Our Star for Baku] Is the ﬁrst Show to Constantly Display a Live Ranking of the Contestants

Presse / 2012 / Now every second counts! Unser Star für Baku [Our Star for Baku] is the ﬁrst show to constantly display a live ranking of the contestants

It has never been seen before in a German casting show: viewers of Our Star for Baku always know where their favourite contestants stand in the ranks. In each of the live shows airing on ProSieben and Das Erste, members of the television audience cast their votes in real time, all the time. The latest information is displayed on the screen in the live ranking; audience members can call or text in their votes to respond instantly to how the competition is going. In Our Star for Baku the television audience decides who will be representing Germany at the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest in the capital of Azerbaijan.

Thomas D will be leading the German preliminaries for the ESC as president of the jury. Frida Gold vocalist Alina Süggeler and Stefan Raab, producer of the Our Star for Baku TV show, will sit at his side as regular jury members. Sandra Rieß and Steven Gätjen will be hosting Our Star for Baku. It all kicks off on 12 January 2012 at 20:15 live on ProSieben. Das Erste will broadcast the finale on 16 February 2012 at 20:15.

Jury president Thomas D: "It's a revolution in casting shows: our candidates and viewers will know exactly how things stand all the time. Transparent voting, no artificially created climaxes, no canned lines, it's all live. It makes me proud to be president."

Show producer Stefan Raab: "For the first time, we are airing a music competition the same way we would a sporting event. Constantly displaying live voting results is unique on television. Viewers are always aware of the effect their calls have on the competition.

Our Star for Baku In the German preliminaries running up to the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest, Das Erste, ProSieben and ARD young radio stations have banded together to search out an artist and song for the world's biggest music show coming to us from the capital of Azerbaijan for 2012. In each of the first two elimination shows (12 and 19 January, ProSieben) ten contestants will come forward and only five will make it to the next round. Musicians are selected over the course of the next five shows (three elimination shows and the semi-finals on ProSieben, quarterfinals on Das Erste) to proceed to the Our Star for Baku finals to be broadcast on Das Erste on 16 Das Erste) to proceed to the Our Star for Baku finals to be broadcast on Das Erste on 16 February. Our Star for Baku is a Raab TV GmbH production. The 2012 Eurovision Song Contest finale will be broadcast on Das Erste Sunday, 26 May at 21:00 live from the capital of Azerbaijan.

Thomas D (42) will preside over the jury as president and will oversee the artistic management of the winner as the music producer of the winning song. Working together with Das Erste, ProSieben and ARD radio stations, he will also select the 20 contestants performing for the show's viewers. Thomas D will collaborate with the winner to produce the German ESC entry for the Eurovision finale in Baku as well as the corresponding album. Along with fellow jury members Alina Süggeler and Stefan Raab, he will judge the contestants' performances.

Alina Süggeler (26) is the vocalist for the German-language pop band Frida Gold and was a member of the German jury for the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest. Her single "Wovon sollen wir träumen" accompanied the German national team as the official song for the 2011 Women's World Cup.

Stefan Raab (45) is the producer of Our Star for Baku. In 2010 the audience joined him in discovering Lena Meyer-Landrut and leading her to victory at the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo. In 2011 he co-hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in Dusseldorf with Anke Engelke and Judith Rakers.

Further information on the ESC and the German preliminaries are available at www.eurovision.de and at www.unser-star-für-baku.tv.