Who will sing for Germany? A special alliance has been formed to find the best German entry for the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest in Basel, Switzerland. For the first time, RTL Deutschland is joining forces with TV legend Stefan Raab – who is currently in an exclusive five-year contract with RTL Deutschland – and public broadcaster ARD to find the winning entry. With maximum reach across all platforms and target groups, the highest level of expertise and Stefan Raab as the initiator, RTL Deutschland intends to give new energy to the National Selection round of Eurovision.

Inga Leschek, Chief Content Officer at RTL Deutschland, says: "What an honour to be involved in Eurovision! Side by side with ARD and Stefan Raab, we are dedicating ourselves to the national Eurovision task and, with the help of RTL Deutschland's extensive reach, are looking for the German star to compete in Basel. We are looking forward to this special collaboration and three great live shows on RTL in spring 2025!"

Christine Strobl, Programme Director at ARD, says: “Special events require special collaborations: I am delighted to be working with Stefan Raab and RTL Deutschland to spark anticipation for Eurovision 2025. Eurovision is a real campfire moment that unites Europe – and it is precisely this feeling that we want to bring to the German audience with a great preliminary round on the way to Basel.”

The National Selection will take place during four prime-time live shows hosted by TV presenter Barbara Schöneberger – three of which will be broadcast on flagship channel RTL. Entitled Chefsache ESC 2025 – Wer singt für Deutschland? (Top issue ESC 2025 – Who will sing for Germany?), the live shows will feature several rounds in which Stefan Raab and his jury team will select the best entries from a total of 24 acts. The finale will be broadcast live on ARD, in which viewers at home will vote for their favourite act to represent Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest in May 2025.

Public broadcaster NDR, which is part of ARD, will continue to be the lead broadcaster of the Eurovision Song Contest in Germany. Applications for the National Selection are now open for solo musicians or bands at raab-casting.de, eurovision.de or rtl.de. The deadline is 23:59 on 28 November 2024.

Chefsache is the third project to be announced as part of RTL Deutschland’s exclusive contract with Stefan Raab. Following Stefan’s return to the screen in Der Clark Final Fight, new quiz show #DGHNDMBSR – Du gewinnst hier nicht die Million bei Stefan Raab (You won’t win a million here with Stefan Raab) launched on 18 September 2024, breaking streaming records on RTL+. New game show Stefan und Bully gegen irgendson Schnulli (Stefan and Bully against some other schnulli) with Michael "Bully" Herbig will premiere on 21 December 2024.