Germany GERMANY 2025 - Abor and Tynna - Baller

[ESC United Mod Team]

 

[Lona]

Raabs official statement regarding the firetail-incident.

https://x.com/realorangelord/status/1896137511279472876

What a liar! They said in all the shows before that only the public decides in the final. No mention of another jury decision whatsoever. It also said so on the official German eurovision site.

 

[toinou03]

I like that it's different, like we never had that kind of song coming from .
It however won't turn the contest upside down either, as you kind of need to get into it.
At least, it's a good musical proposition, that it is in German isn't even the main subject.
I hope it won't get forgotten.

 

[Sammy]

Thank you Stefan Raab for taking away the BURDEN of having to choose from NINE (!) songs and give them the much more easy task to choose between five. Even if the favorite of many has to go for that, but hey, that little sacrifice is surely justified, given that HE, the great expert KNOWS what makes a song a winner song, while the public only uses this filthy "taste" () to make a decision. He's SUCH an altruist, tbh.

I used to like him a lot before he left the screen but nowadays he's become unbearable. Also his childish little song using quotes from Friedrich Merz and the ever returning ukulele is such a desperate attempt to go back to his early days.

 

[NemesisNick]

Since I watched Chefsache ESC 2025 - Wer singt für Deutschland? live, online from the UK yesterday evening (1 March 2025), I've made a review video containing my opinions on all nine finalist songs, which were intended for Eurovision 2025, in order of performance (based on Chefsache ESC 2025 performances), and my ranking from ninth to first in My Eurovision Scoreboard. N.B. I've decided to review the Eurovision songs only, and have skipped the cover songs which were also performed during the show.

Nemesis Nick Talks Eurovision: Chefsache ESC 2025 Final Review

The German national final, Chefsache ESC 2025 - Wer singt für Deutschland?, took place on Saturday 1 March 2025. I watched Chefsache ESC 2025 - Wer singt fü...

youtu.be

 

[Franzilein]

I don't think we have to worry about that, since Raab is clearly going to be out and SWR might go internal or do one NF night at best. lol

Don't think we are on the same page here haha, I very much want Stefan to stay involved His honest thoughts were refreshing and I love his approach to hand-made music. I rate him as a musician extremely highly actually.
The only bone I have to pick with him is his attitude towards anything heavier – his comments about FFTS and Feuerschwanz rubbed me off, although I understand his (very predictable, but not unjustified) decision to throw the latter out before the public voting. Knightclub was a 0 jury points, 20 public points in the making, that song is a fun festival/stereo banger, but did not work for live television at all.

I'm wandering off. What I wanted to say was: Even out the road – maybe cut the covers in the final and leave out the clear "fodder" from the first two shows, dunno – and it's a smooth ride, I deem the path to be the correct one. There was a lot of potential in the final line-up this year. And yes, keep the public's choice reduced. I have warranted trust issues when it comes to our NF

 

[Jupiter]

Because I was curious: that's a total of 663.451 votes, roughly 130.000 votes more than the last years (2024 had 533.026, 2023 had 538843).

While that's obviously an increase, it's not as much as the increased viewing numbers might have suggested: we had 3.7 Million people watching, while last year we had 2.2 Million. So did much more people tune in, but most of them did not vote? There were troubles with the online vote, but I'd guess that mostly hindered International fans who could not have voted before anyway. I'm mostly wondering if that means it was still our good old ARD audience voting and they went for A&T, or if it was largely a different audience voting.

 

[Datura]

but dont you think they would have chosen a different song for Austria? It was Stefan Raab who chose Baller. I think that was the wrong choice.

i dont know what they would have done, i could only make assumptions.
i think its a catchy song but obviously its hard to sing live, and the chorus loses its impact without the vocal effects imo. but i really don't know. as much as i like them to me none of their songs screams obvious eurovision, hard to decide

 

[Datura]

I dont think that thats the kind of songs Marvin Dietmann is eager to stage. He probably would not be the best choice.

totally agree here, that is nothing for marvin dietmann imo.

 

[aef]

Baller as a song is a totally fader for me. I wish them all the best but judging the song, I have to downgrade this. It felt very boring when listening to it again today. points

 

[Mainshow]

Because I was curious: that's a total of 663.451 votes, roughly 130.000 votes more than the last years (2024 had 533.026, 2023 had 538843).

While that's obviously an increase, it's not as much as the increased viewing numbers might have suggested: we had 3.7 Million people watching, while last year we had 2.2 Million. So did much more people tune in, but most of them did not vote? There were troubles with the online vote, but I'd guess that mostly hindered International fans who could not have voted before anyway. I'm mostly wondering if that means it was still our good old ARD audience voting and they went for A&T, or if it was largely a different audience voting.

More people didn't engage in voting because the whole voting system was shit.
People who wanted to support Feuerschwanz, Cosby, Julinka, Benjamin simply didn't continue following the show/switching their preferences.... the songs simply weren't that compelling.

It wasn't UMK or Melodifestivalen where you can actually feel motivated to vote for another song.

They really need to increase the quality (more competitive songs, please) next year + stop eliminating 19 artists before the viewers actually can vote.

 

[Jay25]

They really need to increase the quality (more competitive songs, please) next year + stop eliminating 19 artists before the viewers actually can vote.

They should start looking for songs, not acts in their selection. They were good at selecting decent singers and bands, but this is nothing if they don't have any good songs to participate with

 

[Jupiter]

More people didn't engage in voting because the whole voting system was shit.
People who wanted to support Feuerschwanz, Cosby, Julinka, Benjamin simply didn't continue following the show/switching their preferences.... the songs simply weren't that compelling.

It wasn't UMK or Melodifestivalen where you can actually feel motivated to vote for another song.

They really need to increase the quality (more competitive songs, please) next year + stop eliminating 19 artists before the viewers actually can vote.

Well, yes, that would be my guess too.

And to add: no stupid covers. No looking for acts and only than considering the song as a secondary thing. No basically ignoring the concept of stagings altogether. No jury Couch who talks way too much.
Honestly the only things worth keeping are IMO prime time and having several Shows, but they need to be filled completely differently. And personally, Raab just needs to go away lol

 

[hijirio]

It's interesting how Germany is the only country among the 'Big 5' that isn't as strict about language rules.
Can anyone explain why that is? The other 'Big 5' countries tend to avoid sending songs in languages other than their own. For example, Italy, France and Spain rarely send songs with any English lyrics.

Germany should also promote its own language. While it may not be known for being the most beautiful sounding, it is a widely learned and influential language.

 

[Mainshow]

It's interesting how Germany is the only country among the 'Big 5' that isn't as strict about language rules.
Can anyone explain why that is? The other 'Big 5' countries tend to avoid sending songs in languages other than their own. For example, Italy, France and Spain rarely send songs with any English lyrics.

Germany should also promote its own language. While it may not be known for being the most beautiful sounding, it is a widely learned and influential language.

The thing is that "we" (broadcasters, artists, people in charge) think that "one has to sing in English at ESC" so that we can be "understood". We are strangely convincecd that our language isn't poetic and sounds too harsh and that it will not attract many viewers.

It's a stupid opinion, imo - but it has been declared as such by artists and fans alike - even one of our "then" most famous/popular singers in German (Andreas Bourani) said that he would never apply to our broadcaster because he only sings in German.

Also, we have some "gatekeepers" at our NF (radio bosses, directors, Stefan Raab) who aren't even considering to place German songs in our NF, e.g. neglecting Tim Bendzko this year (even though most of the English ESC songs were chanceless and we got tons of artists who can't even hit the notes as we've seen it in this year's live shows).

Another example: 2014. We got Unheilig in our NF - it was the most famous and popular German artist back then (winning Bundesvision Song Contest, #1 album, singles in the year-end chart 2011 & 2012, sold-out concerts) but in the superfinal, fans did an "anti-vote" to prevent Unheilig from winning and we got Elaiza instead.
I was very active in the German fanclub at that time and most fans said that "we can't send a German guy dressed in black singing in German whilst he's spread his arms" (referring to WWII and so on).

Last year, people didn't want to send a German Schlager ("Naiv") because Schlager wouldn't succeed internationally. - Which is such a strang comment coming from fans whilst they're fanwanking about Melodifestivalen and Melodi Grand Prix - but here you go.

It's ridiculous, I know. But these are parts of the reasons why we (almost) never get competitive songs in German in our NF.

Even though I dislike "Baller" very much - I hope that it will be semi successful in May so that people in charge aren't too reluctant to give artists singing in German a fair chance.

 

[hijirio]

The thing is that "we" (broadcasters, artists, people in charge) think that "one has to sing in English at ESC" so that we can be "understood". We are strangely convincecd that our language isn't poetic and sounds too harsh and that it will not attract many viewers.

It's a stupid opinion, imo - but it has been declared as such by artists and fans alike - even one of our "then" most famous/popular singers in German (Andreas Bourani) said that he would never apply to our broadcaster because he only sings in German.

Also, we have some "gatekeepers" at our NF (radio bosses, directors, Stefan Raab) who aren't even considering to place German songs in our NF, e.g. neglecting Tim Bendzko this year (even though most of the English ESC songs were chanceless and we got tons of artists who can't even hit the notes as we've seen it in this year's live shows).

Another example: 2014. We got Unheilig in our NF - it was the most famous and popular German artist back then (winning Bundesvision Song Contest, #1 album, singles in the year-end chart 2011 & 2012, sold-out concerts) but in the superfinal, fans did an "anti-vote" to prevent Unheilig from winning and we got Elaiza instead.
I was very active in the German fanclub at that time and most fans said that "we can't send a German guy dressed in black singing in German whilst he's spread his arms" (referring to WWII and so on).

Last year, people didn't want to send a German Schlager ("Naiv") because Schlager wouldn't succeed internationally. - Which is such a strang comment coming from fans whilst they're fanwanking about Melodifestivalen and Melodi Grand Prix - but here you go.

It's ridiculous, I know. But these are parts of the reasons why we (almost) never get competitive songs in German in our NF.

Even though I dislike "Baller" very much - I hope that it will be semi successful in May so that people in charge aren't too reluctant to give artists singing in German a fair chance.

The result is not everything.

Germany got a decent result back in 2018 and last year.
Bur neither of those entries had any hype behind them, both were dark horses in their respective editions.

This is the first time after more than a decade that I see Germany in the top 10 in fan rankings, and with a song in local language!!

I can already see some people being inspired to learn German thanks to this song, the hype and appreprication achieved here is much more important than the ultimate result.

I hope the broadcaster will see it the way I do.

 

[CC92]

It's interesting how Germany is the only country among the 'Big 5' that isn't as strict about language rules.
Can anyone explain why that is? The other 'Big 5' countries tend to avoid sending songs in languages other than their own. For example, Italy, France and Spain rarely send songs with any English lyrics.

Germany should also promote its own language. While it may not be known for being the most beautiful sounding, it is a widely learned and influential language.

It is a politically-driven decision IMO. That way they believe they would be perceived as pro-European, anti-nationalist, progressive, inclusive, open-minded... In addition you may state a strong general fear of alienating someone/being actively disliked which does not only show up in their language choices but also in their idea of what musical style were suitable for the contest ('vanilla fetish').
Bigotry par excellence.

 

[Iker]

Ok, I have listened last night to the studio cut and I have to say that I like Baller as a song, a very refreshing club banger. Above average for a German entry at the Eurovision. And it's in German (mostly) which is nice. I wonder whether they're gonna extend the song for the ESC as they have time to spare or leave it as it is. I'm not sure though about her singing and I have reasons to suspect that she didn't sound like she did at Chefsache just because ''she was ill''. Her vocals in the studio song seem quite heavily edited to me.

 

[Sammy]

It's interesting how Germany is the only country among the 'Big 5' that isn't as strict about language rules.
Can anyone explain why that is? The other 'Big 5' countries tend to avoid sending songs in languages other than their own. For example, Italy, France and Spain rarely send songs with any English lyrics.

Germany should also promote its own language. While it may not be known for being the most beautiful sounding, it is a widely learned and influential language.

May I offer an additional explanation:

For decades, the only genre that was sung in german was Schlager and what was called „Volkstümliche Musik“ (traditional-ish music: a mix of folk and Schlager), which was - especially the latter - considered of very poor musical und lyrical quality. With the exception of very few (one of them being Udo Jürgens btw) there was no broad tradition of german singing singer/songwriter like the ACI (auteur-compositeur-chanteur) in France. Thus singing in german was often put in the niche of being a bit embarrassing and looking for a simple-minded public. If you wanted to be cool and modern, openminded and first and foremost internationally successful, you were supposed to sing in english. Though nowadays and since quite a time we do have singers who use German AND being taken seriously, this kind of stigma may still be in the mind of many producers and artists.

 

[ESC94]

May I offer an additional explanation:

For decades, the only genre that was sung in german was Schlager and what was called „Volkstümliche Musik“ (traditional-ish music: a mix of folk and Schlager), which was - especially the latter - considered of very poor musical und lyrical quality. With the exception of very few (one of them being Udo Jürgens btw) there was no broad tradition of german singing singer/songwriter like the ACI (auteur-compositeur-chanteur) in France. Thus singing in german was often put in the niche of being a bit embarrassing and looking for a simple-minded public. If you wanted to be cool and modern, openminded and first and foremost internationally successful, you were supposed to sing in english. Though nowadays and since quite a time we do have singers who use German AND being taken seriously, this kind of stigma may still be in the mind of many producers and artists.

And you shouldn´t forget that just because you speak the language doesn´t mean you like songs in German. In fact songs in German have a much harder time to get airplay in , especially many commercial radio stations like Radio Hamburg or Antenne Bayern either don´t play any songs in German anymore or significantly reduced the amount in their playlists.

I can recommend this article from 2022:

Wieso Radiosender einen Bogen um Deutschpop machen - DWDL.de

Welche Titel bei großen Radiosendern laufen, ist gut überlegt. Gespielt wird hauptsächlich, was gut testet. Doch polarisierende Deutsch-Pop-Titel schnitten zuletzt noch schlechter ab. Wie die AC-Radiosender damit umgehen.

www.dwdl.de

 

[Bmbriga]

May I offer an additional explanation:

For decades, the only genre that was sung in german was Schlager and what was called „Volkstümliche Musik“ (traditional-ish music: a mix of folk and Schlager), which was - especially the latter - considered of very poor musical und lyrical quality. With the exception of very few (one of them being Udo Jürgens btw) there was no broad tradition of german singing singer/songwriter like the ACI (auteur-compositeur-chanteur) in France. Thus singing in german was often put in the niche of being a bit embarrassing and looking for a simple-minded public. If you wanted to be cool and modern, openminded and first and foremost internationally successful, you were supposed to sing in english. Though nowadays and since quite a time we do have singers who use German AND being taken seriously, this kind of stigma may still be in the mind of many producers and artists.

When I was a kid with a satellite dish, I had VIVA and German Mtv and I remember there was a lot of pop artists who sang in German