Germany was represented at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in France, which was held on 26 November 2023 in Nice. National television station Kika was responsible for the participation and selected the nation's entrant via national selection, won by Fia with the song "".
The song was notable for being the first time a Junior Eurovision participant performed in sign language as well as vocals.
Background
Germany announced on 8 July 2020 that it would debut in the contest held in Warsaw, Poland. Children's station Kika, a joint venture of the German national broadcasters ARD and ZDF, broadcasts the event within Germany and organises the selection of the nation's entry. Their most recent entry before the 2023 contest was Pauline and her song "Imagine Us", who placed 17th with 61 points in the contest.
In 2022, the country chose not to participate and instead took a "creative break" due to partial travel warnings for host country Armenia issued by the Federal Foreign Office. Kika still broadcast the show and expressed interest in returning to the 2023 competition. The German broadcaster confirmed on 25 May 2023 that they would take part and, for the first time, select the German representative internally. However, in early August it was reported that more details regarding the country's participation would be revealed at the end of the month, and on 23 August it was revealed that a national final with 5 acts approached by the public broadcaster NDR would be held in September to select the German act for the contest instead.
Before Junior Eurovision National final The German entry for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2023 was selected through a national final. The participants and one-minute excerpts of the demo versions of their songs were revealed on 8 September with a voting platform launching immediately afterwards, where viewers from Germany, Austria and Switzerland could cast their votes until 17 September. Following the combination of the results of the online voting (50%) and an international expert jury (50%), German child singer of Chinese descent Fia was announced as the winner of the selection on 18 September. The international jury consisted of singers Kelvin Jones, Tom Gregory and Christopher, as well as other, unnamed members from France, Germany, Poland, Portugal and the United Kingdom. Artist Song Jury Online voting PlaceAdriano"Be My Girl"5th3rd4Fia""1st1st1Lenny""4th5th5Rahel"Believe"3rd2nd2Toby"Stand Up"2nd4th3
Preparation The full version of "" was recorded following the national final. The song is about how Fia communicates with her deaf sister (the title meaning "without words" in English), and in both the live performance and the accompanying music video she performs it simultaneously in German and Signed German. The song was released on 13 October, together with an accompanying music video, in which Fia is accompanied by deaf performer and model Liliana Schneider.
An open call searching for a dancer to symbolise Fia's sister in the live performance was opened by the NT Dance Agency and was won by Veronika, who specialises in contemporary and commercial dance.
At Junior Eurovision The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2023 took place at Palais Nikaïa in Nice, France on 26 November 2023.
Voting
At the end of the show, Germany received 33 points from juries and 74 points from online voting, placing 9th. This was Germany's best result in the contest to date.
+ Points awarded to Germany Score Country 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point Germany received 74 points from the online vote
+ Points awarded by Germany Score Country 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point
Detailed voting results The following members comprised the German jury: Alex Christensen – represented Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 João Joel Fischbach Janin Ullmann – green room host of the 2014 and 2015 German national finals for the Eurovision Song Contest Hannah June Ehlert Malou Beling – singer-songwriter
+ Draw Country Juror A Juror B Juror C Juror D Juror E Rank Points 01 2 4 2 3 5 2 10 02 7 3 8 14 15 9 2 03 4 7 1 4 9 4 7 04 10 12 12 9 13 14 05 11 5 13 1 6 6 5 06 13 6 7 10 2 7 4 07 6 13 6 15 14 11 08 1 2 4 2 3 1 12 09 5 1 10 6 11 5 6 10 12 8 14 10 4 10 1 11 14 10 9 12 12 15 12 3 9 3 7 1 3 8 13 9 14 11 11 8 12 14 8 15 15 8 10 13 15 16 15 11 5 5 7 8 3
References