Germany was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 with the song "Satellite", written by Julie Frost and John Gordon, and performed by Lena. The German participating broadcaster on behalf of ARD, (NDR), organised the national final in order to select their entry for the contest in collaboration with private broadcaster ProSieben. The national final featured 20 competing artists and consisted of five heats, a quarter-final, a semi-final and a final held in February and March 2010. Contestants were selected to advance in the competition via public televote. Two contestants qualified to compete in the final where the winner was selected over two rounds of voting. "Satellite" performed by Lena was selected as the German entry after placing among the top two during the first round of voting and ultimately gaining the most votes in the second round.
As a member of the "Big Four", Germany automatically qualified to compete in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. Performing in position 22, Germany placed first out of the 25 participating countries, winning the contest with 246 points. This was Germany's second win in the Eurovision Song Contest; their first victory was .
Background
Prior to the 2010 contest, ARD had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Germany fifty-three times since its debut in . It has won the contest on one occasion: with the song "" performed by Nicole. 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 when it was eliminated in a pre-contest elimination round. In , the German entry "Miss Kiss Kiss Bang" performed by Alex Swings Oscar Sings! placed twentieth out of twenty-five competing songs scoring 35 points.
As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, ARD organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. Since 1996, ARD had delegated the participation in the contest to its member (NDR). NDR confirmed that it would participate in the 2010 contest on 20 July 2009. Between 1996 and 2008, NDR had set up national finals with several artists to choose both the song and performer to compete at Eurovision for Germany, while the broadcaster internally selected both the artist and song for the contest in 2009. On 25 May 2009, ARD and NDR was revealed to have approached music producer and three-time German Eurovision participant (as singer and/or songwriter) Stefan Raab and private broadcaster ProSieben to collaborate in preparing for the 2010 contest with a view of creating a possible winning combination of artist and song. While ProSieben had accepted the offer, Raab had refused the request. Along with their participation confirmation, it was announced that Raab would in fact work with the two broadcasters in preparing for the 2010 contest.
Before Eurovision
(English: Our Star for Oslo) was the competition that selected the German entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. The competition consisted of five heats, a quarter-final, a semi-final and a final that took place between 2 February 2010 and 12 March 2010 at the Köln-Mülheim Studios in Cologne, hosted by Matthias Opdenhövel and Sabine Heinrich. The competition was co-produced by the production company Brainpool. The shows were broadcast alternatively on ProSieben and Das Erste; the heats and semi-final were broadcast on ProSieben, while the quarter-final and final were broadcast on Das Erste as well as online via NDR's official website ndr.de.
Format The competition consisted of eight shows: five heats between 2 February 2010 and 2 March 2010, a quarter-final on 23 February 2010, a semi-final on 9 March 2010 and a final on 12 March 2010. In each of the first two heats, 10 of the 20 contestants performed and five were eliminated from the competition. An additional two contestants were eliminated in each of the third and fourth heat, while one was eliminated in each of the fifth heat and quarter-final, respectively, and two were eliminated in the semi-final. The remaining two contestants proceeded to the final where they each performed their three songs bidding for Eurovision and the German entry was selected. The results of all eight shows were determined by public televoting, including options for landline and SMS voting.
Competing entries Interested performers aged over 18 were able to apply for the competition by submitting an online application and presenting themselves at casting shows held at the Köln-Mülheim Studios in Cologne between 18 September 2009 and 22 November 2009 as well as between 13 November 2009 and 15 November 2009. By the end of the process, it was announced that over 4,500 applications were received and 20 contestants were selected by Stefan Raab together with an expert panel consisting of ARD representatives. The four candidate Eurovision songs, selected by representatives of the record company Universal Music from over 300 songs submitted by individual composers and lyricists, were announced during the final.
Song Songwriter(s) "Bee" Rosi Golan, Per Kristian Ottestad, Mayaeni Strauss "I Care for You" Martin Fliegenschmidt, Claudio Pagonis, Max Mutzke "Love Me" Stefan Raab, Lena Meyer-Landrut "Satellite" Julie Frost, John Gordon
Elimination chart Contestant Heat 1 Heat 2 Heat 3 Heat 4 Heat 5 Quarter-final Semi-final Final Lena Meyer-Landrut Safe Safe Safe Safe Safe Safe Winner Jennifer Braun Safe Safe Safe Safe Safe Safe Runner-up Christian Durstewitz Safe Safe Safe Safe Safe 3rd place Kerstin Freking Safe Safe Safe Safe Safe 4th place Sharyhan Osman Safe Safe Safe Safe 5th place Leon Taylor Safe Safe Safe Eliminated Cyril Krueger Safe Safe Eliminated Katrin Walter Safe Safe Eliminated Maria-Lisa Straßburg Safe Eliminated Meri Voskanian Safe Eliminated Benjamin Hartmann Eliminated Behnam Seifi Eliminated Alex Senzig Eliminated Jana Wall Eliminated Franziska Weber Eliminated Johannes Böhm Eliminated Michael Kraus Eliminated Benjamin Peters Eliminated Sebastian Schwarzbach Eliminated Daliah Sharaf Eliminated
Shows Heats The five televised heats took place between 2 February and 2 March 2010. Stefan Raab alongside two music experts also provided feedback in regards to the contestants during each heat. The experts were Yvonne Catterfeld and Marius Müller-Westernhagen for the first heat, Sarah Connor and Peter Maffay for the second heat, Nena and König Boris for the third heat, Sasha and Cassandra Steen for the fourth heat, and Joy Denalane and Rea Garvey for the fifth heat. + Heat 12 February 2010 Artist Song Result 1 Benjamin Peters "Bodies" 2 Kerstin Freking "My Immortal" Advanced 3 Johannes Böhm "Crazy" 4 Daliah Sharaf "At Last" 5 Cyril Krueger "Hotel California" Advanced 6 Michael Kraus "Loving You" 7 Meri Voskanian "Release Me" Advanced 8 Katrin Walter "Nobody Knows" Advanced 9 Sebastian Schwarzbach "Home" 10 Lena Meyer-Landrut "My Same" Advanced
+ Heat 29 February 2010 Artist Song Result 1 Jennifer Braun "I'm Outta Love" Advanced 2 Benjamin Hartmann "Better Together" 3 Maria-Lisa Straßburg "Saving My Face" Advanced 4 Behnam Seifi "Save Room" 5 Sharyhan Osman "I Have Nothing" Advanced 6 Alex Senzig "Wherever You Will Go" 7 Jana Wall "Who Knew" 8 Franziska Weber "Love Foolosophy" 9 Leon Taylor "Der Weg" Advanced 10 Christian Durstewitz "Faith" Advanced
+ Heat 316 February 2010 Artist Song Result 1 Meri Voskanian "If I Ain't Got You" 2 Jennifer Braun "Like the Way I Do" Advanced 3 Maria-Lisa Straßburg "Helena" 4 Leon Taylor "Irgendwas bleibt" Advanced 5 Katrin Walter "Warwick Avenue" Advanced 6 Kerstin Freking "Not Ready to Make Nice" Advanced 7 Christian Durstewitz "Change" Advanced 8 Sharyhan Osman "Feel the Nile" Advanced 9 Lena Meyer-Landrut "Diamond Dave" Advanced 10 Cyril Krueger "Hot Fudge" Advanced
+ Heat 423 February 2010 Artist Song Result 1 Katrin Walter "Love Song" 2 Sharyhan Osman "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby" Advanced 3 Cyril Krueger "Beautiful Day" 4 Jennifer Braun "I'm with You" Advanced 5 Christian Durstewitz "Another Night" Advanced 6 Lena Meyer-Landrut "Foundations" Advanced 7 Kerstin Freking "Thank U" Advanced 8 Leon Taylor "Are You Gonna Go My Way" Advanced
+ Heat 52 March 2010 Artist Song Result 1 Kerstin Freking "Better" Advanced 2 Lena Meyer-Landrut "New Shoes" Advanced 3 Jennifer Braun "Ain't Nobody" Advanced 4 Leon Taylor "Tears in Heaven" 5 Sharyhan Osman "In the City" Advanced 6 Christian Durstewitz "Dance with Somebody" Advanced
Quarter-final The televised quarter-final took place on 5 March 2010 where an additional contestant was eliminated. Stefan Raab alongside two music experts also provided feedback in regards to the contestants during the show. The experts were Anke Engelke and Adel Tawil. + Quarter-final5 March 2010 Artist First song Second song Result Sharyhan Osman 1 "You've Got the Love" 6 "Never Felt The Way That I Feel Today" Jennifer Braun 2 "Soulmate" 7 "Nobody's Wife" Advanced Kerstin Freking 3 "If a Song Could Get Me You" 8 "Somedays" Advanced Christian Durstewitz 4 "Ochrasy" 9 "Stalker" Advanced Lena Meyer-Landrut 5 "Mouthwash" 10 "Neopolitan Dreams" Advanced
Semi-final The televised semi-final took place on 9 March 2010 where an additional two contestants were eliminated. Stefan Raab alongside two music experts also provided feedback in regards to the contestants during the show. The experts were Barbara Schöneberger and Jan Delay. + Semi-final9 March 2010 Artist First song Second song Result Christian Durstewitz 1 "I'm Yours" 5 "In Your Hands" Kerstin Freking 2 "Hands Clean" colspan="2" Lena Meyer-Landrut 3 "Mr. Curiosity" 6 "The Lovecats" Advanced Jennifer Braun 4 "Heavy Cross" 7 "Hurt" Advanced
Final
The televised final took place on 12 March 2010 where each of the two finalists performed three candidate Eurovision songs, including an individual song. The winner was selected through two rounds of public televoting. In the first round of voting, one song per finalist was selected to proceed to the second round. In the second round, the winner, "Satellite" performed by Lena Meyer-Landrut, was selected. Stefan Raab and two music experts provided feedback in regards to the songs during the show. The experts were Stefanie Kloß and Xavier Naidoo. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, Xavier Naidoo performed his song "Ich brauche dich". + First Round – 12 March 2010 Artist Song Result 1 Jennifer Braun "Bee" 2 Lena Meyer-Landrut "Bee" 3 Jennifer Braun "Satellite" 4 Lena Meyer-Landrut "Satellite" Advanced 5 Jennifer Braun "I Care for You" Advanced 6 Lena Meyer-Landrut "Love Me" + Second Round – 12 March 2010 Artist Song Place 1 Lena Meyer-Landrut "Satellite" 1 2 Jennifer Braun "I Care for You" 2
Ratings + Viewing figures by show Show Date Viewing figures Nominal Share Heat 1 2 February 2010 2,620,000 8.5% Heat 2 9 February 2010 2,200,000 7.0% Heat 3 16 February 2010 2,160,000 6.8% Heat 4 23 February 2010 1,870,000 6.0% Heat 5 2 March 2010 2,150,000 7.2% Quarter-final 5 March 2010 3,020,000 9.8% Semi-final 9 March 2010 2,300,000 14.4% Final 12 March 2010 4,500,000 14.6%
Promotion