Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest

Germany
Member station	NDR (1996–) (ARD) Former members ARD consortium members 1956–1978: HR 1979–1991: BR 1992–1995: MDR
National selection events	National Final 1956–1958 1960–1965 1969–1973 1975–1976 1978–1992 1996–2008 2010 2012–present Internal Selection 1959 1966–1968 1974 1977 1993–1995 2009 2011
Participation summary
Appearances	61
First appearance	1956
Best result	1st: 1982,[N 1] 2010
Worst result	Last: 1964, 1965, 1974, 1995, 2005, 2015, 2016 Nul points: 1964, 1965, 2015
External links
NDR page
Germany's page at Eurovision.tv
For the most recent participation see Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017

Germany has officially participated in every Eurovision Song Contest since its beginning in 1956, except in 1996 when its entry did not qualify past the audio-only pre‐selection round, and consequently was not seen in the broadcast final and does not count as one of Germany's 61 appearances. No other country has been represented as often. France and the United Kingdom come in a close second, missing only two contests each. Before German reunification in 1990, it occasionally presented as West Germany, representing the Federal Republic of Germany. East Germany (the German Democratic Republic) did not compete. Germany has won two contests, in 1982 and 2010.

Germany first won the contest in 1982, at the 27th attempt in Harrogate, when Nicole won with the song "Ein bisschen Frieden" (A Little Peace). The second German victory came 28 years later at the 2010 contest in Oslo, when Lena won with "Satellite". Germany have finished second four times and third five times, for a total of eleven top three placements. Katja Ebstein, who finished third in 1970 and 1971, and then second in 1980, is the only performer to have made the top three on three occasions but never won. Germany also finished second with Lena Valaitis in 1981 and the group Wind in both 1985 and 1987. The other third places were achieved by Mary Roos in 1972, Mekado in 1994 and Surpriz in 1999. With one win and four second places, Germany is one of the most successful countries of the 1980s. Germany has finished last on seven occasions, receiving nul points in 1964, 1965 and 2015.

Germany, along with the United Kingdom, Italy, France and Spain, is one of the "Big Five" countries that are automatically qualified to the final, regardless of the placing. This is due to being the largest financial contributors to the contest and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Since 1996, ARD consortium member Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) has been responsible for Germany's participation in the contest. The Eurovision Song Contest semi-final is broadcast on NDR Fernsehen (EinsFestival and Phoenix in recent years), and the final is broadcast on Das Erste, the flagship channel of ARD. Although German contestants have had varied levels of success, public interest remains high and the contest is one of the most watched events each year.

Organisation

The German representative in the contest is usually chosen during a national selection, broadcast on public television channel Das Erste, which is organized by one of the nine regional public broadcasting organizations of the ARD; from 1956 to 1978, Hessischer Rundfunk (HR); from 1979 to 1991 Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR); from 1992 to 1995, by Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR) and since 1996, by Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR). Between 2010 and 2012, private broadcaster ProSieben worked in partnership with NDR.

Radio coverage has been provided, although not every year, by Deutschlandfunk (DLF) and Bayern 2 from 1970 to 1979, hr3 from 1980–85, 1991–94, 2007 and 2011 (both stations in 1983), NDR Radio 2 from 1986 to 1990, 1995 to 2006 and 2008–13, and WDR1LIVE in 2011.

Since 2010 production company Brainpool, which also co-produced the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest in Düsseldorf and the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest in Baku, have worked with NDR to co-produce the German national finals.

Germany has often changed the selection process used in order to find the country's entry for the contest, either a national final or internal selection (occasionally a combination of both formats) has been held by the broadcaster at the time.

History

1996 absence

ARD had selected an artist and song to represent them at the Eurovision Song Contest 1996, to be held in Oslo, Norway. Due to the large number of countries wanting to compete at Eurovision, they determined that only 23 of the 30 countries could compete. Hosts Norway qualified automatically, the other 29 songs went into an audio only pre-qualification round, with the top 22 going on to compete alongside Norway in Oslo. Unfortunately for Germany its entry, Leon with "Planet of Blue", failed to earn enough points to progress to the final, finishing 24th. ARD and the EBU were not happy with this, as Germany was the biggest financial contributor at the time. This is the only time that Germany has been absent from the contest.

2000s

In the 2000s, Germany has been notable for their adoption of musical styles which are not typical of Eurovision, such as country and western (Texas Lightning – "No No Never" in 2006) and swing (Roger Cicero – "Frauen regier'n die Welt" in 2007 and Alex Swings Oscar Sings – "Miss Kiss Kiss Bang" in 2009). Germany tied for last at the 2008 contest for points, but was awarded 23rd of 25th place when the results were posted. In 2009, ARD held an internal selection for the first time since 1995 due to lack of interest and viewing figures of the German national finals.^[1] Alex Christensen and Oscar Loya were selected to represent Germany at the 2009 contest, where they performed on stage with famous burlesque artist Dita von Teese. However they only managed to receive 35 points, placing 20th of 25 competing countries.

