Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003

After Germany finished 21st in the Eurovision Song Contest 2002, head of delegation Jürgen Meier-Beer wanted to renew the national final. In an interview, he said:[1]

This defeat gives me the chance to make people separate from the old image of the song contest in Germany too. Esthetically, we want to make a huge jump from old-fashioned schlager to modern pop music.

Nevertheless, the formula was similar as in recent years - the best known record labels in Germany were again asked to submit entries for the national final. Furthermore, five well-known newspapers and magazines were asked to submit one song each:[1][2] Tabloid BILD submitted Elmar Brandt's project Die Gerd Show with a parody on Gerhard Schröder to Kiel, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung submitted DJMDG, die tageszeitung Senait, who was also supported by politician Claudia Roth, Freistil were submitted by teenager magazine Yam! and Tagträumer feat. Aynur by Turkish newspaper Hürriyet. Actually, 15 songs were supposed to be presented, but Joachim Deutschland and his song "Marie" were disqualified, because the singer had insulted the Bavarian minister-president Edmund Stoiber in one of his other songs and because of inappropriate lines in his entry.

Ich Troje took part as 'Troje' in the German national final although they had previously already won the Polish national final with "Keine Grenzen-Żadnych granic".[3] They would have not been allowed to take part in the competition for two countries according to the rules. Later in Riga, the band would receive its only twelve points from Germany. Two of the acts have previously taken part in a German national final: Lou and Tagträumer, both in 2001.

The national final was held at the Ostseehalle in Kiel on 7 March 2003. For the sixth time in a row and for the last time so far, Axel Bulthaupt hosted the German national final. In the first round of televoting, 601,809 votes were cast and Die Gerd Show was the winner of that round with 98,455 votes and would enter the second round along with Lou (second place with 85,984 votes) and Beatbetrieb (third place with 66,418 votes). In the second round, 367,415 were cast and the results changed dramatically: Die Gerd Show only finished third with 111,601 votes, while Beatbetrieb came second with 116,214 votes and Lou won the national final with 139,600 votes exactly.[4] Actually, only the top three of the first round were supposed to be revealed, but BILD has published the results shortly after the competition after all (see below).[4]

The interval act was performed by Modern Talking. Renārs Kaupers, host of the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest, also appeared in the show and so did Marie N, his co-host and winner of the 2002 Eurovision Song Contest, who performed her own winning song "I Wanna" again.

Again, a compilation album of the national final was released. Apart from the 14 competing entries, it included the German entry of 2002 "I Can't Live Without Music" and the winner of that year, "I Wanna". As compilations cannot enter the album charts in Germany, little can be said about the commercial success.

For the first time since 1999, the German entry would not enter the German single charts. From the 14 competing songs, only two reached the top 100: "Alles wird gut" was the most successful one peaking at #18. The disqualified entry "Marie" by Joachim Deutschland also reached the single charts.

Entry
"Woran glaubst Du?"	80	-	-
"Alles wird gut"	18	-	-
"Marie"	32	-	-