It's Cascada for Germany!

Cascada takes home the victory

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Cascda was the one to take home the victory tonight by getting 12 points from the televote, 10 from the jury and 8 from the radio vote.

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With more than 30 million records sold, Cascada is one of the most successful dance-pop acts in the world. The trio, consisting of Natalie Horlier, DJ Manian, and Yanou has existed for ten years now. Everytime We Touch was their first big hit in the US, and with their album Evacuate The Dancefloor, they reached their greatest success on home ground, in Germany. Will they conquer Europe again in May, with their hit single Glorious? We shall find out in the Final of the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest!

Did you miss tonight's show? Then you can watch it again in our WebTV player, or you can have a quick look at Cascada's performance which we recorded during the rehearsal on Wednesday:

The results

After the songs had been performed, the public was asked to voice their opinion on the twelve entries by means of televoting, which accounted for one third of the total result. Apart from that, one third of the result was made up by the votes of an expert jury, consisting of Tim Bendzko (pop singer), Roman Lob (German 2012 Eurovision representative), Anna Loos (actress and pop singer), Mary Roos (schlager singer) and Peter Urban (radio host and German Eurovision commentator).

The third part of the voting was the result of an online vote of the radio listeners, who were already asked to cast their votes for their favourite songs one week ago. In the same timeframe, all twelve songs were put on heavy rotation by the German public radio channels that are most listened by the youths.

The three parts of the voting were each transformed to a Eurovision-style ranking, from 1 to 8 points, then 10 points and 12 points, and added up. The results were very diverse: While LaBrassBanda got all the top marks in the radio voting, the jury awarded the Bavarian band only one single point! On the other hand, the favourite of the jury, Blitzkids mvt., got only 1 and 2 points from the radio vote and the televote, respectively.

In the end, Cascada gained the highest score in the combined vote and will thus represent Germany in Malmö next May! They got 8 points from the jury, 10 points in the radio vote, and 12 points in the televote, thus being the favourite choice of the German public. In the press conference after the show, Thomas Schreiber, the Head of Entertainment of ARD, confirmed that the show had been a big success, and more than 837.000 televotes had been cast.

The show

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The TUI Arena in Hanover was the scene of the German national final for the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest, and an enthusiastic audience kicked off the show before last year's winner, Loreen, performed Euphoria live on stage. She was followed by Germany's most recent winner, Lena, who performed Satellite.

The German public broadcaster ARD/NDR provided the TV public with a truly entertaining evening, and the following twelve acts (listed in order of appearance, placings and points in brackets) guaranteed a broad view of the contemporary German music scene:

1. Finn Martin - Change (8th - 12 points)
2. Mobilée - Little Sister (11th - 8 points)
3. Blitzkids mvt. - Heart On The Line (6th - 15 points)
4. Betty Dittrich - Lalala (8th - 12 points)
5. Ben Ivory - The Righteous Ones (7th -13 points)
6. Saint Lu - Craving (4th - 16 points)
7. LaBrassBanda - Nackert (2nd - 23 points)
8. Nica & Joe - Elevated (4th - 16 points)
9. Mia Diekow - Lieblingslied (12th - 3 points)
10. Söhne Mannheims - One Love (3rd - 17 points)
11. Die Priester feat. Mojca Erdmann - Meerstern, sei gegrüßt (10th - 9 points)
12. Cascada - Glorious (1st - 30 points)

The twelve performances used a variety of special effects, including pyros, a wind machine and even a laser show! LaBrassBanda, who hail from Bavaria, even played all their brass instruments live.