In 2026, something historic will happen within the country of Germany. When it comes to Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest, the broadcaster in charge is ARD, a broadcaster that also consist of it’s regional members. Since 1996, the regional broadcaster NDR was in charge of the German selection, but moving forward, that task has now been moved to SWR, and their plans for 2026 are set.
SWR takes over from NDR
You might be wondering, what is changing and what does this mean for Germany? Well, as a viewer, not much will change, but in the background, it’s quite a big switch. Starting from the very top and in the simplest way of explaining, we have ARD, which is the main broadcaster and the EBU member. The broadcaster is also the one that airs the main channel in Germany, which is “Das Erste“.
ARD is also made up, of several regional broadcaster across all of Germany, and all are EBU members as well, through the main broadcaster (ARD). NDR is one of these regional broadcasters, and it stands for “Norddeutscher Rundfunk“, which translates to “North German Broadcasting”, whose headquarters are located in Hamburg. This has meant, that the team located in Hamburg, have been in charge of how the German selection has been done, in the past 30 years. Through those past 30 years, NDR tried various ideas and collaboration, hosting the national final outside their region, in cities such as Hannover, Cologne & Berlin, as well in their own regional capital, Hamburg. They also even worked along with private channels in Germany, such as ProSieben & RTL, as recently as in 2025.
With the switch to SWR, which is “Südwestrundfunk“, and translated to English it’s “South West Broadcasting”, it means that the team, whose headquarter is located in Stuttgart, are now in charge. This could also mean, that the German national selection could take place in the South of the country more, rather than in the North, which was often the case until now.
As pointed out before, it’s not something that will be noticeable for the viewer, so there’s not much to overthink about, regarding the move.
SWR will host a national final
With the situation explained, now comes the question, what are SWR planning to do, regarding selecting the German representative for 2026? It has been confirmed, that a national final will be held in February, in order to decide who get to represent the nation in Vienna, Austria.
The submission period has already been opened, and it will last until October 22nd 2025. At the same time, SWR has also stated what kind of specifics they are searching for among artists and songs, which include some of the following points:
- Professionally active as a singer with an existing business environment
- Minimum age 18 years – cut-off date: April 30, 2026
- EU citizenship or residence permit valid until at least May 20, 2026, and a clear connection to Germany – German citizenship, center of life in Germany, German parent, German-speaking
- Outstanding vocal quality and stage presence
- Artistic credibility and strong personality
- Professional maturity and experience to withstand the pressure
- Experience in dealing with media
- Maximum 6 people on stage (performing group)
Finally, it has also been confirmed that the national final, will be decided by a combination of the televote and an international jury.
In 2025, Abor und Tynna and their song “Baller” became the last German representative to be selected by regional broadcaster NDR for now. The club track managed to make viewers and jurors in Europe dance, gathering a great amount of points from both groups, which combined was a total of 151 points. This gave the duo a 15th place in the final of the 2025 contest.
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Source(s): ESC-Kompact.de (In German)