Germany participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 with the song "Sister" written by Laurell Barker, Marine Kaltenbacher, Tom Oehler and Thomas Stengaard. The song was performed by the duo S!sters, consisting of Laurita Kästel and Carlotta Truman. The German entry for the 2019 contest in Tel Aviv, Israel was selected through the national final Unser Lied für Israel, organised by the German broadcaster ARD in collaboration with Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR). The national final took place on 22 February 2019 and featured seven competing acts with the winner selected by the votes of a 100-member Eurovision panel, a 20-member international jury panel and a public televote. "Sister" performed by S!sters was selected as the German entry for Tel Aviv after gaining the most points following the combination of votes.
As a member of the "Big Five", Germany automatically qualified to compete in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. Performing in position 4, Germany placed twenty-fifth out of the 26 participating countries with 24 points.
Prior to the 2019 contest, Germany had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest sixty-two 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 2018, the German entry "You Let Me Walk Alone" performed by Michael Schulte placed fourth of twenty-six competing songs scoring 340 points.
The German national broadcaster, ARD, broadcasts the event within Germany and delegated the selection of the nation's entry to the regional broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR). NDR confirmed that Germany would participate in the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest on 19 May 2018.[2] Since 2013, NDR had set up national finals with several artists to choose both the song and performer to compete at Eurovision for Germany. Along with their participation confirmation, the broadcaster announced that they would organise a multi-artist national final to select the German entry.[2]
Before Eurovision
Unser Lied für Israel
Unser Lied für Israel (English: Our Song for Israel) was the competition that selected Germany's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. The competition took place on 22 February 2019 at the Studio Berlin Adlershof in Berlin, hosted by Linda Zervakis and Barbara Schöneberger.[3] Like in the previous year, the national final was co-produced by the production companies Kimmig Entertainment and Lodge of Levity.[4] Seven acts competed during the show with the winner being selected through a combination of votes from a 100-member Eurovision panel, a 20-member international jury panel and a public televote.[5][6] The show was broadcast on Das Erste, One and Deutsche Welle as well as online via the broadcaster's official website live.daserste.de and Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.de. Peter Urban provided commentary during the show with interpretation in German Sign Language also being provided for the online broadcast on eurovision.de.[7] The national final was watched by 2.99 million viewers in Germany with a market share of 9.6%.[8]
Competing entries
Interested performers were able to apply by submitting an online application between 21 June 2018 and 31 July 2018. Additional artists were also invited by NDR and proposed by composers, producers and record companies.[9] By the end of the process, it was announced that 965 applications were received and 198 performers were longlisted by a panel consisting of Christoph Pellander (head of German delegation for Eurovision), Thomas Niedermeyer (Digame general manager), Werner Klötsch (Digame managing director) and representatives of NDR.[10][11]
50 artists were further longlisted by a Eurovision panel consisting of 100 German television viewers put together according to selected criteria in cooperation with Simon-Kucher & Partners and Digame through surveys on social media in order to reflect the taste of the wider European audience, while an international jury panel consisting of 20 members who had been national juries for their respective countries at the Eurovision Song Contest shortlisted 15 artists to go through a workshop, held at the Maarwegstudio 2 in Cologne between 28 September and 2 October 2018, where they received vocal coaching and choreography training. 90-second videos showcasing each artist during the workshop were recorded and presented to both groups that ultimately selected the six competing artists.[12][13] The six participating acts were announced on 8 November 2018.[14] Between 5 and 9 November 2018, the six artists worked with 24 German and international composers and lyricists in a songwriting camp in order to create their candidate songs for the national final.[15] The participating songs were announced on 8 January 2019 alongside the announcement of S!sters as the seventh participating act after NDR received additional proposals from composers, producers and artists themselves.[16][17]
Laurell Barker, Marine Kaltenbacher, Tom Oehler, Thomas Stengaard
Final
The televised final took place on 22 February 2019. The winner, "Sister" performed by S!sters, was selected through a combination of votes from a 100-member Eurovision panel (1/3), a 20-member international jury panel (1/3) and public televoting which included options for landline and SMS voting (1/3). In addition to the performances of the competing entries, 2010 German Eurovision Song Contest winnerLena performed her song "Thank You", 2018 German Eurovision entrantMichael Schulte performed his new song "Back to the Start", German singer Udo Lindenberg performed his song "Radio Song" together with singer Andreas Bourani, and German band Revolverheld performed their song "So wie jetzt".[18][19] A total of 374,313 televotes were cast during the show: 255,837 votes through landline and 118,476 votes through SMS.[20]
S!sters made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Sister" as the German Eurovision entry. On 6 April, Sisters performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the AFAS Live venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Edsilia Rombley and Marlayne.[21] They also performed at the Eurovision Pre-Party Madrid event, which was held on 21 April at the Sala La Riviera venue in Madrid, Spain and hosted by Tony Aguilar and Julia Varela.[22]
At Eurovision
According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to compete in one of two semi-finals, and qualify in order to participate in the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. As a member of the "Big Five", Germany automatically qualified to compete in the final on 18 May 2019.[23] In addition to their participation in the final, Germany is also required to broadcast and vote in one of the two semi-finals. During the semi-final allocation draw on 28 January 2019, Germany was assigned to broadcast and vote in the second semi-final on 16 May 2019.[24]
In Germany, the two semi-finals and the final were broadcast on One. ARD also broadcast the final on Das Erste and Deutsche Welle.[25] All broadcasts featured commentary by Peter Urban.[26] The final was watched by 8.1 million viewers in Germany, which meant a market share of 34.3 per cent.[27] The German spokesperson, who announced the top 12-point score awarded by the German jury during the final, was Barbara Schöneberger.
Final
S!sters during a rehearsal before the final
S!sters took part in technical rehearsals on 10 and 12 May, foll owed by dress rehearsals on 15, 17 and 18 May. This included the semi-final jury show on 15 May where an extended clip of the German performance was filmed for broadcast during the live show on 16 May and the jury final on 17 May where the professional juries of each country watched and voted on the competing entries. After technical rehearsals were held on 12 May, the "Big Five" countries and host country Israel 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 first 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 4, following the entry from the Czech Republic and before the entry from Russia.
The German performance was designed by Florian Wieder and featured the members of S!sters performing on stage; Carlotta Truman was in a leather black outfit, while Laurita Kästel was in a gold and black flower-patterned mini dress.[29] The staging presentation included Truman standing at the left of the stage and Kästel sitting at the right of the stage at the beginning. As the song progressed, a pyrotechnic waterfall was displayed and both members walked towards the front of the stage to meet each other. The LED screens displayed clips of the duo singing with their faces multiplied as well as words such as "sorry" and "respect" in big letters for the first chorus, and a group of women in various types of relationships as well as a peace symbol for the second chorus.[30][31] S!sters were joined by four off-stage backing vocalists: Inga Lühning, Ray Lozano, Sonja Wiegand and Verena Heinz.[32] Germany placed twenty-fifth in the final, scoring 24 points: 0 points from the televoting and 24 point from the juries.
Voting
Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry 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 was permitted to 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, as well as the nation's televoting results, were released shortly after the grand final.[33]
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:
