Live: Unser Lied fur Stockholm 2016

Eight national finals are taking place this week across Europe and tonight we’re kicking off our coverage with the live show of Unser Lied fur Stockholm, where Germany will choose their Eurovision entry for 2016. Ten artists will perform and two rounds of voting will decide tonight’s winner.

2222: So that’s it! We have our winner, thanks for sticking with the liveblog and don’t forget to check back at ESCDaily tomorrow night for our second live show of the week from the UK!

2217: The three finalists are now invited on stage for the result, and the winner is: Jamie Lee Kriewitz

2216: The lines are now closed, the result has been decided. We’re now awaiting the result!

2208: Time for a performance by The Common Linnets, who finished second in Eurovision 2014. They then give a performance with the German band TheBossHoss, bringing Germany and the Netherlands together.

2200: All three of tonight’s top three are now performing reprises of their Eurovision entries and chatting with the host and lines are also open for the public to vote for their favourite of these three entries.

2148: After a very quick round of voting, the 3 going through to the superfinal are: Avanstasia, Alex Diehl, and Jamie Lee Kriewitz

2133: All songs have been performed! Now time for a recap before the interval act.

2124: Last to perform is Laura Pinski and “Under the Sun We Are One”. Wow, that’s a dress! It’s a long shiny silver dress that drapes to form a star shape on the ground. Colours and patterns are then projected onto the dress as the song goes on. The song is a pop ballad about peace. Unfortunately it comes off as slightly more cheesy than credible. She also comes off as a bit amateur and juvenile. Nevertheless it’s somewhat endearing for the average TV viewer so who knows how many votes she’ll pick up?

2118: The big favourite Jamie-Lee Kriewitz is up next with the song “Ghost”. The current champion of The Voice Germany, she’s performing a whimsical ballad. First of all, her stylist need to be fired. It’s Japanesey Alice in Wonderland gone dark, she looks awful. This song is good though. It’s like Paramore meets Lana Del Rey. The song sounds like it could be the soundtrack to one of the Twilight movies. It’s very emo-kid, 2008, MySpace, which is personally not to my taste as it’s very outdated but Germany will love this.

2112: Alex Diehl is next on stage with “Nur ein Lied” which is penned as a tribute to the victims of the terrorist attacks in Paris last year. He sits on a stool in the centre of the stage as the lyrics of the song appear on the screen behind him. He accompanies himself on the guitar and sings this emotional guitar ballad. He’s very similar to last year’s German winner Andreas Kummert. The song builds to a climax where the language switches between German and English. It’s a beautiful song about unity and peace, something that could pick up points at Eurovision!

2107: Avantasia is next to perform “Mystery of a Blood Red Rose”. Finally we’ve got something with style and substance. This is a hard rock song and there is no mistaking that. Pianists, guitarists, microphone stands, smoke, lights, it’s all go here. Dressed in a long red coat, he belts out this rock song. My only critique is that it’s very old fashioned and far too theatrical to take seriously. Think Meatloaf.

2056: After a short interview with Peter Urban, we continue with song number 6: Keøma with “Protected”. In a metallic floor length gold dress, the lead singer performs centre stage surrounded by the rest of the band. It’s slow and mellow. The song is slightly electronic and new wave in it’s style, a truly unique sound. The performance is quite dark and dreamy, what an unusual yet interesting entry.

2050: Luxuslärm are the next act on stage with “Solange Liebe in mir wohnt”. The title translates to “As long as love lives within me”. The band is lead by a female vocalist who is dressed in white and wearing a demin jacket. Similar to the last song we heard this is a guitar lead pop song. It’s not as catchy as some of the others but it’s a more colourful and fun visual performance with a pop-art style backdrop.

2044: Woods of Birnam with “Lift Me Up (From the Underground)” are next to perform. This is a band by the book. There are four instrumentalists and a singer leading the show. The song is radio friendly pop fodder, not particularly unique in it’s style it could be argued that there is a rockier edge to this entry. Although the performance is slightly lacking and the song is quite bland, it’s very pleasant to listen to and it’s actually pretty catchy!

2039: Gregorian are up next with “Masters of Chant”. These guys have a huge following for their unique gothic operatic style of performance. They’re dressed in floor length black robes, like monks from some weird cult or something, I feel like I’m a human sacrifice for some bizarre ritual. They’re holding flames and the whole thing is just very neogothic. The song is lame beyond words. It’s designed to be epic and appeal to a certain genre and I believe it does but there’s absolutely no place in 2016 for neogothic gregorian church gospel music, especially not at the Eurovision Song Contest. Germany love them though, so this could prove to be a contender.

2033: Song number 2 is “Full Moon” by Joco. These girls are sisters, the indie princesses of the competition, one plays piano and the other plays drums in front of a giant orb representing a full moon. Their vocals harmonize perfectly and they bring a good vocal game to the competition. The song itself however is typically underwhelming, it’s a mid tempo indiepop song, there’s no real hook and it’s certainly not going to be the song you’ll be singing tomorrow morning at work. An interesting and unique effort though.

2022: The first act up tonight is Ella Endlich with the song “Adrenalin”. This is the big schlager number that the eurofans have been waiting for. However, it’s surprisingly chilled out for the genre, it’s uptempo an somewhat danceable but a very enjoyable and relaxing listen. She’s wearing an incredibly short black lace dress and surrounded by shirtless male dancers. It’s the full package and encapsulates almost every stereotype about Eurovision. She is also absolutely gorgeous. Legs for days.

2015: The show begins with our host singing a comic medley of German Eurovision songs gone by, there’s then a short introduction and a brief overview of the show before we move straight into tonight’s performances.

After all ten acts have performed viewers will vote to decide the top three songs. The top three will then go through to a second round of voting where the votes from the German public will decide which of the top three wins the ticket to Stockholm to represent Germany. The German participation this year is not without controversy, there was the Xavier Naidoo debacle late in 2015 which caused a stir among Eurovision fans and international media alike due to his unpopular political biases. Hoping to put that behind them, German broadcaster ARD have put together tonight’s show in association with NDR, broadcasting live from Cologne, the hauptstadt of German television.

The ten artists hoping to win the ticket to Stockholm are:

1 Ella Endlich “Adrenalin”
2 Joco “Full Moon”
3 Gregorian “Masters of Chant”
4 Woods of Birnam “Lift Me Up (From the Underground)”
5 Luxuslärm “Solange Liebe in mir wohnt”
6 Keøma “Protected”
7 Avantasia “Mystery of a Blood Red Rose”
8 Alex Diehl “Nur ein Lied”
9 Jamie-Lee Kriewitz “Ghost”
10 Laura Pinski “Under the Sun We Are One”

Barbara Schöneberger is the presenter and the show will include performances from The Common Linnets and TheBossHoss. We’ll of course be writing our live blog from 2015CET but you can catch the action streamed live on Eurovision.tv.