Germany’s national final “Unser Lied für Liverpool” is taking place tonight in Cologne’s MMC Studios at 22:20 CET and while the rehearsals went down smoothly so far, one of the nine acts suddenly had to announce its withdrawal.

The band Frida Gold, who were supposed to perform their song “Alle Frauen in mir sind müde” as number 8 in the running order tonight, will be unable to compete in the show, due to sickness of the front singer Alina Süggeler. Her fever already started during the day of the first rehearsals, and in an attempt to save her voice, she did not sing the full song and missed the second day of rehearsals, which is why NDR is not able to show a rehearsal clip of their performance as their contribution either. The band gave the following statement to NDR:

On the second day of rehearsals, it was clear to everyone involved that Alina Süggeler was very ill and suffering from a fever. It had to be reduced to two runs, during which she could only sing sporadically. After that she went straight home hoping that rest and medication would stabilize her for the next day. Unfortunately, the opposite was the case, in addition to fever, chills and acute sore throat, she had also completely lost her voice. The immediate visit to the doctor meant that he had to write her off sick for a week and ordered her absolute bed rest.
Any short-term medical measures had not led to any acute improvement to enable a performance. After weeks of work and preparation, this is a shock and an immense disappointment for Alina and everyone involved.
It was Frida Gold’s idea and desire to present the message of the song ‘Alle Frauen In Mir Sind Müde’ in front of a large audience, because it is important to them.
The possibility of singing it in Liverpool as a German contribution was also a great motivation. Frida Gold would like to thank everyone involved and the NDR and of course also her fans.

This also means that the planned voting system for tonight will have to be changed. Instead of giving out 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10 and 12 points, the juries will no longer give out five points. (6 points to their fourth place, 4 points to their fifth place). However, Lord Of The Lost will remain number 9 in the running order and number 8 will be scratched. The online votes given out to Frida Gold will not be counted.

We wish Alina Süggeler a speedy recovery!

[democracy id=”189″]