The five celebrities to (mentally) support the five participants in the German national final on 6th March have now been revealed by broadcaster NDR. These five personalities will introduce the participants on stage and try to convince the audience to vote for them. Furthermore, it has been announced that both semi finals of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest will be aired.
Supporters
The idea of famous supporters is not new and has already been used several times in the German national final: in 1985, when the contest celebrated its 30th birthday, the twelve entries were introduced by twelve different for German representatives and from 1989 until 1991, when Hape Kerkeling hosted the shows, various TV personalities announced the entries. This year, we have a mixture of both ideas, as the supporters are:
- Katja Ebstein (singer) for Carolin Fortenbacher
- Oliver Pocher (comedian) for Marquess
- Marc Bator (news anchor) for the No Angels
- Tetje Mierendorf (comedian) for Cinema Bizarre
- Kim Fisher (comedian) for Tommy Reeve
Katja Ebstein is the singer who represented Germany the most times in the Eurovision Song Contest: in 1970 with Wunder gibt es immer (3rd), in 1971 with Diese Welt (again 3rd) and in 1980 with Theater (2nd). It is also said, that her participations will be especially honoured in the national final.
Broadcasts
Broadcaster NDR will air both semi finals of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest. However, only the first semi final, where Germany has voting rights will be broadcast live, the second semi final will only be repeated at 0:45 CET. In Southern Germany, NDR can only be received via satellite and that's why a webcast will be made available too, also for the national final.
Germany was represented by Roger Cicero in the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest with Frauen regieren die Welt, who finished 19th in the final. However, Germany will directly enter the final of the Eurovision Song Contest as one of the big4 countries.
