NDR, the German broadcaster has confirmed to ESCToday that Germany will participate at the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden in 2016.

Germany is the 9th country to confirm its participation at the 61st Eurovision Song Contest, hence joining Norway, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Belgium, Ireland and host country Sweden all whom have confirmed their presence at next year’s contest.

In 2015 Germany opted for a national final in order to select its Eurovision entry and act for Vienna. Ann Sophie was awarded the golden ticket to represent Germany at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest with her song Black smoke. Despite a powerful performance at the Wiener Stadthalle, Germany failed to score in the grand final. Nevertheless the country will be in full swing in the competition next year!

NDR is yet to reveal the format and mechanism it will use in order to select the 2016 German Eurovision act and entry. More details will be released in the coming months.

Germany debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest  in 1956 and was one of the founder members of the contest, having won the event twice in 1982 with Nicole’s Ein Bisschen Frieden and in 2010 with Lena’s Satellite. Germany has only missed participating at the Eurovision Song Contest once, in 1996, when they missed out in the preselection round. After that it was decided that the so-called Big 5 countries get an automatic entry to the final every year.

The preliminary dates for the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest have been set on 10, 12 and 14 May.

Stay tuned to ESCToday for the latest news on Germany and the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest.