Re: Eurovision That kind of shows that the jury votes aren't that fair and full of people with other agendas. There's no way they don't know which song is from which country.
Re: Eurovision Finnish public broadcasting has for first time ever chosen artist for ESC without letting people vote However we'll get to choose from 3(?) songs.
And that artist is... Saara Aalto of X Factor UK fame:
Re: Eurovision Apparently they only now decided to do this instead of expected usual competition, so they had to inform people/companies not to waste time creating acts.
Re: Eurovision They changed the German selection process, too (but keep everyone from behind the scenes), after we didn't do really well in 2016 and 2017.
People can apply per mail to take part in Eurovision. A European panel with 100 members selects 20 acts from those entries. They hired a company which will approach thousands of people form Europe on social media and then select the 100 members from that group of people. You can't apply to be on that panel.
These 20 acts will then work with the responsible regional broadcaster NDR on their stage performance and the channel will evaluate it. However, it's the European panel and the international panel that will select 5 acts based on that evaluation. The international panel will consist of 20 - 25 experts who've been on a national Eurovision jury before. (The press release says that jury members proved their expertise when voting for the winner, so it sounds a bit like that they ask people that gave their 12 points to the winning act).
The channel will then work with producers and song-writers etc. to find a song for each of these 5 acts.
There will be a televised show, but German viewers will not be the only ones who will vote for our entry. The European panel will be able to vote at the final stage, too. So in the end, people from Europe will pick our entry next year.
The wonderful Barbara Schöneberger will be back to host the countdown show in Hamburg and to read out the 12 points from Germany.
Re: Eurovision That’s some process! Hopefully it’ll be worthwhile. There has to be someone good come out of a competiton voted on by a selected bunch of people. Right?..
Meanwhile, I expect the BBC will choose a handful of the naffest singers they can find and have people vote for the least worst of all.