Germany was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 with the song "Always on the Run", written by Greg Taro, Isaak Guderian, Kevin Lehr, and Leo Salminen, and performed by Isaak himself. The German participating broadcaster on behalf of ARD, (NDR), organised the national final Eurovision Song Contest – 2024 in order to select their entry for the contest.
As a member of the "Big Five", Germany automatically qualified to compete in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. Performing in position 3, Germany placed twelfth out of the 25 performing countries with 117 points, achieving its best result since 2018.
Background
Prior to the 2024 contest, ARD has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Germany sixty-six times since its debut in , making Germany, to this point, the country with the most entries in the contest: they have taken part in every edition except in when they were eliminated in a pre-contest qualification round. They have won the contest on two occasions: in with the song "" performed by Nicole and in with the song "Satellite" performed by Lena. In , "Blood & Glitter" performed by Lord of the Lost placed 26th (last) in the final with 18 points.
As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, ARD organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. Since 1996, ARD has delegated the participation in the contest to its member (NDR). The German consortium has used both internal selections and a variety of national final formats to select their entries in the past, chiefly sticking to the format ("Our Song for…", followed by the name of the host city) in recent years. ARD confirmed its intention to compete in the 2024 contest immediately after the 2023 final.
Before Eurovision
Eurovision Song Contest – Das deutsche Finale 2024 On 7 September 2023, NDR announced its intention to organise a national final, titled Eurovision Song Contest – 2024 ("Eurovision Song Contest – The German Final 2024"). The show, which was held in Berlin on 16 February 2024 and was hosted by Barbara Schöneberger, was broadcast live on , on the broadcaster's streaming platform , and on its official Eurovision website Eurovision.de. The winner was selected by a combination of jury votes and televoting.
The show was watched by 2.190 million viewers in Germany for a 14.7% share, marking an increase of 210,000 viewers and 3.4% share compared to in 2023 as well as the highest viewership values for a German national final since .
Competing entries A submission period for interested artists was open from 7 September to 15 October 2023. Singers or groups could apply with or without a song, and were required to upload a video performance of their song or (for those without an original composition) a cover of their choice. The competition was open to any artists and songs, without restrictions of language or nationality. At the end of the submission period, 693 artists had applied495 soloists, 71 duos and 127 bandswith a total of 572 songs. By 25 November 2023, these were narrowed down to 32, who were assessed by a 20-member international juryconsisting of previous jurors for their countries at Eurovision, whose names will be revealed laterto select a maximum of ten finalists by the end on the year. These, ultimately revealed to be eight, were announced and released on 19 January 2024 and were introduced via the show ("ESC before eight"), consisting of eight daily broadcasts hosted by between 5 and 15 February 2024. Alongside this process, NDR launched a separate competition to determine an additional finalist, titled ("I want to go to the ESC!"), with fifteen contestants selected from the received applications.
Selected artists include Max Mutzke, who represented Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004.
Key: Selected through
Artist Song Songwriter(s) Bodine Monet "Tears like Rain" Floryan "Scars" Galant "" Isaak "Always on the Run" Leona "Undream You" Marie Reim "" Max Mutzke "Forever Strong" NinetyNine "Love on a Budget" Ryk "Oh Boy" Rick Jurthe
Ich will zum ESC! was a format developed by NDR and (HR) to select one finalist for Eurovision Song Contest – 2024. It consisted of five pre-recorded episodes, premiering on between 25 January and 1 February 2024 (later airing on ), and a live final, held on 8 February 2024 at the Kreuzberg Festival Hall in Berlin and hosted by Laura Karasek (airing on and ). It saw fifteen artists being coached by Conchita Wurst ( and overall winner) and Rea Garvey, who in each episode chose which participants would move on to the next stage, with three qualifying for the final. There, they presented a newly-composed song and the winner was determined by a televoting round.
+ Episode 1Auditions: part 125 January 2024 Artist Song Coaches' vote Result 1 Christos "Be Yourself" Team Conchita 2 Bibiane "Toxic" Team Rea 3 Apollson "Love on the Brain" Eliminated 4 Anne "Don't Stop Me Now" Team Conchita 5 Paul "Out of Time" Team Rea 6 Jamina "Creep" Eliminated 7 "Slave to the Rhythm" colspan="3"
+ Episode 2Auditions: part 225 January 2024 Artist Song Coaches' vote Result 1 Esther "What a Wonderful World" Team Rea 2 Sophie "" Team Conchita 3 Luca "When I Was Your Man" Team Conchita 4 Celina "Physical" Eliminated 5 Sven "Beggin' Team Conchita 6 Marie "" Eliminated 7 Béranger "Wild Drift" Team Rea 8 Lyn "Calm After the Storm" Eliminated 9 Florian "What Was I Made For?" Team Rea
+ Episode 3Vocal coaching25 January 2024 Artists Song Result 1 Christos "Take Me to Church" No rowspan="5" Eliminated Sven Yes Advanced 2 Anne "Time After Time" Yes Advanced Luca Yes Advanced Sophie Yes Advanced 3 Florian "Dancing on My Own" rowspan="5" Yes Advanced Bibiane Yes Advanced 4 Esther "You Get What You Give" No Eliminated Béranger Yes Advanced Paul Yes Advanced
+ Episode 4Lip-sync challenge30 January 2024 Artist Song Result 1 Florian "Can't Stop" rowspan="4" Yes Advanced 2 Bibiane "Running Up That Hill" Yes Advanced 3 Béranger "Maniac" No Eliminated 4 Paul "Sex on Fire" Yes Advanced 5 Luca "Think About Things" Yes rowspan="5" Advanced 6 Sophie "Karma" No Eliminated 7 Sven "Roller" Yes Advanced 8 Anne "Wildberry Lillet" Yes Advanced
+ Episode 5Songwriting challenge1 February 2024 Artist Result Anne Yes Advanced Bibiane rowspan="2" Yes Advanced Florian Yes Advanced Luca Yes Advanced Paul No Eliminated Sven No Eliminated
+ Live final8 February 2024 Artist Song Public vote PlacePhoneSMSOnlineTotal 1 Anne Im "Yellow Brick Road"4,0521,901894 6,856 3 2 Floryan "Scars"6,1322,1651,095 9,392 1 3 Luca M. Wefes ""5,1212,5171,113 8,771 2
Final The final of Eurovision Song Contest – 2024 took place on 16 February 2024 and saw nine contestants compete. The winner was selected by a 50/50 combination of votes from an international jury and a televote, following a similar pattern to the one used in the Eurovision Song Contest final: the two votings each determined a ranking whereby the entries were assigned 1–6, 8, 10 and 12 points. The international jury was composed of one panel for each of eight different countries, namely , , , , , , , and the . The show was attended by Conchita Wurst, Rea Garvey, Mary Roos ( and German Eurovision representative), Riccardo Simonetti, Florian Silbereisen, and previous German representatives Lord of the Lost as guests.
