Despite the pressure of an online petition, German broadcaster NDR has eventually decided stick to its decision and not to include Eskimo Callboy in the line up of “Germany 12 points”.
Over a thread of tweets, NDR acknowledged the dissatisfaction of its viewers but argued that the rules were clear to all from the beginning: this is a competition with a jury decision.
In the last part of the communication, NDR also warned that it would from then on remove any off-topic comment in the thread, in order to enable fair discussion about other candidates as well.
The announcement was met with mixed reactions from the fanbase as you can read below.
“We are still interested in the reasons why Eskimo Callboy was chosen. And as long as they are not shown transparently, there will definitely be no peace here. You can still censor and hide so much.”
“It is an absolute embarrassment what the NDR deducts here. An absolute f*****g embarrassment.”
“It’s a pity… There have never been so many people behind a German candidate. This will damage the reputation of the ESC in Germany. And I say that as anex- member of the Eurovision Panel 2018.”
“Am I the only one who thinks that ECB consciously profits from this whole discussion and also consciously uses it? In any case, I don’t see the whole thing as one-sidedly as many here who criticize the NDR.
The petition
Popular metalcore band Eskimo Callboy officially submitted their song “Pump It” to the German selection last December. Yet, German broadcaster NDR did not include them in the list of participants to the country’s show “Germany 12 points”.
This triggered the creation of an online petition to reinstate Eskimo Callboy, which 123,000 people have signed so far.
Deploring Germany’s poor results in the Contest recently, the petition claims that mainstream music and pop songs drown in the mass.
It goes on to call for artistic diversity instead of “one and only genre in different packages”, highlighting that the jury already claims to promote it.
The petition then recalls that there are precedents with so-called “wildcards” in previous years. Wildcards are songs and artists that were added to the selection after the official announcement of the preliminary acts.
Finally, the initiators created the #EC4ESC (Eskimo Callboy for ESC), which has been trending on Twitter since.
What do you think of NDR’s decision? Would you have liked to see Eskimo Callboy in Germany 12 points? Let us know!
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