vWeeks before this year's Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) final in Malmö on May 11, NDR introduced a new commentator for the contest. Thorsten Schorn succeeds Peter Urban, who will leave the Liverpool ESC in 2023 after 25 years.
Schorn comes from radio (WDR 2, 1LIVE), but his voice is also known from television, such as the VOX-style documentary “Shopping Queen”. His first contact with the ESC was in 2011, when after Lena's victory, the singing competition was held in Düsseldorf. At that time, he was a foreign reporter for the daily ESC TV magazine “Show für Deutschland”.
It is a great honor and pleasure to have Peter Urban as an ESC commentator. “I will take the German TV audience by the hand and together we will experience the biggest music show in the world,” Schorn was quoted as saying in a statement. The 48-year-old Malmö can be heard three times, in addition to the final and two preliminary rounds.
The first semi-final will take place on May 7th, in which the German Isaak will also perform with his song “Always On The Run”, and the second semi-final will follow on May 9th. Although Germany is in the final, for the first time all six finalist countries are allowed to perform their songs in full in one semi-final.
Similar to last year, 37 countries will participate in this year's ESC, including all nine neighboring countries of Germany for the first time in the same year: Denmark, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands.