As the last of the Big 5-countries Germany will select their representative for the 59th Eurovision Song Contest next Thursday. Eight acts will compete for the ticket to Copenhagen. Who will be the successor of Cascada and try to achieve a better result than the 21st place in Malmö? EuroVisionary takes a look at the competitors in alphabetical order.
Das Gezeichnete Ich
Songs: Weil du da bist & Echo
Das Gezeichnete Ich is a musician from Berlin whose real name is Henry Funke. Until today Das Gezeichnete Ich has performed as a support act of the German band Ich + Ich, the Pet Shop Boys and a-ha. In 2010 the first album with the title Das Gezeichnete Ich was released. In the same year he participated at the Bundesvision Song Contest for Brandenburg and finished 5th with the song Du, es und ich. In 2012 he recorded a song for children which was released on a compilation that also featured songs from Lena Meye-Landrut and Roger Cicero.
Elaiza
Songs: Is it right? & Fight against myself
Elaiza is a female trio consisting of the Ukrainian-German singer and songwriter Ela (21), accordion player Yvonne (29) and contrabassist Natalie (28). Ela and Yvonne got to know each other at a snaps tasting. Shortly after Natalie joined the band and turned the duo into a trio that had the first performances in 2013. Elaiza mainly plays folk music that is influenced by Ukrainian and Polish music. On February 27th they won the wildcard competition in Hamburg and became the eighth act in this final.
Madeline Juno
Songs: Error & Like lovers do
Madeline Juno whose real name is Madeline Obrigewitsch was born in 1995 in a town in the Black Forest and has been working for several years on her musical career. As the daughter of a drummer and a pianist she learned playing an instrument at a very early age. Aged 6 her mother taught her playing the keyboard. Later on the piano was added. Aged 12 Madeline finally learned playing the guitar and started writing her own songs.
At the beginning of 2013 Madeline signed her first contract with the record company Universal. In November 2013 her first single Error was released which is now one of her two entries for Unser Song für Dänemark. The song was the title song of the successful German movie Fack ju Göhte. On March 7th her first album was released that entered the German iTunes charts at 6th position.
MarieMarie
Songs: Cotton Candy Hurricane & Candy Jar
MarieMarie was born as Maria Scheiblhuber near Augsburg in 1984. As a child she started playing the harp. Aged 8 she was performing on a stage for the first time while she wrote her first song when she was 15. As a pupil she and her band participated at the MTV SchoolJam
competition and reached the final round. In 2002 she was playing the harp for the unplugged album of the popular German band Die Ärzte. Between 2006 and 2007 MarieMarie studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Since 2009 MarieMarie has been touring around Germany. In 2013 she performed as support act of Bryan Ferry and the Pet Shop Boys.
Oceana
Songs: Thank you & All night
Oceana is 32 years old. When her mother got married to an American DJ Oceana grew up responsively in the USA and in Germany. At the age of 16 Oceana left home and started travelling around the world. Later on she worked as a choreographer for the German band Seed and played a part in the musical AIDA. Her own music career started in 2008 when she released her first album Love supply. At the beginning of 2009 she accompanied Peter Fox on his tour before her first single Cry cry was released. This song topped the single charts in Russia, Romania, Hungary and Greece. It became the most successful single ever of a German act in Romania. At the Polish Sopot festival Oceana received the audience award and participated later in the Polish show Let’s dance. In 2012 the European football association UEFA selected Oceana to sing the official song for the European Football Championship called Endless summer which received gold status in Germany.
Santiano
Songs: Fiddler on the deck & Wir werden niemals untergeh’n
Santiano is a band from the area around Flensburg in the north of Germany. The band members Hans-Timm Hinrichsen, Pete sage, Björn Both Axel Stosberg and Andreas Fehnert are between 40 and 60 years old. Their music style mixes German Schlager with folk songs, Irish Folk and sailor songs. Their first album Bis ans Ende der Welt was released in February 2012 and topped the German album charts. In 2013 Santiano received the German music award Echo in the category "Volkstümliche Musik". The same year their second album Mit den Gezeiten was released that topped the album charts as well.
The Baseballs
Songs: Mo Hotta Mo Betta & Goodbye Peggy Sue
The band The Baseballs was founded in Berlin in 2007 when the three band members Sam, Digger and Basti got to know each other in a kitchen of a rehearsal studio. In October 2008 they signed their first record contract and released their first single Umbrella (a cover version of Rihanna’s hit) in May 2009. Beside this the band covered songs from acts like Lady Gaga or the Backstreet Boys to give the songs a touch of Rock’n’Roll. Their debut album Strike was released in Mid May 2009 and entered the German charts at no. 6. Beside Germany the band scored an even bigger success in Switzerland, Finland, Norway and Sweden. In February 2010 The Baseballs received the Emma Award, the most important Finnish music award, for the most sold album in 2009. One month later the band was awarded an Echo in the category "National newcomer". Between September and November 2011 The Baseballs went on a tour through Europe which was sold out.
Unheilig
Songs: Als wär’s das erste Mal & Wir sind alle eins
Unheilig started as a band, but due to some struggles the band got divided at the end of 2002, so that today Unheilig only consists of the very charismatic lead singer Der Graf (The Earl) whose real name is not known. The big breakthrough was at the beginning of 2010 when the new album Große Freiheit was released containing the single Geboren um zu leben. Both song and album topped the German charts for several weeks. The album was sold more than 2 million times. Until 2010 Unheilig were mostly known to supporters of the black/gothic scene. In October 2010 Unheilig won the Bundesvision Song Contest with their entry Unter deiner Flagge representing North Rhine-Westphalia. They were awarded a Bambi award in the category National Pop and an Echo for the album of the year. As a pupil Der Graf suffered from stuttering and finally quit speaking at all because the other kids laughed about him. Still he never lost his dream to become a professional musician. He regards himself as an artificial character who mostly performs dressed in a black suit with a white shirt and a black tie.
About the competition:
There will be a total of three voting rounds. Every act will perform one song. During the first voting round the TV viewers will select via SMS and televoting about four acts that will proceed to the second round. In this round those four acts will perform a second song. Two acts will finally be voted to the superfinal.
Note: Until now it is not known which songs will be performed in which round.
