Every single example of "officially submitted songs" posted here in the thread has made me feel nauseous. If finances are NDR's excuse for the disgusting songs they have subjected us to over the past decade, why are they wasting funds on the audition show with Conchita?
Internally select Voxxclub or a similar random populist established artist who likes to do tv appearances, instead of just anually broadcasting a bonfire of taxpayer money. They had the right idea back in 2015, but picked the worst possible choice and seem to have been scared to do it since... The Netherlands sending someone who had a #1 song in Germany just a couple of months ago would ideally provide a wake up call for them by contrasting their levels of ambition, but then I remember how they just ignored Electric Callboy.
If you don't care about building a national final with a consistant format and basic quality control, then it's completely pointless and just paints a worse image of the contest among the general audience.