+Final16 February 2024 Artist Song Jury Public vote Total Place Votes Points Phone SMS Online Total Points 1 NinetyNine "Love on a Budget" 37 312,0512,7073,676 18,434 3 6 7 2 Leona "Undream You" 36 210,7082,9692,883 16,560 1 3 9 3 Isaak "Always on the Run" 74 1264,72621,92523,465 110,116 12 24 1 4 Galant "" 52 627,17512,98912,203 52,367 5 11 5 5 Floryan "Scars" 8 111,6373,4992,257 17,393 2 3 8 6 Bodine Monet "Tears Like Rain" 55 826,81810,90510,433 48,156 4 12 4 7 Ryk "Oh Boy" 51 546,48832,95717,965 97,410 8 13 3 8 Marie Reim "" 40 440,16213,58411,772 65,518 6 10 6 9 Max Mutzke "Forever Strong" 55 1072,47318,44316,156 107,072 10 20 2 + Song Total 1 "Love on a Budget" 3 3 5 5 10 6 2 3 37 2 "Undream You" 4 10 6 3 3 4 4 2 36 3 "Always on the Run" 10 6 8 8 12 8 12 10 74 4 "" 2 5 10 10 2 12 3 8 52 5 "Scars" 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 8 6 "Tears Like Rain" 6 12 3 6 4 10 8 6 55 7 "Oh Boy" 12 4 2 4 6 5 6 12 51 8 "" 8 2 12 2 5 2 5 4 40 9 "Forever Strong" 5 8 4 12 8 3 10 5 55 International jury spokespersons Luca Hänni Anja Cerar Álvaro Soler Ieva Narkutė Katrina Leskanich Rúnar Freyr Gíslason Cesár Sampson Lina Hedlund + Country Members Christian Deix Gabriela Horn Peter Pansky Bettina Ruprechter Sasha Saedi Mia Dimšić Denis Dumančić Bojan Jambrošić Monika Lelas Habanek
Kjartan Guðbergsson Kristján Gíslason Regína Óskarsdóttir Lauras Lučiūnas Vytautas Lukošius Ieva Narkutė
Sophia Martin Aaron Sáez Escolano Marta Sánchez Gómez Tony Sánchez-Ohlsson Sergio Sastre Sainz Chiara Dubey Rico Fischer Michael von der Heide Lisa Oribasi Filip Adamo Lina Hedlund
Maria Marcus Mark De-Lisser Rokhsan Heydari Adam Hunter George Ure Pete Watson
Preparation and promotion Shortly after the national final, it was announced that "Always on the Run" would undergo a minor lyrical change in accordance with the contest's regulations prohibiting vulgar language. As part of the promotion of his participation in the contest, Isaak attended the PrePartyES in Madrid on 30 March 2024, the London Eurovision Party on 7 April 2024 and the Eurovision in Concert event in Amsterdam on 13 April 2024. In addition, he performed at the Eurovision Village in Malmö on 9 May 2024.
At Eurovision
The Eurovision Song Contest 2024 took place at the Malmö Arena in Malmö, Sweden, and consisted of two semi-finals held on the respective dates of 7 and 9 May and the final on 11 May 2024. All nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) were required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete in the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progressed to the final. As a member of the "Big Five", Germany automatically qualifies to compete in the final on 11 May 2024, but is also required to broadcast and vote in one of the two semi-finals. This was decided via a draw held during the semi-final allocation draw on 30 January 2024, when it was announced that Germany would be voting in the first semi-final. Despite being an automatic qualifier for the final, the German entry was also performed during the semi-final. On 4 May 2024, a draw was held to determine which half of the final each "Big Five" country would perform in; Germany drew to perform in the first half of the show.
ARD broadcast the semi-finals on One and the final on , as well as all shows online via and Eurovision.de; commentary is provided by , replacing historical commentator Peter Urban. During the contest's week, ARD also aired the special program , hosted by and , providing insight on the competition. In a joint meeting held in Munich in September 2023, ARD and German-language broadcasters ORF for and SRF for renewed their plans to cooperate on the broadcast of Eurovision-themed programmes and in 2024, as they did for the 2023 contest; the shows were hosted by Barbara Schöneberger. In addition, as part of the Eurovision programming, ARD through its station WDR cooperated with DR and SVT alongside other EBU member broadcastersnamely the BBC, ČT, ERR, , NRK, NTR, RÚV, VRT and Yleto produce and air a documentary titled ABBAAgainst the Odds, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of with "Waterloo" by ABBA.
Performance Isaak took part in technical rehearsals on 2 and 4 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 10 and 11 May. His performance of "Always on the Run" at the contest was directed by Dan Shipton and saw four dancers joining him in stage as well as the usage of pyrotechnics.
Final