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On Thursday, 9 February next year the Germans choose their Eurovision entry for 2017. The preliminary round is undergoing some changes after two consecutive last places.

From today young singers register vi(a) the official German Eurovision website. A total of thirty candidates will be considered for casting rounds, which, however, will not pick up the tv screen. Of them will be the five best participants selected to compete in the national final against each other, Eurovision Song Contest-Unser Song 2017. That goes on Thursday 9 February 2017 to 8:15 pm on antenna on Das Erste, the German One.

In the national final, which is broadcast live from Cologne and will take no less than three hours to complete, the candidates are assisted by a six-piece live band led by Wolfgang Dahlheimer. The presentation is again in the hands of Barbara Schöneberger. New is a three-headed jury that any action will comment. The jury members are Lena Meyer-Landrut (photo), winner of the Eurovision song contest 2010 and also the candidate of 2011, Tim Bendzko and Florian Silbereisen.

The jury members may give their unvarnished opinions, but have no voting rights: only German viewers make the final decision through televoting. Another novelty is the European stemmingbarometer: the show is streamed live via Eurovision.tv, and through the official app of the Eurovision Song Contest can viewers of the show from across the European continent their preference. The ‘ European voices ‘ do not count towards the final result, but the German public should serve to give an indication of where Europe likes.

Such a barometer seems not a bad idea based on the past Eurovision results of the country: the last four song festivals were our neighbours the top-15 of the standings in the finals, with both in 2015 as 2016 a very last place.