The rehearsals of the German national final, which will be held tonight, are completed. The last two days, the five acts to compete in the selection, have rehearsed their songs and worked on their stage performances to impress the televoters tonight. Furthermore, some changes in the line-up of the guest artists have been announced: Verka Serduchka will not appear in the national final after all.
Rehearsals
Please note: in the rehearsalgalleries, you have to press "weiter"to forward tothe next picture.
Carolin Fortenbacher was wearing a purple dress during her rehearsal. She will perform the only song in German and Hinterm Ozean (Beyond the ocean) is illustrated by a stormy sea in the background and a wind machine,a gimmick that has become kind of a Eurovision classic. At the beginning of her rehearsal there was some confusion as the stage design had already been set up for Marquess, but everything turned out fine in the end. There is a cone of light at the beginning of her performance, a dedication to Marlene Dietrich.
- You can find rehearsal pictures here.
The next band to enter the stage were Marquess, who will perform the firstsong completely in Spanish ever in the German national final: La histeria. Their stage performance is kept simple but colourful – while the band is dressed all in white,coloured light bulbs are decorated all over the stage and the screen in the background shows a beach scene. They are one of the dark horses to win the national final as their song has been heavily promoted on TV channels Pro7 and Sat1 and in a TV commercial of a mail-order house.
- You can find rehearsal pictures here.
Cinema Bizarre, the youngest contestants, concluded the rehearsals on Tuesday. The band proved to be influenced by glamrock as they were all dressed in black, white – andsilver. On stage they use fireworks (which are very popularinthe 2008national final season), sound effects and at the end there will even be a gas explosion! Vocally, the band was flawlessalthough the lead singer had a sore throat.
- You can find rehearsal pictures here.
The rehearsalsyesterday started with Tommy Reeve, who will play the piano while singing his song Just one woman. He was wearing a classy outfit – a black jacket and a white shirt. His four background singers are actually kept in the background and not highlighted in the performance which is all concentrated on the soloist. During the rehearsals, he was wearing trainers which are likely to be replaced with leather shoes for the final.
- You can find rehearsal pictures here.
The final group to rehearse were the No Angels, commercially the most succesful act in the national final. For the performance of their song Disappear, they have also decided to bring a wind machine on stage. At the end of the performance, the four singers will wave tulle bows and their dresses to really profit from the wind tunnel. The outfits are rather exceptional and slightly remind of the Portuguese group Nonstop in the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest – and that band was also a winner of the show Popstars!
- You can find rehearsal pictures here.
Guests
The line-up of the guests in the show will be different from the one previously announced. Apart from the five supporters of the singers, Marc Bator, Kim Fisher, Tetje Mierendorf, Oliver Pocher and Katja Ebstein (Germany 1970, 1971 and 1980), the following acts will appear in the show: Ruslana, winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 for Ukraine, Charlotte Perelli, winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 1999 for Sweden and currently contestant inthis year's Melodifestivalen and Marija Serifovic, winner for Serbia in Helsinki. Furthermore, Roger Cicero, who represented Germany in 2007, will be a guest. After Texas Lightning last year, it's already the second year in a row that the previous German entrant will appear in the national final – something that had almost never happened since the late 1980s (the only exception being Leon, winner of the 1996 German national final who competed again in 1997).
The national final
The national final starts at 20:15 CET and will be aired on ARD. The winner will be chosen in two rounds of televoting with the first round selection the top two. Although Germany is a big four country and therefore directly qualified for the Eurovision Song Contest final on 24th May, the country has voting rights in the first semi final on 20th May, too.
