Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010
Germany is the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 winner, which was held in May 2010 in Bærum, Norway. The country's entry was selected in a series of competitive heats and a national final - Unser Star für Oslo 2010 - which was organised jointly by the public broadcasters ARD and NDR and the private television channel ProSieben, together with the three-time Eurovision participant for Germany and music producer, Stefan Raab.
Before Eurovision
Preparation
News on planning for Germany's Eurovision Song Contest 2010 entry spread shortly after the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 had ended, on 25 May. State broadcaster ARD/NDR was revealed to have approached Stefan Raab and private broadcaster ProSieben to work alongside them in preparing for the 2010 Contest with a view of creating a possible winning song that would be sung by someone else. It was revealed that Raab had refused the request, but that ProSieben had accepted the offer to work with ARD/NDR.Unser Star für Oslo 2010
More information was revealed on 20 July, with the news that Raab would in fact work with the two broadcasters in preparing for the 2010 Contest. The selection process consisted of eight shows – five qualifying rounds were broadcast on ProSieben, leading up to a quarter-final on ARD, a semi-final again on ProSieben and the final broadcast on ARD. A total of 20 participants were chosen for the final stage of the process. Most of the participants were inexperienced and young singers.Raab took a lead role in the programmes as head of the jury, and was joined by 16 other celebrity judges from the music and entertainment industries.
A total of 20 acts took part in the preliminary shows on 2 and 9 February, each containing 10 acts. These ten acts performed popular hits, with five acts from each show qualifying to the elimination shows. Between 16 February and 2 March these ten acts were eliminated to five: two acts eliminated in the first heat; two in the second heat; and one in the third heat. The qualifying acts progressed to the quarter-final, broadcast on ARD, on 5 March. Four advanced to the semi-final on 9 March, broadcast on ProSieben, and on 12 March only two acts remained: Jennifer Braun and Lena Meyer-Landrut.
In the final on 12 March the two finalists performed a total of three songs: each artist performed the first two songs, "Bee" and "Satellite", as well as another individual song. There was a total of two voting rounds. The song for each singer was determined in the first round, while the final winner was selected in the second round. Lena Meyer-Landrut was the winner with the song "Satellite", with Braun coming in second place with her individual song "I Care for You".
The shows were together hosted by Matthias Opdenhövel and Sabine Heinrich in Cologne.
Elimination chart
Heat 1 (2 February 2010)
- Celebrity judges: Yvonne Catterfeld and Marius Müller-Westernhagen
| Draw | Artist | Song | Result |
| 1 | Benjamin Peters | "Bodies" | Eliminated |
| 2 | Kerstin Freking | "My Immortal" | Safe |
| 3 | Johannes Böhm | "Crazy" | Eliminated |
| 4 | Daliah Sharaf | "At Last" | Eliminated |
| 5 | Cyril Krueger | "Hotel California" | Safe |
| 6 | Michael Kraus | "Loving You" | Eliminated |
| 7 | Meri Voskanian | "Release Me" | Safe |
| 8 | Katrin Walter | "Nobody Knows" | Safe |
| 9 | Sebastian Schwarzbach | "Home" | Eliminated |
| 10 | Lena Meyer-Landrut | "My Same" | Safe |
Heat 2 (9 February 2010)
- Celebrity judges: Sarah Connor and Peter Maffay
| Draw | Artist | Song | Result |
| 1 | Jennifer Braun | "I'm Outta Love" | Safe |
| 2 | Benjamin Hartmann | "Better Together" | Eliminated |
| 3 | Maria-Lisa Straßburg | "Saving My Face" | Safe |
| 4 | Behnam Seifi | "Save Room" | Eliminated |
| 5 | Sharyhan Osman | "I Have Nothing" | Safe |
| 6 | Alex Senzig | "Wherever You Will Go" | Eliminated |
| 7 | Jana Wall | "Who Knew" | Eliminated |
