Germany participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with the song "

No No Never "No No Never" was the entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006, performed in English by Texas Lightning. While Germany had finished the 2005 contest in last place, their position as one of the Contest's " Big Four" (along with the , and ) ...

" written by

Jane Comerford Jane Comerford (born 1 January 1959 in Newcastle, Australia) is a singer, songwriter, lecturer, and vocal coach working in Germany. Education Jane has an extensive musical and music-related education. She studied violin and piano for 12 years, ...

. The song was performed by Texas Lightning. The German entry for the 2006 contest in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

, was selected through the national final ''Der deutsche Vorentscheid 2006 – 50 Jahre Grand Prix'', organised by the German broadcaster ARD in collaboration with

Norddeutscher Rundfunk Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR; ''Northern German Broadcasting'') is a public broadcasting, public radio and television broadcaster, based in Hamburg. In addition to the city-state of Hamburg, NDR broadcasts for the German states of Lower Saxony, M ...

(NDR). The national final took place on 9 March 2006 and featured three competing acts with the winner being selected through public voting. "No No Never" performed by Texas Lightning was selected as the German entry for Athens after gaining 46% of the vote. As a member of the " Big Four", Germany automatically qualified to compete in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. Performing in position 8, Germany placed fourteenth out of the 24 participating countries with 36 points.

Background

Prior to the 2006 Contest, Germany had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest forty-nine times since its debut as one of seven countries to take part in . Germany has won the contest on one occasion: in

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with the song "

Ein bißchen Frieden "Ein bißchen Frieden" (; "A Bit of Peace") is a German-language song, written by prolific German Eurovision-writing duo Ralph Siegel (music) and Bernd Meinunger (lyrics) for the Eurovision Song Contest 1982, held in Harrogate, United Kingdo ...

" performed by

Nicole Nicole may refer to: People * Nicole (name) * Nicole (American singer) (born 1958), a contestant in season 3 of the American ''The X Factor'' * Nicole (Chilean singer) (born 1977) * Nicole (German singer) (born 1964), winner of the 1982 Euro ...

. Germany, to this point, has been noted for having competed in the contest more than any other country; they have competed in every contest since the first edition in 1956 except for the 1996 contest when the nation was eliminated in a pre-contest elimination round. In

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, the German entry "Run & Hide" performed by Gracia placed last out of twenty-four competing songs scoring four points. The German national broadcaster, ARD, broadcasts the event within Germany and delegates the selection of the nation's entry to the regional broadcaster

(NDR). NDR confirmed that Germany would participate in the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest on 22 May 2005. Since 1996, NDR had set up national finals with several artists to choose both the song and performer to compete at Eurovision for Germany. On 29 November 2005, the broadcaster had announced that they would organise a multi-artist national final to select the German entry.

Before Eurovision

''Der deutsche Vorentscheid 2006 – 50 Jahre Grand Prix''

''Der deutsche Vorentscheid 2006 – 50 Jahre Grand Prix'' (English: The German Preliminary Decision 2006 – 50 Years of the Grand Prix) was the competition that selected Germany's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2006. The competition took place on 9 March 2006 at the Schauspielhaus in

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, hosted by

Thomas Hermanns Thomas Hermanns (born 5 March 1963) is a German TV presenter, comedian, screenwriter and director. He is the founder of the comedy show ''Quatsch Comedy Club''. Early life Hermanns was born in Bochum. During his childhood he lived in Nuremberg. ...

. Three acts competed during the show with the winner being selected through a public televote. The show was broadcast on

Das Erste Das Erste (; "The First") is the flagship national television channel of the ARD association of public broadcasting corporations in Germany. ''Das Erste'' is jointly operated by the nine regional public broadcasting corporations that are member ...

as well as online via the broadcaster's Eurovision Song Contest website ''eurovision.de''. The national final was watched by 5.28 million viewers in Germany.

Competing entries

Three acts were selected by an expert panel consisting of representatives of the entertainment department for NDR. Two of the participating acts were announced on 13 December 2005 and the third act was announced on 15 December 2005. Among the competing acts was the winner of the

Eurovision Song Contest 1972 The Eurovision Song Contest 1972 was the 17th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Edinburgh, United Kingdom and was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster British Broadcasting Corporat ...

