The 6 artists and 15 songwriters involved in this year’s German selection have descended on Berlin for a 3-day songwriting camp. The experience is intended to prepare participants for the upcoming ‘Unser Lied für Lissabon’, to take place in February.
The 3-day residential camp sees the participants and the composers & lyricists meeting for the first time. Songwriters have arrived from across the world in order to take part in the German selection, and have been named as:
- Billy Austin – an American songwriter who has written for names such as Taylor Swift, Lionel Richie, Joe Cocker and Blake Shelton
- Ricardo “Richy” Bettiol – a Swiss-born producer who now lives Berlin, and specialises in pop music
- Axel Ehnström – represented Finland in 2011 contest under stage name ‘Paradise Oscar’; he has experience writing for artists such as Madeline Juno, Isac Elliot, Lost Frequencies and many others
- Alex Freund – a gold and platinum awarded German producer
- Martin Gallop – a Canadian singer-songwriter who has written for many artists, including Germany’s most recent Eurovision winner, Lena
- Loren Nine Geerts – a Dutch DJ and producer of dance, electronic, house, pop and rock music
- Nisse Ingwersen – a German hip-hop artist who has worked collaborated with international writers such as Heike Kospach, Charlie Grant and Frank Sieben.
- Nina Müller – a German film and TV composer, who has worked both as a solo artist and as part of the duo Oskar and Oskar.
- Jaro Omar – a New York-based composer.
- Quarterhead – a collective made up of award-winning songwriters Josh & Janik, who have worked with international songwriters such as Dianne Warren.
- Rainer Rütsch – a songwriter and producer who specialises in house and techno music.
- Thomas Stengaard – a Danish composer who formed part of the songwriting team behind the winning song of the 2013 contest, Emmelie de Forest’s ‘Only Teardrops’.
- Joe Walter – a member of the band Jennifer Rostock.
- Ali Zuckowski – an accomplished songwriter, who was part of the team behind the winner of the 2014 contest, ‘Rise Like A Phoenix’ by Conchita.
Following this songwriting camp, a decision will be made as to which song is right for each artist. The 6 competing artists working with these songwriters were announced at the end of December, and are:
- Xavier Darcy – a 22-year-old singer-songwriter.
- Ryk – a 28-year-old composer, singer and producer who previously performed under the name FOXOS.
- Ivy Qainoo – aged 25, won the first series of the Voice of Germany in 2012.
- Michael Schulte – a 27-year-old YouTube star who has had over 50 million views and 1.2 million Spotify streams per month.
- Natia Todua – aged 21, won the Voice of Germany in 2017.
- VvoXXclub – a Munich-based “new folk music” group.
‘Unser Lied für Lissabon’ will take place on Thursday 22nd February at 20:15 CET. The winner will go on to represent Germany at the grand final of the 63rd Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon in May.
Source: eurovision.tv
