The Head of Entertainment at NDR has outlined why the broadcaster does not support a boycott of the Eurovision Song Contest 2019.
Thomas Schreiber, the Head of Entertainment at NDR, has spoken to Eurovision.de about a call from 140 musicians worldwide for a boycott of the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. The boycott which has been reportedly widely in the international press since the weekend, is calling for broadcasters and singers to refuse to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 due to Israel’s human rights record.
Mr Schreiber stated;
The Eurovision Song Contest is a long-standing, non-political entertainment program that brings together audiences and countries, there was no discussion with full EBU members and affiliates about a boycott of the competition in Israel, and all EBU members are eligible to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest have until October to confirm their participation in the event next year
He added;
The Israeli broadcaster has the right and duty to host the Eurovision Song Contest with Netta’s victory in Lisbon . We look forward to ESC 2019 in Israel.
Over 1,000 artists have applied to represent Germany in Israel, this list has now been cut down to 198 acts. These 198 acts are currently being presented to the Eurovision jury formed of 100 people selected via an online search. The Eurovision jury will cut the list of potential participants down to 50, with the second international jury cutting the list down to 20 acts. The first meeting of the Eurovision jury was held in Cologne on August 26, there are a further seven events in four other cities across Germany.
The search for songs to take part in the German selection will get underway in October once the final list of singers has been determined. In November a series of songwriting workshops will then be held with the aim of selecting all of the competing songs before Christmas.
Source: Eurovision.de
Germany was one of seven countries to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1956. The country has taken part in every contest since then, apart from in 1996 when they failed to make it through the qualifying round. To date Germany has won the contest twice, the first time being in 1982 when Nicole sang “Ein Bisschen Frieden” in Harrogate, which later became a global hit. Germany didn’t win again until 2010, when Lena sang “Satellite” in Oslo. She received 9 sets of 12 points, scoring 236 points overall.