Vicky Leandros Vasiliki Papathanasiou ( el, Βασιλική Παπαθανασίου; born 23 August 1949), generally known as Vicky Leandros ( el, Βίκυ Λέανδρος, links=no), is a Greek singer living in Germany. She is the daughter of singer, music ...

Final

The televised final took place on 9 March 2006. The winner, "

" performed by Texas Lightning, was selected solely through public voting, including options for landline and SMS voting. During the final, an expert panel commented on the performances. The members of the expert panel were

Dirk Bach Dirk Bach (23 April 1961 – 1 October 2012) was a German actor, comedian and television presenter, best known as the co-host of ''Ich bin ein Star – Holt mich hier raus!'', the German version of '' I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!''. C ...

(actor, comedian and television presenter),

Georg Uecker Georg Uecker (born 6 November 1962 in Munich) is a German actor. Since 1985, he has played the character of ''Dr. Carsten Flöter'' on the popular German TV series Lindenstraße on ARD. Controversially, in 1987, he kissed ''Gert Weinbauer'' (pla ...

(actor),

Lucy Diakovska Ludmila Lubomirova "Lucy" Diakovska ( bg, Людмила Любомирова Дяковска; born 2 April 1976) is a Bulgarian and German singer and television personality. She rose to prominence as one of the founding members of the all-fem ...

(singer) and

Joy Fleming Joy Fleming (born Erna Raad, 15 November 1944 – 27 September 2017) was a German singer. She is best known for her performance in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1975. She performed the song " Ein Lied kann eine Brücke sein" and was placed seven ...

( 1975 German Eurovision entrant). In addition to the performances of the competing entries, former German Eurovision entrants

Mary Roos Mary Roos (born Rosemarie Schwab on 9 January 1949) is a German singer and actress. Biography 1949-1970 Schwab was born in Bingen. At the age of nine, she recorded her first song "Ja die Dicken sind ja so gemütlich" as ''Die kleine Rosemarie ...

(

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Ingrid Peters Ingrid Peters (born 19 April 1954 in Dudweiler, Saar Protectorate) is a German singer. She represented Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 1986 held in Bergen. Her song, "Über die Brücke geh'n", placed eight. Peters had made previous attemp ...

(

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), Michelle (

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Corinna May Corinna May (born 6 October 1970 in Bremen, Germany as Corinna Meyer) is a blind singer from Germany. She is best known for competing in the 2002 Eurovision Song Contest with the song " I Can't Live Without Music". Career From an early age sh ...

(

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) and Lou (

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) as well as former winners of the Eurovision Song Contest

Brotherhood of Man Brotherhood of Man are a British pop group who achieved success in the 1970s. They won the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest with "Save Your Kisses for Me". Created in 1969 by songwriter and record producer Tony Hiller, Brotherhood of Man was initia ...

(

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(

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) and the

Olsen Brothers Olsen Brothers ( da, Brødrene Olsen) are a Danish rock/pop music duo, formed by brothers Jørgen (born 15 March 1950) and Niels "Noller" Olsen (born 13 April 1954), both from Odense, who won the Eurovision Song Contest 2000. They formed their f ...

(

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) performed their respective entries. 794,957 votes were cast in the final: 618,076 via landline and 176,881 via SMS.

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the " Big Four" (France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from the semi-final in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from the semi-final progress to the final. As a member of the "Big 4", Germany automatically qualified to compete in the final on 20 May 2006. In addition to their participation in the final, Germany is also required to broadcast and vote in the semi-final. The running order for the final in addition to the semi-final was decided through an allocation draw, and Germany was subsequently drawn to perform in position eight, following

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

and preceding

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. At the conclusion of the final, Germany placed fourteenth in the final, scoring 36 points. In Germany, the two shows were broadcast on

which featured commentary by Peter Urban, as well as on

Deutschlandfunk Deutschlandfunk (DLF, ''Broadcast Germany'') is a public-broadcasting radio station in Germany, concentrating on news and current affairs. It is one of the four national radio channels produced by Deutschlandradio. History Broadcasting in the ...

and NDR 2 which featured commentary by Thomas Mohr. The German spokesperson, who announced the top 12-point score awarded by the German televote during the final, was

Voting

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Germany and awarded by Germany in the semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the voting conducted during the two shows. Germany awarded its 12 points to

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

in the semi-final and to

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

in the grand final of the contest.

Points awarded to Germany

Points awarded by Germany

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 2006

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Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...