Last week, Germany confirmed eight of the acts who will compete in Das Deutsche Finale 2024 on February 16. But one additional Wildcard act is being chosen in a special way this year– via a multi-episode casting show called Ich will zum ESC!
Over the course of five pre-recorded episodes, 15 up-and-coming German artists competed for a place in the national selection. As an added feature, the competitors are being coached in two teams helmed by Eurovision 2014 winner Conchita Wurst and Free Eurovision Song Contest 2021 winner Rea Garvey.
Episode 1 and 2 were devoted to live auditions, in which each artist sang a cover song for a spot on one of the coaches’ teams.
Each coach chose five to advance to the next stage:
Team Conchita
- Anne – “Don’t Stop Me Now”
- Christos – “Be Yourself”
- Luca – “When I Was Your Man”
- Sophie – “Schön genug”
- Sven – “Beggin'”
Team Rea
- Béranger – “Wild Drift”
- Bibiane – “Toxic”
- Esther – “What a Wonderful World”
- Florian – “What Was I Made For?”
- Paul – “Out of Time”
Episode 3 focused on vocal coaching and mentoring. The 10 remaining artists sang one of four well-known pop songs for the coaches, and each coach had to choose one of their mentees to eliminate. Conchita chose Christos who sang “Take Me to Church”, and Rea chose Esther who sang “You Get What You Give”. Episode 4 featured a lip-sync challenge from which only three acts from each team could advance. This time, Béranger from Team Rea and Sophie from Team Conchita were eliminated.
Finally, in Episode 5 the final hurdle before the live final was a songwriting challenge. Passing this test was key for the six remaining artists, because the four finalists will need to write and produce original songs to compete in the national final, with the help of their coaches and music professionals. After evaluating their efforts, these were the coaches’ choices for the live final:
Team Conchita
- Anne
- Luca
Team Rea
- Bibiane
- Florian
In the live show on February 8, the public will get to hear all four songs and the winner will be decided 100% by the public vote.
The first five episodes of Ich will zum ESC! are available to watch on the ARD website .
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