Last year, the German broadcaster chose one wild card participant for Unser Lied für Liverpool through an online vote on TikTok. The online contest gave emerging artists a chance to appeal directly to the public for votes, and gave the public more influence over the selection process for their Eurovision entry.
This year, the wild card contest has expanded into a whole separate pre-selection show called “Ich will zum ESC!” (I want to go to ESC!). Instead of a simple online vote, 15 of this year’s applicants were chosen to compete in a six-episode contest where they will get to showcase their talents under the mentorship of Austrian Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst and Rea Garvey, an Irish musician who was the winner of the 2021 Free European Song Contest (an ESC spinoff that ran on German TV channel ProSieben for two years).
Similarly to other music competitions like “The Voice”, the participants will first compete for a place on a coach’s team, and will then go through several elimination rounds. The final four acts will produce original Eurovision entries with their coaches, and then the final two will face a public vote for a spot in Das Deutsche Final 2024.
The first five episodes will be pre-recorded and will air on Das Erste on January 27th and February 3rd; they will also be available on the ARD website a few days earlier than their TV airings. The final will be broadcast live on February 8th.
The 15 artists chosen to compete are:
- Anne from Hamburg
- Apolloson from Regensburg
- Béranger from Berlin
- Bibiane from Berlin
- Celina from Bonn
- Christos from Mindelheim
- Esther from Delmenhorst
- Florian from Künzelsau
- Jamina from Hamburg
- Luca from Berlin
- Lyn from Günzburg
- Marie from Munich
- Paul from Leipzig
- Sophie from Berlin
- Sven from Essen
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