German broadcasters join Raab for Eurovision success

Today the German broadcaster NDR revealed their plans for the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest. As already announced late last year that they'll be having an open selection for 2010. 

For this the broadcaster ARD/NDR will co-operate with the private channel ProSieben. The selection will consist of eight shows. Five of the first qualifying rounds will be broadcast on ProSieben, the quarter-final on ARD, semi-final again on ProSieben and the final on ARD. A total of twenty participants will be chosen for the last stage.

The contest will concentrate on new and young singers but the exact participation criterion will be published late this summer.

Stefan Raab to take a leading role

The host and head of the jury will be the well-known German entertainer, music producer, singer and comedian Stefan Raab. He'll be joined by other famous jurors.

He wrote the music for the German entry in the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest, Guildo Horn's Guildo Hat Euch Lieb, and in the 2000 Contest he performed himself with the song Wadde Hadde Dudde Da?.

Raab cast the German entry for the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest on his show in a competition he called SSDSGPS (Stefan Sucht Den Super-Grand-Prix-Star, or Stefan Seeks The Super Grand-Prix Star in English). The winner of this casting, Maximilian Mutzke, came eighth in Istanbul, Turkey.

This kind of a co-operation between a public broadcaster and a private one is well appreciated by both sides according to their representatives.

Germany came 21st last year at the 54th Eurovision Song Contest with Alex Swings Oscar Sings!'s Miss Kiss Kiss Bang which also featured the burlesque artist Dita Von Teese.