On February 17, Germany selected their Eurovision entrant with their selection show, “Das deutsche Finale 2024”. As has been standard for Germany for the past three years, this selection only had a single televised show, with no semi-finals. Eight songs were selected initially, out of 693 applications. However, unlike last year's TikTok wildcard, this year had a different wildcard format, called Ich will zum ESC ("I want to go to Eurovision"), where artists without songs auditioned and performed cover songs over five shows, before performing a new song assigned to them in the final. The winner of that contest, Floryan, joined the eight previously selected artists, for a total of nine songs in the competition.
Few of the participating artists had extensive musical careers behind them, although a few were connected to Eurovision: Max Mutzke (who represented Germany in 2004) and Marie Reim (the daughter of Michelle, who represented Germany in 2001).
Unlike some national selections, there wasn't too much attention on any of the songs from the fandom, outside of some disappointment when "Ich Kundige", a three-minute song by German electropop act Großstadtgeflüster, was revealed to not be participating because the group hadn't entered. There were lots of people who took issue with Germany not including “hard” music in their national selection, as that’s the music a lot of Germans listen to and “hard” acts make up some of Germany’s main musical exports. Indeed, the closest the selection got to any distinctly German music was Marie Reim’s song, a schlager.
The fandom favorite, "Oh Boy" by Ryk, finished in 3rd place, getting 5 points from the jury and 8 points in the televote. However, the selected song, "Always on the Run" by Isaak, received a unanimous 12 points from both groups, sending it to Eurovision for Germany. To my ears, Isaak won because he absolutely delivered his song with conviction and energy. Nobody expects him to win Eurovision this year, but if he can keep Germany out of the bottom 5 - that'll be more than enough for many people.