Preview of the ESC 2024
Who will compete and when will the decision be made?
Conchita Wurst (right) and Rea Garvey are looking for ESC talent.
© NDR/André Kowalski
The Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Malmö, Sweden in 2024. This is what the path to the final looks like.
It has been inspiring people since 1956 Eurovision Song Contest as an international music competition. In 2024 the event will be held in Malmö. There are still a few important dates until the finale in May.
review
Things weren’t very successful for Germany at the ESC 2023. The band Lord of the Lost could only take last place in Liverpool, where the ESC took place on behalf of Ukraine, behind Great Britain and Serbia. However, the Hamburg dark rock band took their poor performance calmly and reacted to their defeat via Instagram. There the group around singer Chris Harms (43) wrote: “Thank you to everyone for this great experience! We loved every second of it!”
In contrast, the singer Loreen (40) won again with her song “Tattoo” in May 2023 and brought the next edition back to Sweden. She had already been successful at the ESC in Baku in 2012 with the song “Euphoria”. Käärijä (30) from Finland took second place with “Cha Cha Cha”, Israel with Noa Kirel and “Unicorn” came in third place.
In 2022, Malik Harris (26) also took last place for Germany with “Rockstars”. In 2021, Jendrik (29) took second to last place with “I Don’t Feel Hate”.
The talent search and the preliminary decision
How can things go better for Germany in 2024 and who has to compete for it? In the six-part docutainment series “I want to go to the ESC!” Conchita Wurst (35) and Rea Garvey (50) are looking for talent. According to the announcement, the two will be in “I want to go to the ESC!” act as coaches and consist of a total of 15 talented people put together their teams. Only the best singers advance to the next rounds. The first three episodes will be available in the ARD media library from January 25th, 2024, episode four will be available from January 30th.
In episode five (from February 1st in the ARD media library) it will be shown who the coaches’ favorites are. In the final sixth edition, the audience will decide who will be allowed to compete live in Berlin on February 16th in the preliminary round “Eurovision Song Contest – The German Final 2024”. The last episode of “I want to go to the ESC!” can be seen live on February 8th from 10:00 p.m. on Erste or in the ARD media library.
The application phase for the preliminary decision ran from September 7th to October 15th. According to “Eurovision.de” 693 artists applied, 495 of which were individual artists. Among other things, reality star Kader Loth (50) wants to take part in the Eurovision Song Contest and has already applied for the German preliminary round. She revealed this in a conversation with RTL. The 50-year-old celebrated her comeback as a singer with her song “Diva”. While recording the hit, she also came up with the idea of participating in the ESC. The preliminary decision can be seen live on Erste, via “eurovision.de” and in the ARD media library.
The competition
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the public television company SVT announced last July that the 68th edition of the music competition would take place in Malmö. The final of the Eurovision Song Contest is scheduled to take place on Saturday, May 11, 2024. The two semi-finals will take place in the same week, on May 7th and May 9th.
At the beginning of December, the EBU published the 37 participating countries. A lottery will be used to decide which country will compete in which semi-final. Luxembourg has not competed since 1993 and is celebrating a comeback in 2024 with a new television partner. The country has already won the competition five times, including in 1972 with Vicky Leandros. The Big Five countries Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy and Spain as well as Sweden as the winners do not have to qualify; they are automatically seeded for the final.
Malmö as the venue beat out Stockholm, Gothenburg and Örnsköldsvik and will be home to the competition for the third time (also in 2013 and 1992). This is the seventh time the ESC has taken place in Sweden.
The competition
Some acts that will compete against Germany are already determined: This is how “Friesenjung” Joost Klein (26) will start for the Netherlands. Olly Alexander (33), also known as Years & Years, will be competing for Great Britain in Malmö in 2024.
Singer Raiven (27) is competing for Slovenia, musician Aiko (23) is singing for the Czech Republic next year, Mustii (33) is performing for Belgium and Silia Kapsis (17) is competing for Cyprus. Singer Slimane (34) was chosen for France and Marina Satti (36) sings for Greece.
The good bye
It is also clear who the German ESC fans will definitely have to do without in 2024. After 25 appearances in the competition as a German commentator, the presenter and music expert Peter Urban (75) was over after the last ESC final.
“I’m feeling a real sadness right now. It’s only now that I’ve really realized that my good time at the ESC is really over forever,” the 75-year-old explained to “Bild am Sonntag” after his farewell. “I would like to thank the commentators from many countries who have become friends and my family, who often had to do without me. Now we can watch together,” said Urban at the end of the broadcast. “Above all, I would like to thank you at home for your loyalty, trust and fun at the ESC, even in the years when things weren’t going so well for us. It was always a pleasure and a great honor for me.”