The musician Isaak represents Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) on May 11th in Sweden. This was decided by an audience and jury vote during the night of the ARD broadcast “Eurovision Song Contest – The German Final 2024”. The 28-year-old from Espelkamp in North Rhine-Westphalia sings his pop song “Always On The Run” with a loud, grating voice.
His guess as to why he won the preliminary round? “Maybe it was the calm that I kept,” he said after the TV broadcast. “I was 100 percent myself.” He had hidden all analyzes and all speculation online in advance. Singer-songwriter Ryk was considered the clear favorite among betting providers – and betting statistics have often been a good indicator in ESC competitions in the past. Isaak Guderian made his first appearance in 2011 as part of the “X-Factor” show. During the corona pandemic, the father of two won the digital talent show “Show your Talent”.
In the preliminary decision, as with the ESC on May 11th in Malmö, there was a double vote. 50 percent of the votes came from the public vote, the other 50 percent came from the decision of an international jury from eight countries. Isaak took first place in the audience voting. Isaak was also the most highly rated by the international jury. He received a total of 74 points.
Max Mutzke, who tried his luck as the most famous musician in the preliminary round, received 55 points from the international jury and was also in second place in the audience vote. The electric duo also took part Gallantthe young Leona, the folky Dutchwoman Bodine Monet, the indie musician NinetyNine, the pop singer Marie Reim and the favorite Ryk.
Last year, the Swede Loreen won the ESC in Liverpool with her Europop hit “Tattoo”, she received 583 points in the international voting. Germany, on the other hand, ended up in last place – the band Lord of the Lost only collected 18 points in the voting with “Blood and Glitter”.
In the broadcast on Saturday night there were repeated swipes at Germany’s poor results at the international ESC. The last German victory was a long time ago. In 2010, Lena Meyer-Landrut took first place with the English-language pop song “Satellite”. Since then, Germany has always been in the back row – with one exception: in 2018, Michael Schulte took fourth place with “You Let Me Walk Alone”.
Although Germany has repeatedly performed poorly recently, Germany’s place at the ESC is secure. This is because Germany is one of the “Big Five”, i.e. one of the ESC’s largest donors. Other “Big Five” countries include Great Britain, Spain, France and Italy. The host country of the respective year – i.e. the winning country of the previous year – is always allowed to compete. So this year: Sweden.