The German Broadcaster confirmed today Xavier Naidoo to be its representative at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest. They went for an internal selection with a song to be chosen via a national selection held in February, and thus should avoid the drama of a national winner refusing the victory, as it happened this year.
This year Germany experienced something unusual in its national selection. The winner Andreas Kümmert suddenly didn’t want to go to Eurovision anyway, and he handed over his victory to runner up Ann Sophie. We won’t see a similar situation next year as they have chosen their coming representative Xavier Naidoo via an internal selection.
In order to select the song, the German broadcaster will organise Unser Song für Xavier, a televised show through which only the public will choose the next German entry. The songs can be in any language, as there are not restrictions on that. Six songs will be presented on the 18th of February on Das Erste. The show will have music experts commenting on the songs, but only televoting to select the winner.
The broadcaster has already contacted composers and producers to submit their entries for the competition. On December 15th, a special jury and Xavier will select the six best songs for the show. After that the six songs will be introduced to students of art academies to prepare stage concepts which will be used in the show.
Who is Xavier Naidoo
Xavier is currently touring in Germany with his band Die Söhne Mannheims, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the group, and he is also outside this band a well known musician. He has been a part of German pop music scene many years with several albums being best sellers in Germany and all reaching gold or platinum status and he himself has won several TV prizes as well.
Football fans from around world might know his song Dieser Weg as it was the official sound track for the German national team for the 2006 World Cup and became one of the most played songs of that year.
Thomas Schreiber, entertainment coordinator of the German public broadcaster ARD said in the official announcement for Xavier Naidoo:
Xavier Naidoo is an exceptional artist, who has been well-known in the German music business for more than 20 years. This is why we decided to directly select him. The fact that Xavier has agreed to represent Germany in Stockholm is, at the same time, an obligation for us to create the best possible conditions for his performance. For that reason we have changed the selection procedure this year: We ask Germany’s best producers and composers to write for Xavier. And by cooperating with students of film and art academia, we want to encourage young and creative people to develop staging and performance concepts for the Eurovision Song Contest. The success of Lena, Loreen and Måns Zelmerlöw have shown that not only the personality of the singers and the power of the songs play a key role in the voting but also the staging of the acts. I am happy about Xavier’s commitment and courage to take part in this and about his trust in us. I am looking forward to exciting months ahead of us
Below you can watch a message that Xavier sent to all Eurovision fans after the announcement that he will be the next German representative in the Eurovision Song Contest:
Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest
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 did not appear in the broadcast final and does not count as one of Germany’s 59 appearances. No other country has been represented that often.
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.
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).
In the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 in Vienna, Austria. The German entry was selected through the national final Unser Song für Österreich, organised by the German broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR). The country was represented by the song Black Smoke performed by Ann Sophie. The song ended 27th out of 27 with a total of nul points.
Below you can watch Ann Sophie performing her song in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 held in Vienna:
