I really can't see how Ryk's "Top 10" potential.
I'm team
@I bims - when I listened to the songs for the very first time, I thought it was a lacklustre but decent line-up with a few songs I could potentially hear again but now - apart from Marie and Galant because they're in German and kinda "funny" - I don't feel passionate about any of the entries. I haven't heard "Katze" or "Naiv" for more than a week, I can't finish the songs by Ryk, Max or Floryan - Isaak's entry only sounds decent as part of the recap and Bondine and Leona are so effing boring (even though their entries might be decent).
Also, knowing the "new" voting rules and how they ask former participants who finished Bottom 5 in previous ESC editions to rank our entries make me hate the NF even more.
If we're lucky we'll be getting "Naiv" and finally a song in German (but it's not happening because of the international juries).
If we're lucky we'll be getting Max (highly likely) so that we can get a few nice articles about a "well-established name to represent us" before he finishes Bottom 5 in Malmö.
If we're lucky we'll be getting Ryk and the hardcore fans will be happy and can be dreaming of winning the jury voting in May (but we will be getting disappointed in May once again because I can't see Ryk getting a Top 15 result at all, imo)
All in all, we're doomed.
This NF is only "nice" for some stats (finally getting a song in German after 17 (!!!!!!!!) years) or getting the first "returning artist" after Lena (and some "hype" because Lena gave us 2 Top 10's results and press and the general public will expect the same from Max) or getting our first "openly LGTBQ+" entry (Ryk).
But none of these songs are competitive. If Ryk gets selected, all entries will finish Bottom 5 in televoting in May.
I really absolutely hate NDR for doing this to us - again. 2023 brought us some light but we're in the 2015-2017, 2018-2022 phases again.