Only an hour to go for the German national final Countdown Grand Prix 2003, which will be broadcasted live from Kiel through German channel ARD and via livestream, starting at 20:15 CET. 14 participants will compete for the ticket to Riga. No clear favorite yet, although more or less the same five performers are tipped in all major polls.

Elmar Brandt, performing as Die Gerd Show, a comedy act making fun out of the German chancellor Gerd Schröder, is the one with the most media attention so far. His entry Alles wird gut (Everything will come fine) was the only song which received some airplay and selling copies – he just entered the German top twenty singles charts at position 18 this week.

In yesterday's edition of the newspaper taz – the paper that is to support Senait – their editor and German “Eurovision capacity” Jan Feddersen wrote: “He will win. Germans love someone like him. He knows about their fears and lets them know it.” Brandt leads the internet polls on German broadcaster's official page grandprix2003.de and – with an advantage of 30% – on freenet.de, both pages that are not overly influenced by Eurovision fans, who are known for having a slightly different taste than the televoters. Brandt has one handicap though: he has catched a bad cold which could influence his voice.

Ralph Siegel's protegé Lou is the runner up in the grandprix2003.de poll and is widely believed to at last make it into the superfinal.

A hot favorite of many fans and a top three contender in almost every poll: Isgaard (pictured), a fully trained female opera singer and the voice of dance project Schiller.

Ethopian born female singer Senait and Polish Eurovision entry Troje and are also tipped, Troje leading in eurovisionsongcontest.de's poll with more than 3.400 voters yet.

As ususal, televoting is used to pick the winner of this year's German final; for the first time an SVS voting will appear too, and there will be a superfinal with the three most popular contestants from round one. As usual too, Modern Talking will perform as interval act again, presenting their brand new single TV makes the superstar. Marie N. and Brainstorm singer Reinars Caupers will appear as star guests.

The winner will be known around 22:10 CET, we will inform you as soon as possible.