On 16 February Germany held their annual national final (which for some reason seems to change names every few years) ‘Das Deutshe Finale’. Germany handled a different approach to their national final this year. Aside from 8 acts chosen by a panel of international juries, another side competition was held called ‘Ich Will Zum ESC’. This contest saw 15 artists (coached by Conchita Wurst (AUT 2014) and Rea Garvey) competing for the last ticket for ‘Das Deutsche Finale’. It consisted of 2 audition rounds, a vocal coaching round, a lip-sync challenge and a song writing challenge. Each round a few contestants advanced until eventually 4 remained in the final. Unfortunately, due to illness, Bibiane was forced to withdraw from the last round. A final televoting round announced Floryan as the winner with his song “Scars”.
A week later the actual final of ‘Das Deutsche Finale’ was held with 9 finalists. A jury and televoting round decided the winner. Isaak won both rounds with his entry “Always On The Run” and earned the right to represent Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest in May.
Germany at Eurovision
Germany is one of the 7 founding members of the contest in 1956. They have since only been absent once in 1996, when they failed to qualify past the audio-only pre-selection round. With that they hold the record for the most appearances on the Eurovision stage: 66! As one of the biggest financial contributors to the EBU, Germany are part of a small group of automatic qualifiers called ‘The Big 5’. Along with the UK, Spain, France and Italy. Despite having been competing since the first edition, it took them quite a while to win the contest for the first time. In 1982 Nicole finally won the contest with her iconic entry “Ein bißchen Frieden”. They had placed 2nd the two years before that.
In 2010 Germany won the contest for a second time with Lena and her catchy pop song “Satellite”. Which went on to chart throughout Europe. Lena would return to the contest again the year after and reached the 10th place in the final. Apart from 2 victories Germany managed to reach the top ten 35 times, of which 17 top 5 placements. They came 3rd five times of which three times in a row from 1970-1972, and second 4 times. In 2009, producer Alex Christensen and singer Oscar Loya invited famous burlesque artist Dita Von Teese to perform alongside them. “Miss Kiss Kiss Bang”, was a camp cabaret inspired pop song. During the performance Dita curled up on a lip shaped couch. To no avail: The song barely escaped the bottom 5 with just 35 points.
Despite all that success Germany seem to have had a dramatic shift in their luck in recent years. Since the new millennium they have suffered a bottom 5 result 10 times of which 5 last places. Their highest placement since their victory in 2010 was in 2018 when Michael Schulte unexpectedly reached 4th place in Lisbon with his touching ballad “You Let Me Walk Alone”.
Germany 2024
For this year both the juries and televote in Germany have chosen 29 year old singer Isaak. His song “Always On The Run” is a radio friendly and current pop song that feels inspired by artist like Rag’n’Bone Man. Isaak describes “Always on the Run” as an insight into his “conflicting” mind through a “powerful sound” paired with “calm moments”. Will he be able to get Germany out of their downwards spiral and reach the top 10? Or is another bottom 5 placement looming for them? Find out what we think in our honest but fair reviews below!
niallpoints Review
Niall
Going to break from the crowd here and say I do really enjoy this song. Do I think it’s groundbreaking, show stopping, winner worthy? No, but that doesn’t stop a song being solid entry. Isaak has an incredible live vocal so we can all stop with the James Newman comparisons too.
I think this is exactly the type of song Germany needed to send if I’m 100% honest, its inoffensive and radio friendly which will allow it to muster up a respectable number of both jury and televote points it needs to avoid a last place finish and the dreaded ‘I’m sorry, zero points’.
Give this a good staging and a bit more power, and it really can’t be faulted.
Early prediction: 15-20
Tomas
This is a very decent entry from Germany and a really well produced and well written pop song. It sounds current and modern which makes it very radio friendly. Isaak has an incredible voice and delivers the song pitch perfect live which is a huge plus for when the jury voting comes around. That said, the staging package we got in ‘Das Deutsche Finale’ was pretty much non existent. The German delegation is going to have to pull out all the stops if they want to escape the bottom five.
Despite being a well written song, I fear that without good staging this will be overlooked in the televote and unfortunately Germany do not have a good reputation when it comes to staging. There’s a lot of up tempo party songs in the mix this year, which might work in Isaak’s advantage, so I can see a path for them to redemption. However as things stand right now, I fear for Germany… I think it might be time for some fresh blood in their delegation. Switch things around a little. Who knows… why don’t they go internal? It’s worked well for Belgium and the Netherlands…
Early prediction: as of now: 17-23
That’s it for another review of Eurovision 2024! What do you think of Germany’s entry? Do you agree with their pick? Do you agree with our review? Let us know in the comments down below. More content is coming for you, but for now please have a look at our full reaction video to Isaak’s entry below! Don’t forget to like the video, subscribe and share with all your moots and oomfs, or whatever the kids call each other these days…
