How S!sters became the successor of Michael Schulte

Dennis Van Eersel (The Netherlands)

Tonight, Germany is choosing its representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv. Who will follow the steps of the successful Michael Schulte, who gave Germany a fourth place finish in Lisbon last year?

Seven hopeful entrants will perform at the Studio Berlin Adlershof to win the German ticket to Israel. They are:

Aly Ryan – Wear your love
BB Thomaz – Demons
Linus Bruhn – Our city
Gregor Hägele – Let me go
Sisters – Sister
Lilly Among Clouds – Surprise
Makeda – The day I loved you most

Like last year, three groups will award points: the public, a Eurovision jury panel and a special appointed jury. They will all count for a third of the total vote. Hosts of the night are Barbara Schöneberger and Linda Zervakis.

You can follow the German final here, and with updates in our liveblog.

Liveblog for the German 2019 national final

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22:40 – ‘Sister’ being performed again
The winning song for Germany is being performed again. Thanks for joining us tonight!

22:34 – Sisters wins the televote
Makeda only got 6 points in the televote, because Sisters got 12 points, they will also win the competition!
22:32 – We have a valid result!
Jon Ola Sand has a valid results and gives the final points, coming from the televote.
22:31 – Aly Ryan wins the 100 Eurofans vote
The next jury is the group of 100 Eurovision fans. Sisters only got 6 points here, and the voting round was won by Aly Ryan, who is now joint second with Sisters. Makeda is the new leader, before the points from the televote will decide the winner.
22:27 – Sisters wins the international jury vote
The international jury hands out their points one at a time. The voting round has been won by Sisters, who is currently in the lead. They took a one point lead ahead of Makeda, giving them the first 12 points of the 3 juries.
22:17 – So far for German efficiency
Germans are known for their ‘punktlichkeit’, but they are taking a bit longer than expected to get to the presentation of the results. Mostly because there are too many interval acts, including two performances by Udo Lindenberg.
21:58 – Lines are closed
Televoting is not longer possible. It is time for the first jury results in a few minutes.
21:42 – Lena performs new single
‘Thank You’ is the new single which is being performed (playback) by former Eurovision winner Lena. Still looking good as ever. After her performance she looks back at her victory of 9 years ago, and tells the audience she feels like she is 19 again. So does Barbara Schöneberger, she adds!
21:35 – Schulte singing ‘Back to the start’
Michael Schulte is coming back to the start, to sing his new single ‘Back to the start’. He starts in the crowd, walking down the stairs to the stage. It is not a ballad, but a slightly more uptempo pop song.
21:26 – Recap
All seven songs are being shown in the recap for the first time. We will get a couple of guest performances, and then the results will start being given in about 30 minutes.
21:23 – Song 7: Sisters – Sister
The final song is a duet. Both girls are dressed in full black clothes. Red lights lit the stage, a they connect with each other a lot. Good harmonies, as the girls spin around each other on a moving floor. One of the better acts and vocals of the night. Let’s see how they will do in the voting.
21:16 – Song 6: Linus Bruhn – Our city
Linus from Hamburg has visuals with words being build-up in the back drop, so it looks like they form buildings. An uplifting pop song with some modern day beats and computer sounds added to it, to give ‘Our city’ a contemporary sound. Words like Freedom, Queens, Our City, are flashing with big letters behind Linus for the finale of the song. Perhaps one of the more modern songs of the night, and therefore a dark horse to win it?
21:08 – Song 5: Lilly Among Clouds – Surprise
The alternative vote of this night will probably go to ‘Surprise’. In a red dress, in the dark, with some smoke beneath Lilly, the song kicks off. It is hard to describe the type of song (Tori Amos-style?), apart from being alternative. Flames in the background as the lead singer is dancing in a unique way. A love or hate entry, which is something that is sometimes very suitable for Eurovision. This could however be a bit too much to get enough votes from a wide audience.
21:01 – Song 4: BB Thomaz – Demons
She was fourth in The Voice of Germany, but wants to win tonight. American BB sings a song, that was co-composed by Tim Schou (A Friend In London, Denmark 2011). The act for the song ‘Demons’ involve BB climbing some stairs, and rising above her demons. There has been some thought put into this, which is good! Vocals are not bad, but sometimes not very comfortable to listen to.
20:53 – Czechs in the crowd
A short break, as Barbara walks in the crowd and speaks with some fans in the hall. Ba luck for her, she finds a couple of Czech fans, who barely speak German.
20:50 – Song 3: Makeda – The day I loved you most
Makeda has a yellow/gold dress and is lighted out by some blue spots. Her vocals are spot on from the start. Her song is about a love that has passed, and how she can think about the bad way the relation ended, but she rather have focus on the good times. Lot of emotion in her performance, and near the climax of the song we hear some gospel-sounding backing singers, which stay off stage. A pyro waterfall for the last couple of seconds behind Makeda. Very credible and has a good shot to win it all tonight.
20:41 – Song 2: Aly Ryan – Wear your love
Aly lives in Los Angeles, but is from Germany. In her postcard she tells how she was formed as a person by the death of her younger brother. ‘Wear your love’ is a modern electro-pop song. Aly shines in a long white dress. Two female dancers tear up her dress, and Aly Ryan starts walking on a treadmill. Because the lighting is so dark, the visuals are not coming across on tv as it should. It is hard to connect with Aly because of the visual overkill. This must be improved should she go to Israel in May. This was not bad at all and has some Eurovision potential.
20:34 – Song 1: Gregor Hägele – Let me go
Gregor kicks off with his self composed song. He opens in a big blue stage, walking up in a white t-shirt. The vocals start off weak, and finish very questionable. Some high pitched notes seem to be out of his league. The song also lacks a real climax, even though the composers clearly tried to think of it. Probably not the winner of tonight.
20:26 – The voting system explained
The three groups, listed above, rank all seven songs. They will give 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5 and 4 points to each act, at the end of the night.
20:24 – Line-up is being announced
The seven acts that are taking part are being shown in the greenroom. I guess it is almost time for the first song.

20:15 – Flashback to Lisbon
The show has started. Broadcaster ARD takes us back to Lisbon, where Michael Schulte gave Germany a great result. The Barbara sits behind the piano and sings a German version of the song, until Schulte takes it over.
20:10 – Lena returns to her roots
As announced at the end of January, 2010 Eurovision winner Lena will perform during the national final tonight, with a track from her new album. Other guest performances include Michael Schulte, Revolverheld and Udo Lindenberg.
20:05 – Michael Schulte in the commentary booth


20:00 – Show getting underway in fifteen minutes!
Thanks for joining us. The show ‘Unser Lied fur Israel’ will start in fifteen minutes.

1 Comment

  1. lilly in the clouds is Lana del Rey meets Kate Bush, Tori Amos. i like it. prefer it over Wear your love which is so far my second best.

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