Germany participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, United Kingdom, with "Blood & Glitter" performed by Lord of the Lost. The German broadcaster ARD, in collaboration with Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR), organised the national final Unser Lied für Liverpool in order to select the German entry for the 2023 contest.[1] The national final took place on 3 March 2023 and featured eight competing acts with the winner being selected through international jury voting and public voting.
Prior to the 2023 contest, Germany has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest sixty-four times since its debut as one of seven countries to take part in 1956.[2] Germany has won the contest on two occasions: in 1982 with the song "Ein bißchen Frieden" performed by Nicole and in 2010 with the song "Satellite" performed by Lena. Germany, to this point, has been noted for having competed in the contest more than any other country; they have competed in every contest since the first edition in 1956 except for the 1996 contest when the nation was eliminated in a pre-contest elimination round. In 2022, "Rockstars" performed by Malik Harris placed twenty-fifth (last) out of twenty-five competing songs with 6 points.
Unser Lied für Liverpool (English: Our Song for Liverpool) was the competition that selected Germany's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2023. The competition took place on 3 March 2023 at the MMC Studios in Cologne, and was hosted by Barbara Schöneberger. The show was broadcast on Das Erste as well as online via the broadcaster's Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.de and the ARD-Mediathek platform.[1]
Interested artists and composers were able to submit their entries for the competition between 9 November 2022 and 28 November 2022. Artists and composers were also able to upload their entries to TikTok with the hashtag #UnserLiedFürLiverpool.[3] By the end of the process, it was announced that 548 submissions were received by NDR. The eight competing entries for the national final were selected over three stages. In the first stage, entries were shortlisted for the second stage by a panel consisting of members of the ARD Eurovision team and representatives of eurovision.de, ARD radio channels and the production company Bildergarten. The second stage involved an international expert panel that provided feedback in regards to the shortlisted entries for the ARD Eurovision team to select the eight entries in the third stage.[4][5] The participating acts were announced on 27 January 2023.[6][7] An additional six entries were selected by the ARD Eurovision team for a TikTok selection from over 900 submissions uploaded on the platform, with an online voing being held via TikTok app to determine the act advancing to the final, with the winner revealed during the broadcast of Alles Eurovision on 4 February.[8]
On 3 March, the band Frida Gold [de] withdrew their entry after their lead singer Alina Süggeler [de] fell ill. The group had already missed several rehearsals prior to their withdrawal.[9]
TikTok wildcard selection – 27 January–3 February 2023[10]
The final took place on 3 March 2023. The winner was selected by a 50/50 combination of eight international jury groups from Switzerland, the Netherlands, Finland, Spain, Lithuania, Ukraine, Austria and the United Kingdom, as well as public voting.[11][12][13] Each jury group distributed their points as follows: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 points.[13] The public vote was based on the percentage of votes each song achieved through the following voting methods: online, telephone, and SMS. For example, if a song gains 10% of the viewer vote, then that entry would be awarded 10% of 368 points rounded to the nearest integer: 37 points.[13] The online voting window was open from 24 February to 3 March 2023, after which telephone and SMS voting were used during the show.[14] Frida Gold had originally been scheduled to perform eighth prior to their withdrawal; their votes received during the online voting window were subsequently nullified, and Lord of the Lost, who was scheduled to perform after Frida Gold, retained their running order number.[9] In addition to the performances of the competing entries, The BossHoss with Ilse DeLange, Florian Silbereisen, Riccardo Simonetti and 2022 German Eurovision entrantMalik Harris performed as interval acts.
According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete in the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. As a member of the "Big Five", Germany automatically qualified to compete in the final on 13 May 2023. In addition to its participation in the final, Germany was also required to broadcast and vote in one of the two semi-finals. This was decided via a draw held during the semi-final allocation draw on 31 January 2023, when it was announced that Germany would be voting in the first semi-final.[18]
In Germany, all three shows were broadcast live on One, with the final also broadcast live on Das Erste, with commentary provided by Peter Urban. This was Urban's 25th contest as commentator for German television, providing commentary on ARD every year since 1997, and 2023 marked his final year as commentator.[19][20] The contest's final was also broadcast live via satellite by Deutsche Welle, on DW Deutsch in Asia and DW Deutsch+ in North America.[21]
The broadcast of semi-final 1 on One reached an average of 590,000 television viewers, while the broadcast of semi-final 2 reached an average of 620,000 viewers.[22][23] The broadcast of the final reached an average of 7.45 million viewers on Das Erste, which marked an increase of 900,000 viewers compared to the previous two contests and an overall market share of 35.8%,[24] with 53.4% market share for those between the ages of 14 and 49. An additional 510,000 watched the broadcast on One, bringing the overall total market share across both channels to 38.4%, with an almost 58% market share among the 14 to 49 year old bracket and a 66.9% share among 14 to 29 year olds. The 2023 contest gained the highest market share among youth audiences in Germany since the 2011 contest, which was organised in Germany and held in Düsseldorf.[25][26]
Germany
Norway
Malta
Serbia
Latvia
Portugal
Ireland
Croatia
Israel
Moldova
Sweden
Azerbaijan
Czech Republic
Poland
France
Cyprus
Albania
Italy
Estonia
Australia
Belgium
Armenia
Slovenia