Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019

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.[4] Seven acts competed during the show with the winner being selected through a combination of votes from a 100-member Eurovision panel, a twenty-member international expert jury panel and public voting.[5] The show was broadcast on Das Erste, One and Deutsche Welle as well as online via ARD's official website daserste.de.[6] The national final was watched by 2.99 million viewers in Germany.

The competition featured seven competing acts performing a song especially written for Eurovision and the winner was selected through a combination of votes from a 100-member Eurovision panel, a 20-member international expert jury panel and public voting.[7] The international jury panel consisted of members who had been national juries for their respective countries at the Eurovision Song Contest, while the Eurovision panel consisted of German television viewers selected in cooperation with Simon-Kucher & Partners and Digame through surveys on social media in order to reflect the taste of the wider European audience.

Interested artists were able to apply for the competition by submitting an application between 19 May 2018 and 31 July 2018. By the end of the process, it was announced that 965 applications were received by NDR and an expert panel narrowed the total number of applicants to 198 artists.[8] Twenty candidates were selected by the twenty-member international jury panel from fifty shortlisted by the 100-member Eurovision panel, who went through a workshop organised by NDR at the Maarwegstudio 2 in Cologne between 28 September and 2 October 2018 where they received vocal coaching and choreography training and the six competing acts were selected through a 50/50 combination of votes from the international jury panel and the Eurovision panel. The six participating acts were announced on 8 November 2018.[9] Between 5 and 9 November 2018, the competing acts worked with twenty-four national and international songwriters, composers and producers in a songwriting camp in order to create new songs or edit existing songs for the national final. 25 songs were created at the songwriting camp and the international jury panel and the Eurovision panel selected six competing entries for the national final. On 8 January 2019, S!sters were announced as the seventh participating act selected by the international and Eurovision panel from additional proposals received by NDR from producers and artists themselves.

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 twenty-member international jury panel (1/3) and public voting (1/3), including options for landline and SMS voting. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, 2010 German Eurovision entrant Lena, who won the Eurovision Song Contest 2010, performed her single "Thank You" and 2018 German Eurovision entrant Michael Schulte performed his single "Back to the Start". German singers Udo Lindenberg and Andreas Bourani performed their single "Radio Song" and German band Revolverheld also performed.[11][12] 374,313 votes were cast in the final.

Detailed International Jury Votes

Draw	Song	NLD	ESP	GBR	ITA	BLR	ISL	CYP	LTU	HUN	GRC	NOR	CZE	AUT	SVN	SWE	ROU	FRA	FIN	POL	DEU	Total
1	"Let Me Go"	4	4	4	7	4	7	6	5	4	6	6	7	4	4	6	5	5	4	4	4	100
2	"Wear Your Love"	7	8	8	6	7	4	5	4	5	7	8	6	8	5	8	4	4	10	5	6	125
3	"The Day I Loved You Most"	8	10	12	10	10	12	12	7	6	12	12	10	10	8	7	12	6	7	8	7	186
4	"Demons"	5	5	5	4	6	5	4	6	7	10	4	5	6	10	4	8	7	5	6	5	117
5	"Surprise"	6	6	6	12	12	6	8	8	10	4	5	4	7	12	12	7	10	8	7	8	158
6	"Our City"	12	12	7	8	8	10	10	12	8	8	7	8	5	7	5	6	8	6	10	10	167
7	"Sister"	10	7	10	5	5	8	7	10	12	5	10	12	12	6	10	10	12	12	12	12	187

S!sters made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Sister" as the German Eurovision entry. On 6 April, they performed at the Eurovision in Concert at the AFAS Live venue in Amsterdam, hosted by Cornald Maas and Marlayne, to over 4,500 spectators.[13] They also made several radio & television promotions for "Sister" in Germany.

S!sters performing at the Eurovision Song Contest

Germany performed fourth in the final, following the entry from Czech Republic and preceding the entry from Russia. At the end of the show, Germany placed 25th, receiving a total of 24 points: 0 points from the televoting and 24 points from the juries. With the old voting system, Germany would have ranked 24th with 8 points.

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.[15]

The following members comprised the German jury:[15]

• Michael Schulte (jury chairperson) – singer, songwriter, represented Germany in the 2018 contest
• Annett Louisan – singer, songwriter
• Nico Santos – singer, songwriter, composer
• Nicola Rost – singer, songwriter, artist
• Joe Chialo – manager, label founder

Detailed voting results from Germany (Semi-final 2)[17]

Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		M. Schulte	A. Louisan	N. Santos	N. Rost	J. Chialo	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Armenia	8	15	11	12	15	12		12
02	Ireland	15	14	8	14	17	14		17
03	Moldova	17	13	10	18	11	15		18
04	Switzerland	1	4	5	4	3	3	8	1	12
05	Latvia	12	16	12	11	12	13		16
06	Romania	13	2	6	8	9	7	4	14
07	Denmark	10	5	7	7	2	6	5	11
08	Sweden	3	10	2	6	5	4	7	6	5
09	Austria	5	8	14	9	18	10	1	13
10	Croatia	16	12	13	16	14	17		8	3
11	Malta	4	7	3	5	7	5	6	15
12	Lithuania	18	18	18	15	16	18		10	1
13	Russia	9	11	15	13	10	11		4	7
14	Albania	14	17	17	10	13	16		9	2
15	Norway	7	6	9	17	6	9	2	2	10
16	Netherlands	2	3	4	2	4	2	10	3	8
17	North Macedonia	6	1	1	1	1	1	12	5	6
18	Azerbaijan	11	9	16	3	8	8	3	7	4

Detailed voting results from Germany (Final)[16]

Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		M. Schulte	A. Louisan	N. Santos	N. Rost	J. Chialo	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Malta	8	8	6	13	7	8	3	24
02	Albania	19	22	21	6	14	14		16
03	Czech Republic	12	20	16	16	13	16		18
04	Germany
05	Russia	18	19	19	8	8	13		3	8
06	Denmark	11	15	9	11	10	10	1	7	4
07	San Marino	25	24	24	25	15	24		25
08	North Macedonia	5	3	7	1	5	4	7	15
09	Sweden	9	14	4	12	11	9	2	10	1
10	Slovenia	14	10	17	19	23	17		8	3
11	Cyprus	15	11	14	22	16	15		21
12	Netherlands	3	4	5	4	3	3	8	4	7
13	Greece	21	12	18	20	25	22		19
14	Israel	23	23	23	18	21	25		20
15	Norway	7	5	11	10	4	6	5	1	12
16	United Kingdom	24	16	15	17	18	21		22
17	Iceland	20	13	20	15	17	19		9	2
18	Estonia	22	21	22	14	24	23		14
19	Belarus	16	7	8	21	19	11		23
20	Azerbaijan	10	18	25	9	9	12		13
21	France	6	9	12	3	12	7	4	11
22	Italy	1	1	1	2	2	1	12	5	6
23	Serbia	17	17	10	23	20	18		17
24	Switzerland	2	6	2	7	6	5	6	2	10
25	Australia	4	2	3	5	1	2	10	6	5
26	Spain	13	25	13	24	22	20		12