A German newspaper group, Funke Medien NRW, has reported on its Der Westen website the latest situation regarding Germany’s 2020 Eurovision entry.

It highlights reports from the German National newspaper, The Bild, that the German Eurovision broadcaster, ARD, have decided to not go ahead with a National Final this year. It states that the 2020 ESC entry will be determined internally by ARD in conjunction with regional broadcaster NDR.

They speculate on various reasons for this decision.

One is that last year’s process is deemed as tainted. Initially 6 artists had been selected specifically to compete at the ‘Unser Lied für Israel’ contest, and were then sent to a songwriting camp where each act composed their entry alongside established songwriters. Each artist was then informed after the camp ended that the group ‘S!sters’, who eventually won the selection, were also taking part with a song already pre-written for them. The broadcaster is keen not to repeat such a scenario.

On the other hand the broadcaster is believed to be extremely unhappy with the 25th place they achieved in Tel Aviv and wanted to avoid involving the public.

Germany hasn’t gone with an internal selection method since 2009 when the group Alex Sings Oscar Swings were sent to Moscow, where they eventually finished 20th. They also intended to select the artist Xavier Naidoo internally in 2016, allowing the German public to select his song. This process was however scrapped after a public outcry over his previous stated views on race, sexuality and politics.

UPDATE:

Further to the information we reported above, the German television station ARD ONE will present a show titled ‘Eurovision Song Contest 2020 – Unser Lied für Rotterdam’ on 27th February at 21:30 CET. The programme is scheduled to last 45 minutes and will be presented pre-recorded by Barbara Schöneberger. This seems to indicate that an internally selected artist will be revealed on the night and that the Bild newspaper was right to report that there will be no National Final.

We will keep you updated when ARD or NDR finally make an official statement on this, but as no venue or details have been announced yet we have no reason to believe the German press to be wrong on this.

What do you think about this potential decision and who would you like Germany to internally select? Let us know on our socials.