Anastasia lets us in on how Germans watch Eurovision Song Contest. What do they think about the competition and how much do they want to win again?
What type of take out progress do you have in Germany? How do you choose who to represent Germany in ESC? Do you follow that process/show?
A couple of months before the contest, Germany takes a “preliminary decision.” There are 12 singers or bands that present their songs and both a jury and the audience can vote for their favorite. The show is broadcast on TV and radio.
However, as Germany was unsuccessful for many years, they changed the system in 2010.
There was a casting show called “Our star for Oslo” (In German: Unser Star für Oslo) which was liked by the Germans very much because it offered unknown singers or talents to participate (in contrast to the original take out process). Lena won this show and also the ESC. Due to this success, this show was repeated last year (“our star for Baku”).
This year, we go back to the usual way, however. I watched the 2 casting shows in 2010 and 2012 but usually do not watch the preliminary decision.
What is your relationship to Eurovision?
It’s sort of a tradition and used to be a family come-together where we all sit together, watch it and make comments about the performers.
Do you watch Eurovision? All of it or just the final?
Yes, but just the final.
How much do you care about how well your country does in Eurovision?
I’m always curious who is going to perform for Germany and if the singer is liked by other countries, but I’m not affected by the results very much meaning that I’m neither disappointed when it’s a bad result or extremely proud when it’s a good one.
Is there a lot about the national take outs and ESC in the media in your country?
Yes, especially, in the last 2 years when there was this special casting show for the contest that went on for several weeks. After Lena had won the contest for Germany it was even more in the media as it was such a success.
Is ESC a big thing your country? How do you notice it?
There’s quite a lot about it in the media. As Germany did not well in the contest for such a long time, people stopped to believe that it was possible to win this contest.
It was watched by many people but most of them knew that the results for Germany would be bad anyway, so I felt that the singers were not supported very much. Lena, however, changed this perception and people start to take it more seriously, so the casting show in 2010 made ESC become a very big thing again.
Is it accepted to actually like ESC in your country? Or is it seen to be a bit dorky?
Even though that it has often been considered to be kind of dorky until 2010, a lot of people watched it. Lena’s success has changed the perception of the contest, however and Germany has become more ambitious in this regard and started to take it more seriously again.
But still, ESC is often criticized because of the distribution of the points: One can notice that the number of points given by the single countries is influenced by political circumstances, e.g. neighbors always give points to each other.
What is your favorit ESC song ever? Both German and not German?
German: Lena’s “Satellite” – of course , Non-German: there are simply to many and I don’t remember most of them. The first winner songs I like that come to my mind: Loreen-Euphoria & Alexander Rybak-Fairytale.
Competing this year for Germany is Cascada
