | Slovenia | 16 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 10 | 8 | 3 | 9 | 2 |
| 18 |  Ukraine | 17 | 8 | 11 | 9 | 16 | 12 | 10 | 1 | |
| Split voting results from Germany (final) | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Draw | Country | Jury | Televote | |||||||
| M. Roos | M. Giesinger | S. Stadler | M. Singer | Lotte | Average Rank | Points | Rank | Points | ||
| 01 | Ukraine | 8 | 9 | 12 | 7 | 19 | 11 | 20 | ||
| 02 | Spain | 7 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 25 | |
| 03 | Slovenia | 11 | 11 | 13 | 17 | 21 | 14 | 24 | ||
| 04 | Lithuania | 16 | 7 | 7 | 10 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 7 | 4 |
| 05 | Austria | 4 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 6 | 5 |
| 06 |  Estonia | 19 | 8 | 20 | 9 | 3 | 9 | 2 | 19 | |
| 07 | Norway | 9 | 23 | 17 | 25 | 16 | 18 | 14 | ||
| 08 |  Portugal | 24 | 18 | 14 | 13 | 8 | 13 | 18 | ||
| 09 | United Kingdom | 15 | 13 | 19 | 18 | 20 | 20 | 10 | 1 | |
| 10 | Serbia | 22 | 17 | 24 | 15 | 17 | 21 | 13 | ||
| 11 | Germany | |||||||||
| 12 |  Albania | 25 | 14 | 18 | 8 | 15 | 16 | 12 | ||
| 13 | France | 12 | 12 | 15 | 12 | 13 | 12 | 16 | ||
| 14 |  Czech Republic | 14 | 20 | 9 | 23 | 12 | 15 | 3 | 8 | |
| 15 | Denmark | 13 | 21 | 23 | 20 | 22 | 22 | 8 | 3 | |
| 16 | Australia | 2 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 17 | |
| 17 |  Finland | 18 | 25 | 25 | 24 | 25 | 25 | 23 | ||
| 18 |  Bulgaria | 20 | 24 | 22 | 19 | 24 | 24 | 22 | ||
| 19 | Moldova | 21 | 22 | 11 | 22 | 14 | 19 | 15 | ||
| 20 | Sweden | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 21 | |
| 21 | Hungary | 23 | 19 | 21 | 21 | 18 | 23 | 9 | 2 | |
| 22 |  Israel | 5 | 16 | 8 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 1 | 2 | 10 |
| 23 | Netherlands | 10 | 6 | 5 | 14 | 10 | 6 | 5 | 11 | |
| 24 |  Ireland | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 8 | 4 | 7 |
| 25 | Cyprus | 6 | 10 | 10 | 5 | 23 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 6 |
| 26 |  Italy | 17 | 15 | 16 | 16 | 9 | 17 | 1 | 12 | |
References
- "Germany Country Profile". EBU. Retrieved 7 December 2016.
- Granger, Anthony (16 June 2017). "Germany: Eurovision 'Withdrawal is Not An Option'". Eurovoix. Retrieved 22 December 2017.
- Granger, Anthony (8 June 2017). "Germany: ARD Working On New Eurovision Selection Format". Eurovoix. Retrieved 22 December 2017.
- Agadellis, Stratos (21 December 2017). "Germany: Unser Lied für Lissabon to be held on 22 February". Esctoday. Retrieved 22 December 2017.
- Welsh, Eleanor (8 January 2018). "Germany: Linda Zervakis and Elton to host Unser Lied für Lissabon". ARD. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
- Farren, Neil (27 October 2017). "Germany: Eurovision 2018 Selection Details Released". Eurovoix. Retrieved 22 December 2017.
- "Alle Infos zum deutschen ESC-Vorentscheid 2018". ARD (in German). 23 December 2017. Retrieved 24 December 2017.
- ""Unser Lied für Lissabon": Das ist die internationale Jury". Eurovision.de (in German). 28 January 2018. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
- Granger, Anthony (21 December 2017). "Germany: Eurovision 2018 Selection to be Held on February 22". Eurovoix. Retrieved 22 December 2017.
- "Diese sechs Acts sind im ESC-Vorentscheid 2018". ARD (in German). 29 December 2017. Retrieved 29 December 2017.
- "Mike Singer ist Stargast beim ESC-Vorentscheid" (in German). Eurovision.de. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
- Jordan, Paul (25 July 2017). "Lisbon revealed as Host City of the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest!". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 17 November 2017.
- Groot, Evert (30 April 2018). "Exclusive: They are the expert jurors for Eurovision 2018". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 30 April 2018.