Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014

The logo of Unser Song für Dänemark

Unser Song für Dänemark (English: Our Song for Denmark) was the competition that selected Germany's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2014. The competition took place on 13 March 2014 at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne, hosted by Barbara Schöneberger with Janin Reinhardt reporting from the green room. Like in the previous four years, the national final was co-produced by the production company Brainpool, which also co-produced the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest in Düsseldorf and the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest in Baku. Eight acts, one of them selected through a wildcard round, competed during the show with the winner being selected through a public televote.[4][5] The show was broadcast on Das Erste as well as online via the broadcaster's Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.de and the official Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.tv.[6][7]

Seven competing artists were selected by a panel consisting of representatives of NDR, youth-oriented and pop radio stations of ARD, Brainpool and record companies Universal Music, Sony Music, Warner Music Entertainment and other independent labels. The seven participating acts were announced on 13 December 2013, while an additional act was selected through a wildcard round.[8][9] For the wildcard round, interested performers were able to apply by uploading a performance clip of an original or cover song via YouTube between 25 November 2013 and 22 January 2014.[4] Musician Adel Tawil headed the campaign to encourage artists to apply. By the end of the process, it was announced that 2,240 applications were received and ten performers were selected by the panel.[10][11] The ten participating artists performed during a Club Concert which took place on 27 February 2014 at the Edelfettwerk in Hamburg, hosted by Barbara Schöneberger with Janin Reinhardt reporting from the green room and was broadcast on NDR Fernsehen and EinsPlus as well as online via eurovision.de and eurovision.tv. The winner, Elaiza, was selected solely by public televoting, including options for landline and SMS voting, and proceeded to the national final.[12][13]

Elaiza performing at Unser Song für Dänemark

The televised final took place on 13 March 2014. The winner was selected through three rounds of public televoting, including options for landline and SMS voting. In the first round of voting, each artist performed their selected first of their two songs and the top four artists were selected to proceed to the second round. In the second round, the four remaining artists performed their second song and the top two artists with one song each were selected to proceed to the final round. In the final round, the winner, "Is It Right" performed by Elaiza, was selected.[14][15] In addition to the performances of the competing entries, 2013 Danish Eurovision Song Contest winner Emmelie de Forest performed her entry "Only Teardrops", 2014 Italian Eurovision entrant Emma Marrone performed her entry "La mia città" and Adel Tawil performed his new song "Weinen".[16][17]

Elaiza during a rehearsal before the final

Elaiza took part in technical rehearsals on 4 and 6 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 9 and 10 May. This included the jury final on 9 May where the professional juries of each country watched and voted on the competing entries.[25] During the German delegation's press conference on 6 May 2014, Elaiza took part in a draw to determine in which half of the final the German entry would be performed. Germany was drawn to compete in the first half of the final.[26] Following the second semi-final, the shows' producers decided upon the running order of the final rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Germany was subsequently placed to perform in position 12, following the entry from Austria and before the entry from Sweden.[27]

The German performance featured the members of Elaiza performing on stage in outfits with flower patterns; Yvonne Grünwald played the accordion, Natalie Plöger played the contrabass and Ela Steinmetz performed vocals. The stage colours were predominately red, purple and yellow with the LED screens displaying the band name and purple tents and the stage floor displaying a chessboard. The staging presentation also included paper streamers dropping onto the stage and covering the band members during the last chorus.[28][29] Germany placed eighteenth in the final, scoring 39 points.[30]

Voting during the three shows consisted of 50 percent public televoting and 50 percent from a jury deliberation. The jury consisted of five music industry professionals who were citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury was asked to judge each contestant based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury could be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member were released shortly after the grand final.

Following the release of the full split voting by the EBU after the conclusion of the competition, it was revealed that Germany had placed twentieth with the public televote and fourteenth with the jury vote in the final. In the public vote, Germany scored 31 points and in the jury vote the nation scored 61 points.

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Germany and awarded by Germany in the second semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows:

The following members comprised the German jury:[33]

• Jennifer Weist (jury chairperson) – frontwoman for the band Jennifer Rostock
• Madeline Obrigewitsch (Madeline Juno) – singer, songwriter
• Konrad Sommermeyer – talent scout, manager, songwriter
• Paul Würdig (Sido) – rapper
• Andreas Bourani – singer, songwriter

Detailed voting results from Germany (Semi-final 2)[34]

Draw	Country	J. Weist	M. Juno	K. Sommermeyer	Sido	A. Bourani	Jury Rank	Televote Rank	Combined Rank	Points
01	Malta	6	3	15	7	13	8	8	8	3
02	Israel	5	14	8	14	14	11	7	9	2
03	Norway	2	4	3	4	4	3	6	4	7
04	Georgia	4	15	14	1	3	6	13	10	1
05	Poland	3	8	2	3	1	2	2	1	12
06	Austria	12	6	10	15	12	13	1	7	4
07	Lithuania	7	13	7	13	15	12	11	12
08	Finland	1	1	1	2	2	1	9	6	5
09	Ireland	14	10	11	11	10	15	14	15
10	Belarus	15	9	9	12	11	14	12	14
11	Macedonia	11	12	4	10	7	9	15	13
12	Switzerland	9	2	12	5	6	5	4	2	10
13	Greece	8	7	5	9	8	7	3	5	6
14	Slovenia	13	11	13	8	9	10	10	11
15	Romania	10	5	6	6	5	4	5	3	8

Detailed voting results from Germany (Final)[35]

Draw	Country	J. Weist	M. Juno	K. Sommermeyer	Sido	A. Bourani	Jury Rank	Televote Rank	Combined Rank	Points
01	Ukraine	20	20	18	14	16	18	14	16
02	Belarus	24	23	19	20	25	23	21	22
03	Azerbaijan	10	17	9	15	4	9	25	20
04	Iceland	19	9	15	16	18	14	8	9	2
05	Norway	4	6	6	3	10	5	9	6	5
06	Romania	12	14	16	21	22	16	17	18
07	Armenia	5	7	8	4	9	6	6	5	6
08	Montenegro	23	22	21	22	24	24	24	25
09	Poland	6	4	4	5	3	4	3	2	10
10	Greece	16	21	20	24	19	22	4	14
11	Austria	9	13	11	13	12	11	1	4	7
12	Germany
13	Sweden	11	8	5	6	6	7	16	11
14	France	21	10	17	25	20	20	20	21
15	Russia	17	16	23	12	21	19	5	12
16	Italy	22	18	10	17	11	15	18	19
17	Slovenia	15	24	22	23	14	21	23	23
18	Finland	3	2	3	7	5	3	12	7	4
19	Spain	7	19	14	10	8	10	13	10	1
20	Switzerland	18	5	12	11	13	12	7	8	3
21	Hungary	14	12	24	19	17	17	15	17
22	Malta	13	11	13	9	15	13	11	13
23	Denmark	1	1	1	1	1	1	10	3	8
24	Netherlands	2	3	2	2	2	2	2	1	12
25	San Marino	25	25	25	18	23	25	22	24
26	United Kingdom	8	15	7	8	7	8	19	15