With a view of the Elbe, the staff gathered at the Altonaer Kaispeicher, who want to ensure that the Eurovision Song Contest does not end as a disappointment for Germany again and again.
At the press conference in the online stream, the grandees of the Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR), which is responsible for ARD, once again presented a heavily remodeled concept for the selection of the German ESC participants - and then the six music acts that are still in the running for it.
According to ESC delegation head Alexandra Wolfslast, there were 944 submissions. As a juror, together with the music directors of six ARD radio stations, she selected 26 of them, who were invited to a live audition.
Six titles remained, they should be played regularly on the ARD pop waves on the radio from now until the ESC preliminary decision.
The background is apparently that the guaranteed airplay is intended to give up-and-coming musicians an incentive to be there.
"You're already a winner if the radio plays you every day," said the NDR program manager and ARD entertainment coordinator Frank Beckmann.
And the new ESC team boss Andreas Gerling has set himself the goal that the German candidate "goes to Turin as a winner", where the ESC final will take place on May 14th.
The radio stations have apparently allowed themselves to be asked a little, as can be heard from the statements by NDR-2 program director Torsten Engel - they wanted to take part in the ESC process as an "equal partner".
Now the nine programs are promoting an online vote that begins February 28 and counts for 50 percent of the selection.
The other 50 percent are the televoting votes of those who got a picture of the preliminary decision TV show with the optimistic title »Germany 12 Points« on March 4th.
Radioman Engel emphasizes that the most successful German ESC titles have all been successful as radio hits – “at the end of the day the song is a song” – but the question is whether the reverse also works.
In any case, according to juror Wolfslast, the metalcore band Eskimo Callboy, who had made their application public, "had come a long way", but in the end they weren't there - they might have been bothered by the transparency of the pop waves.
There are six titles to choose from:
Eros Atomus – »Alive«
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Photo: Franz Schepers / NDR
The 21-year-old from Flensburg, who grew up with eleven siblings, says he comes from a family of guitarists, and she deals in instruments.
Eros Atomus wears a guitar pick necklace.
The singer attracted attention in "The Voice of Germany" 2018 because he also used the acoustic guitar in the so-called "lap style" as a knocked rhythm instrument in his version of "Bette Davis' Eyes".
Smudo and Michi Beck from the Fantastischen Vier coached him to the final, where he fell behind the unfortunate German ESC candidate of 2020, Ben Dolic, who was prevented by Corona.
Eros Atomus competes for the ESC preliminary round with the title »Alive«, which he co-wrote and whose well-intentioned platitudes (»It's great to be alive«) correspond to musical 0815 pathos.
A lot of love for Coldplay can be seen in the choirs and string sounds.
Felicia Lu – »Anxiety«
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Photo: Felix Werinos / NDR
Felicia Lu Kürbiß has been striving for musical fame for a long time: in 2014 she was in the RTL show »Rising Talent« as the »Indiepop Queen«.
In 2017 she already failed in the German ESC preliminary round, where she presented a very tentative version of Robyn's "Dancing on my Own".
But since then she has moved to Vienna, writes for other artists and says she has found herself musically.
Your self-written song "Anxiety" takes up the problem of anxiety disorders - mental health issues have recently been heard quite often in ESC titles.
And obviously, the song sounds a bit like Billie Eilish in the production, but Felicia Lu's voice has poppy squeaks that the young Californian star wouldn't allow himself.
She delighted the ESC fans at the press conference with her profound knowledge of favorite titles from the 2019 event (Italy, Czech Republic).
Maël & Jonas - »I Swear to God«
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Photo: NDR
Jonas Brochhausen, 20, and Maël Brunner, 26, know each other from Koblenz and have already appeared as a duo on »The Voice of Germany« in 2020 (coach: Nico Santos).
At that time they mainly wore hoodies, but the two have now spiced up their style and in the pre-video they jump around on the roof of a high-rise building in cricket sweaters and polyester jackets.
Musically, Maël & Jonas are definitely up to date: pop-punk has had an amazing comeback in the mainstream in the last two years.
»I Swear to God« is energetic enough to be effective on stage.
The text is a kind of gesture of reparation to old friends - apparently successful, they are the godparents of Maël's daughter today, he said at the NDR press conference.
Emily Roberts - "Soap"
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Photo: Delia Baum / NDR
"Half Brit, Half Potato" is the name of Emily Roberts, who was born in Hamburg 28 years ago and now lives in Berlin.
However, she flew to California for the music video for »Soap«.
Her record company Sony Music seems to think very highly of her: her second EP will be released in April.
In 2020, "In This Together" was the official jungle camp song.
After the preliminary decision, she goes on tour supporting James Blunt.
»Flawless pop music, I hope« is her song, says Emily Roberts, and that actually describes »Soap« quite well.
Composed with two Swedish songwriters and a musician from the band I Heart Sharks, the song is about the wish to be able to wash your brain with soap to get rid of lovesickness - if that isn't a pop song idea!
Nico Suave & Team Liebe – »Hello World«
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Photo: Julian Mathieu / NDR
Nico Suave is the veteran of the field of participants - the 43-year-old Hamburg resident has been around in the German rap scene for a long time, including in projects with Samy Deluxe, Dendemann and Teesy.
In 2014 he took part in Stefan Raab's ESC competition, the Bundesvision Song Contest, together with Flo Mega – 10th place for »Poem«.
For the ESC preliminary round, he put together a group with his colleagues NKSN, Buket and EMY.
Team Liebe is responsible for the only German-language title in the preselection.
"Hello world, how are you, why so down?" the refrain asks, "why do you give negative vibes so much space?".
In the rapped verses, there's plenty of time-color-seeking name-dropping about Netflix and the Kardashians;
in the sung refrains there are few original feel-good messages.
Malik Harris - »Rock Stars«
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Photo: Anna Maria Boshnakova / NDR
The 24-year-old from Landsberg am Lech is the son of Ricky Harris, a native American and former presenter of shopping programs and talk shows on German private television.
He got a good taste in music from his parents, said Malik Harris at the performance - Michael Jackson, Queen, Alicia Keys - that he was only able to shock his parents with rap.
The rap influence is also unmistakable in his ESC contribution - the verse is strongly reminiscent of Eminem's "Stan" in its slow increase in hysteria.
The rest of the song is harmless soul pop, which he would like to perform alone on stage, accompanied by a so-called loop station.
The preliminary decision show »Germany 12 Points«, moderated by Barbara Schöneberger, will be broadcast simultaneously on Friday, March 4th, from 8:15 p.m. on all third-party channels and the niche channel One.