2010s

In 2010, ARD approached former entrant and songwriter Stefan Raab and private network ProSieben to co-operate in finding a winning entry for the country. It has been said that Raab was approached due to his good record at the contest, finishing 5th in 2000 as well as writing entries in 1998 and 2004, which finished 7th and 8th respectively. Raab agreed and conducted a TV casting show called Unser Star für Oslo (Our star for Oslo) which was broadcast on ARD and ProSieben. A winner arose in Lena Meyer-Landrut with "Satellite", who went on to win the contest. Two further collaborations with ProSieben provided the second and third top ten result in a row respectively in 2011 (Lena Meyer-Landrut with "Taken by a Stranger") and 2012 (Roman Lob with "Standing Still").

The streak of top 10 finishes was broken in the 2013 contest, when Cascada's song "Glorious" finished 21st with 18 points and has continued since. The group Elaiza in 2014, Ann Sophie in 2015, Jamie-Lee and Levina finished in 18th, 27th (last), 26th (last) and 25th (second to last) place respectively. Ann Sophie became the country's third entry to finish with nul points, followed by Nora Nova in 1964 and Ulla Wiesner in 1965, and the first since the introduction of the current scoring system in 1975.

Germany and the "Big Five"

Since 1998, four particular countries have automatically qualified for the Eurovision final, regardless of their positions on the scoreboard in previous Contests.^[2] They earned this special status by being the four biggest financial contributors to the EBU. These countries are the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Spain. Due to their untouchable status in the Contest, these countries became known as the "Big Four" In 2009, it was reported that the Big Four could lose their status and have to compete in the semi-finals.^[3] However, this never progressed and the Big Four kept their status.^[4] Italy returned to the contest in 2011, thus becoming part of a "Big Five".^[5][6]

Contestants

Table key

NOTES:

a. ^ The full results for the first contest in 1956 are unknown, only the winner was announced. The official Eurovision site lists all the other songs as being placed second.

b. ^ In 1996 Germany failed to qualify for the contest from the pre-qualification round. The official Eurovision site does not count 1996 in Germany's total list of appearances.

c. ^ Spain originally gave its 12 points to Israel and 10 to Norway. After the broadcast it was announced that Spanish broadcaster wrongly tallied the votes and Germany should have got the top mark - 12 points - instead of being snubbed, as it happened. The mistake was corrected and so Germany was placed 7th over Norway. Israel and Norway both received 2 points less than originally and Croatia, Malta, Portugal, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Belgium, Estonia and Turkey all received one point less than indicated during the broadcast.

d. ^ While Austria and Germany both finished with no points, Austria is listed as finishing "ahead" of Germany due to the tiebreaker rule that favours the song performed earliest in the running order.^[9]

Voting history

As of 2017, Germany's voting history is as follows:

Most points given in the grand finals only Rank Country Points 1  United Kingdom 186 2  Sweden 178 3  Turkey 170 4  France 155 5  Ireland 149

Most points given in the semis and finals Rank Country Points 1  Sweden 211 2  Turkey 208 3  United Kingdom 186 4  Israel 179 5  Ireland 163

Most points received Rank Country Points 1  Spain 224 2  Portugal 177 3  United Kingdom 168 4  Belgium 162 5  Denmark 161

Hostings

Commentators and spokespersons

Over the years ARD commentary has been provided by several experienced radio and television presenters, including Ado Schlier, Thomas Gottschalk, Jan Hofer, Wolf Mittler, Fritz Egner and Werner Veigel. However Peter Urban provided ARD TV commentary every year since 1997,^[10] however due to his health issues in 2009 he was forced to step down as role as German commentator with HR disc jockey Tim Frühling filling in to commentate at Moscow. Urban returned to commentate for Germany in 2010.

Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest

Table key

Photogallery

• 
  Margot Hielscher at Hilversum (1958)
• 
  Katja Ebstein at Amsterdam (1970)
• 
  Roger Cicero at Helsinki (2007)
• 
  No Angels at Belgrade (2008)
• 
  Oscar Sings at Moscow (2009)
• 
  Lena at Oslo (2010)
• 
  Lena at Düsseldorf (2011)
• 
  Roman Lob (middle) at Baku (2012)
• 
  Cascada at Malmö (2013)
• 
  Elaiza at Copenhagen (2014)
• 
  Ann Sophie at Vienna (2015)
• 
  Jamie-Lee Kriewitz at Stockholm (2016)
• 
  Levina at Kiev (2017)

See also

• Germany in the Eurovision Young Dancers
• Germany in the Eurovision Young Musicians
• Germany in the Eurovision Dance Contest
• Germany in the Türkvizyon Song Contest

Notes and References

Footnotes

References

External links

Wikinews has related news: Eurovision '82 winner Nicole talks about 'Ein bißchen Frieden', her success and the Contest today

• Eurovision official website
• Eurovision Club Germany
• OGAE Germany
• German ESC official website
• Points to and from Germany eurovisioncovers.co.uk