Last night, ten hopeful candidates helped kick off Germany’s national selection process for Eurovision 2012.  Much like the process that helped launch Lena Meyer-Landrut into stardom two years ago (has it really been two years already?), “Unser Star für Baku” will put singers through their paces as they sing covers during a number of heats, quarterfinals, and semifinals, before culminating in a Final (where we’ll likely hear the possible songs for the ESC) on February 16th. 

The general format of the show might be somewhat familiar, but the show has completely overhauled their voting system.  Two rounds of instant voting were held; the first to hammer out the running order of the candidates (the most popular singers after a first impression were given the coveted final slots), and the second to actually determine the five singers who would pass through to future rounds.  Not only was voting open throughout the entire program, but the running tally of votes cast was actually shown on screen during the show itself, so viewers and the in-studio audience could see who the Top Five were at any given point.  Although we’ve seen something similar from other countries’ selections in the past, the dynamic in the studio between the running vote tally, the audience (who would cheer whenever there was a change in the leaderboard), and the three member jury (who technically had no vote, but whose influence was pretty clearly visible) was really something to witness.  Whenever jurors Thomas D, Alina Süggeler, or Stefan Raab (yes, him again…) would praise a performance, one could see an almost instantaneous jump in the standings.

Anyway, back to the contestants.  Qualifying from the first heat  are:

• Shelly Phillips – “Valerie” – 15.5%
• Roman Lob – “After Tonight” – 14.9%
• Céline Huber – “Beautiful Disaster” – 14.7%
• Leonie Burgmer – “Stronger than Me” – 14.7%
• Katja Petri – “Marry You” – 14.7%

Missing out were:

• Kai Nötting – “More” – 14.5%
• Jil Rock – “Moves Like Jagger” – 5.9%
• Yasmin Gueroui – “Not Fair” – 2.4%
• Salih Özcan – “Señorita” – 1.7%
• Jan Verweij – “Closer to the Edge” – 1.0%

Heat 2 will be held on January 19.