Silence since May
After a disastrous 25th place in Tel Aviv, Thomas Schreiber, head of entertainment at NDR, stated that they would rethink their selection method for Eurovision 2020. Since then, NDR has been very quiet about what they want to do. Last year after Michael Schultes amazing fourth place, NDR already had the jury assembled by the end of July. This year however, they left the fans in the dark up until now.
Eurovision jury for “Unser Lied für Rotterdam”?
Today, on the 5th of September, Simon&Kucher, the company responsible for selecting the members of the Eurovision jury, sent out e-mails to those who applied containing either a positive or negative response. Applications were open earlier this year in April in the form a survey where people had to rate songs from Eurovision 2019. After Eurovision, Simon&Kucher probably compared all the applications to the actual results of the contest and now selected those who came closest. Last year the jury consisted of about 100 fans who held 1/3 of the power in the national final.
Nevertheless, this is no confirmation of a televised national final or the format for 2020 in general. NDR could stick with the old six/seven artists format or even select an artist internally and have a show similar to “Unser Lied für Deutschland” in 2011. Back then, Lena was selected as an artist internally and the public decided which song she should perform in Düsseldorf.
However, assembling a jury does not mean that there has to be a televised show. Germany could go the same route as Switzerland in 2019, selecting both artist and song internally through the juries.
We will keep you updated about the German national final in the future, so stay tuned!
