Here are my thoughts on my country’s entry for Eurovision 2026, “Fire” by Sarah Engels:

It’s generic and beige radio pop with zero personality that sounds like something I’ve heard hundreds of times before and proves the German Eurovision team has learned nothing. This is exactly the kind of song I wanted Germany to stop sending. The national final was overloaded with songs of this type so it was inevitable that would happen. Not a single one of these songs gripped me or inspired me, but I would have been at least somewhat happy if they sent one of the two German-language songs, because I feel very strongly that Germany needs to stop pretending their language doesn’t exist. But I’ve said that like a million times in my Eurovision blog post series.

Yes, I pasted this paragraph from my review of the 2024 selection. The only change I made was replacing “NDR” with “the German Eurovision team”, because this year SWR organized the selection instead, but the lineup of songs is just as dull either way. And yes, as with 2024, the selection had only nine songs in total and only two were in German. Also, in the above paragraph, when I said none of the songs gripped me or inspired me, that was a lie. There is one entry in this selection I do really love, and I’ll save it for the end of the post.

I should note that I didn’t actually watch the German selection live, though I did see a few snippets of past German-speaking contestants (Paola del Medico and Michael Schulte) talking about their experience in Eurovision, as well as Hazel Brugger being Hazel Brugger (I mean that in a good way). To those that don’t speak German, Hazel’s sections probably just seem like a bunch of yapping, but I can promise you her humor is even funnier in her native language. On that day (February 28) I instead watched Finland’s national final which consisted entirely of bangers. It was pretty obvious “Liekinheitin” would win but I loved the show anyway.

I’ll give the German producers this: they put a lot of effort into staging each song as good as they can. I suppose that’s part of Germany’s approach these days, making the staging sell the song as good as possible even if the tune itself is widely regarded as “meh”. It worked with “Always on the Run” back in 2024—it’s crazy how much fans turned on that song after Isaak performed it in Malmö.

The song lineup though, it is just so beige it hurts. One entry in this selection is my favorite by far, but I’ll save it for the end of this post. “Jeanie” by Dreamboys is a radio pop song that is pleasant enough to listen to and has decent harmonies but doesn’t quite manage to grip me. “Wonderland” by Laura Nahr starts off slow but is decent enough once it picks up the pace, but the only part I really like is the slightly dissonant “wonder-wonder-wonderland” bit. “A OK” by Milo “Myle” Hoelz is without a doubt the most boring song of the lineup, basically a total non-event.

None of the songs I just talked about made it to the superfinal, and neither did the two songs in German. “Herz” by Bela is a decent enough boybop in German with a swing beat similar to our last winner “Satellite”, but it doesn’t have quite the gripping factor “Baller” by Abor and Tynna has. I’ll dedicate a bit more time to the token joke entry, “Ciao Ragazzki” by Ragazzki. I’ve never been totally able to make my mind up about that song, but Marti and David’s enthusiasm on stage makes me feel absolutely gutted that they didn’t win or even make it to the superfinal. Marti Fischer released several YouTube videos in German promoting his song and it’s very clear he wanted to go to Eurovision with this. He clearly designed the song with the thought of “what is the most Eurovisiony song I could possibly write?” The chorus is so repetitive and the rapping is too talk-singy, but their excitement on stage makes me somewhat like it. I think I have a soft spot for two goofy guys having the time of their life on stage—see also Jedward and Væb. Unfortunately the candidates for the superfinal were chosen completely by juries, which doomed this song’s chances.

Of the three songs that made it to the superfinal, I already discussed the winning song “Fire”—it’s an ultra-generic overchoreographed girlbop and total Fuego clone, a very disappointing choice for Germany in the contest. “Optimist” by Molly Sue is the token gloomy ballad every recent German selection seems to have, and I admit it’s one of the better songs, mainly because Molly really feels the lyrics and they have a good theme to go with them. “Black Glitter” by Wavvyboi is also one of the better songs and I would’ve preferred it to go to Eurovision over “Fire”, since it’s a major key rock song with a fair bit of personality and gains a decent rock beat once it gets going.

Eurofans whose countries do national finals often say that with other countries they want their favorite entry to win, but with their own country they want the entry best suited for Eurovision to win. I’m very much this way with German national finals. In 2024 none of the songs felt particularly suited to the contest, in 2025 “Baller” was very clearly the best choice for Eurovision, and in 2026 with the return of juries to semifinals, “Ciao Ragazzki” might have actually gotten a decent result. But it sure as hell isn’t my favorite entry this year: that would be “When I’m with You” by Malou Lovis. It’s relaxed and just a tad jazzy, and it makes for excellent casual listening. It’s nice to have a romantic song that’s just plain wholesome and positive for a change, instead of all those bitter breakup tunes. It’s got sweet romantic lyrics, it’s quite interesting compositionally, I can put it on whenever I need to unwind after a long day, what more could you ask for? I’ll gladly forgive Malou Lovis for not singing in German, because if a song is good enough it doesn’t matter what language it’s in. This was obviously not going to win the German Eurovision selection—the only way it would have is if the juries and televoters were all replaced with clones of me.

So yeah, the German selection actually had a few decent songs and one that I surprisingly love. But the winning song is exactly what I feared would win, and I am just so disappointed in my country for choosing it. Or rather, in my country for letting the international juries (of whom not a single one was German) advance it to the superfinal and allow the televoters to pick it as their favorite. All of this means that this year, I just have to root for other countries. I won’t spoil too much on my tastes, but as of right now my two biggest favorites are Greece and Denmark.