ESC 2024
Thorsten Schorn becomes Peter Urban’s successor
Thorsten Schorn, here as part of the German Radio Prize 2022, is commenting on the ESC this year.
© NDR/Morris Mac Matzen
Peter Urban was the voice of the Eurovision Song Contest on German TV for many years. The NDR is now announcing his successor.
Commented for more than two decades Peter Urban (75) the Eurovision Song Contest on German television. Last year, the cult commentator retired from the ESC. It is now officially clear who will succeed him.
As if Germany had won the World Cup
At the ESC 2024 in Malmö, Sweden, presenter Thorsten Schorn (48) is following in Urban’s footsteps, as NDR announced on Tuesday. He will guide the audience through both the ESC semi-finals and the final, explains the broadcaster. The 48-year-old obviously has a great passion for the major event. “The ESC fascinated me as a child. When Germany won with ‘A Little Peace’ in 1982, I was six and was happy as if we had become football world champions,” Schorn is quoted as saying in a statement.
For him, it is “a great honor and joy” to succeed Urban: “I’m taking the television audience in Germany by the hand and together we’ll experience the biggest music show in the world.” Urban said goodbye to the audience at the 2023 ESC final after 25 appearances. “Dear people in Germany, this was my last ESC comment […]”, he explained at the time. In the future he would be able to watch the Eurovision Song Contest together with his loved ones.
Thorsten Schorn: Expertise and passion
Andreas Gerling, head of the ARD team for the ESC at NDR, is sure that the new commentator will really thrive in the role: “Thorsten Schorn will captivate the audience with his ESC expertise, his passion, his spontaneity, his wit and last but not least, of course, with his very distinctive voice. I’m sure: Thorsten Schorn and ESC – that’s a match.” The presenter is known from radio and television, including as the director of the RTL show “Because they don’t know what’s happening” with Thomas Gottschalk (73), Günther Jauch (67) and Barbara Schöneberger (50) and as the voiceover of VOX format “Shopping Queen”.
This year, the singer Isaak (29) is competing for Germany with his song “Always On The Run” at the ESC in Malmö. The semi-finals will be on May 7th and 9th from 9:00 p.m. live on ONE, “eurovision.de” and can be seen in the ARD media library. Fans can also watch the final on May 11th from 9:00 p.m. on Das Erste, in the media library or on the website.