| 8 | Franziska Weber | "Love Foolosophy" | Eliminated |
| 9 | Leon Taylor | "Der Weg" | Safe |
| 10 | Christian Durstewitz | "Faith" | Safe |
Heat 3 (16 February 2010)
- Celebrity judges: Nena and König Boris
| Draw | Artist | Song | Result |
| 1 | Meri Voskanian | "If I Ain't Got You" | Eliminated |
| 2 | Jennifer Braun | "Like the Way I Do" | Safe |
| 3 | Maria-Lisa Straßburg | "Helena" | Eliminated |
| 4 | Leon Taylor | "Irgendwas bleibt" | Safe |
| 5 | Katrin Walter | "Warwick Avenue" | Safe |
| 6 | Kerstin Freking | "Not Ready to Make Nice" | Safe |
| 7 | Christian Durstewitz | "Change" | Safe |
| 8 | Sharyhan Osman | "Feel The Nile" | Safe |
| 9 | Lena Meyer-Landrut | "Diamond Dave" | Safe |
| 10 | Cyril Krueger | "Hot Fudge" | Safe |
Heat 4 (23 February 2010)
- Celebrity judges: Sasha and Cassandra Steen
| Draw | Artist | Song | Result |
| 1 | Katrin Walter | "Love Song" | Eliminated |
| 2 | Sharyhan Osman | "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby" | Safe |
| 3 | Cyril Krueger | "Beautiful Day" | Eliminated |
| 4 | Jennifer Braun | "I'm with You" | Safe |
| 5 | Christian Durstewitz | "Another Night" | Safe |
| 6 | Lena Meyer-Landrut | "Foundations" | Safe |
| 7 | Kerstin Freking | "Thank U" | Safe |
| 8 | Leon Taylor | "Are You Gonna Go My Way" | Safe |
Heat 5 (2 March 2010)
- Celebrity judges: Joy Denalane and Rea Garvey
| Draw | Artist | Song | Result |
| 1 | Kerstin Freking | "Better" | Safe |
| 2 | Lena Meyer-Landrut | "New Shoes" | Safe |
| 3 | Jennifer Braun | "Ain't Nobody" | Safe |
| 4 | Leon Taylor | "Tears in Heaven" | Eliminated |
| 5 | Sharyhan Osman | "In the City" | Safe |
| 6 | Christian Durstewitz | "Dance with Somebody" | Safe |
Quarterfinal (5 March 2010)
- Celebrity judges: Anke Engelke and Adel Tawil
| Draw | Artist | First song | Draw | Second song | Result |
| 1 | Sharyhan Osman | "You've Got the Love" | 6 | "Never Felt The Way That I Feel Today" | Eliminated |
| 2 | Jennifer Braun | "Soulmate" | 7 | "Nobody's Wife" | Safe |
| 3 | Kerstin Freking | "If A Song Could Get Me You" | 8 | "Somedays" | Safe |
| 4 | Christian Durstewitz | "Ochrasy" | 9 | "Stalker" | Safe |
| 5 | Lena Meyer-Landrut | "Mouthwash" | 10 | "Neopolitan Dreams" | Safe |
Semifinal (9 March 2010)
- Celebrity judges: Barbara Schöneberger and Jan Delay
Final (12 March 2010)
- Celebrity judges: Stefanie Kloß and Xavier Naidoo
Before Eurovision
The six versions of the four finalist songs were released minutes after the final concluded. By 13 March Meyer-Landrut led the German iTunes download charts with all three of her songs: "Satellite" taking the top spot, followed by "Bee" in second and "Love Me" in third place. Jennifer Braun's song "I Care for You" took fourth place in the chart, followed by her versions of "Bee" and "Satellite" in 7th and 14th position respectively. A maxi single featuring Meyer-Landrut's three songs was released on 16 March. "Satellite" entered the German singles chart at number one and has been certified platinum since.On 16 March 2010, the video premiered on public broadcaster Das Erste right before Germany's most watched evening news bulletin Tagesschau. Shortly after, it was simultaneously shown on four private stations before the start of their evening prime time programmes. The two officially uploaded YouTube videos of the song have jointly generated more than 68 million views since their release.
At Eurovision
As a member of the "Big Four", Germany automatically qualified for the final on 29 May. Lena Meyer-Landrut performed 22nd out of the 25 participating countries and won the contest with 246 points. It is the first time that Germany has won the contest since 1982 and the first time as a unified state. As such, Germany hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2011.Points awarded by Germany[Eurovision [Song Contest 2008]]
Semi-final 1
Final
| 12 points | 10 points | 8 points | 7 points | 6 points |
| 5 points | 4 points | 3 points | 2 points | 1 point |