Germany have internally selected Xavier Naidoo to represent them at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden. There will be a national final on 18 February where Xavier will perform six songs. Songwriters and producers have been invited to prepare their submissions now.
Xavier is an established soul and r’n’b performer in Germany. He has had many hits in his home country including the number one song Ich kenne nichts (das so schön ist wie du) in 2003. You can see the official video for that song below.
Source: www.esccovers.com; www.esccovers.com
I have never heard of Xavier despite the fact that I have almost 5000 German CD’s, but then my music taste in German schlager.
I have been informed today that he has SOUTH AFRICAN ties, his father having lived in South Africa for several years and his mother being half South African and half Irish. But I doubt a single South African knows of him
I see German fans are very upset – so we can count of Berlin as a possible venue for 2017
I’m disappointed that there will be no Unser Song, which is one of my favorite national selections. Course, after reading the allegations on oikotimes.com today, I’m thinking his baggage might be too heavy for fans to bear.
I see Xavier has now been withdrawn from the contest and Germany will be choosing someone else, due to some controversy:
http://www.eurovision.tv/page/news?id=xavier_naidoo_withdrawn_to_represent_germany
I’ll miss Unser Song as well, it was one of my favourite ways to discover new German artists. A show with one artist singing several different songs isn’t quite as enjoyable. Maybe they’ll go back to the old Unser Song format after this.