German Eurovision fans seem to be a bit worried about the quality and the attractiveness of the national preselection Countdown Grand Prix. In an interview with press agency dpa, Klaus Woryna, president of Eurovision fan club OGAE Germany criticised that “there are too many ballads in it, a relatively onesided offering” and that the final could be overshadowed by Deutschland sucht den Superstar (Idols), also due to the absence of well-known names.

dpa also asked Michael Sonneck, president of the second German Eurovision fan club ECG about his opinion. He was not too enthusiatic, either: “The songs are all in all not bad, but there is no achiever.”

In contrast to the majority of ballads in the final, the few more upbeat songs like Ralph Siegel's tune Let's get happy, sung by Lou (pictured) or the meant-to-be-comic Alles wird gut from chancellor imitator Elmar Brandt are in the lead in most internet polls. Sonneck is not too happy with the last one: “An international contest is the wrong platform for that. Would German viewers consider it funny if a frenchman would perform with a puppet of Jacques Chirac?”

Dr. Jürgen Meier-Beer, head of entertainment at German broadcaster NDR kept calm about the critics: “We really do not miss a certain kind of headlines. And when the first rehearsals begin in Kiel, we will be back in the media.”