Bitter news for Frida Gold fans: The pop group cannot take part in the ESC preliminary round. This emerges from a message from the band, which was distributed by NDR on Friday. The reason for the cancellation: front woman Alina Süggeler (37) is sick. Observers considered Frida Gold to be one of the top favorites in “Eurovision Song Contest 2023 – Our Song for Liverpool”.
“On the second day of rehearsals, it was clear to everyone involved that Alina Süggeler was very ill and suffering from a fever. It had to be reduced to two runs, during which she could only sing sporadically,” the band said in a statement. “After that she went straight home hoping that rest and medication would be able to stabilize her for the next day.”
But unfortunately “the opposite was the case”: “In addition to fever, chills and acute sore throat, she had also completely lost her voice. The immediate visit to the doctor meant that he had to write her off sick for a week and ordered her absolute bed rest, “explained the group.
“Any short-term medical measures had not led to any acute improvement to enable a performance. For Alina and everyone involved, after weeks of work and preparation, this is a shock and an immense disappointment,” the band summed up.
It was the “idea and the desire” to present the message of the song “All Women In Mir Are Tired” in front of a large audience, because it was an “important concern” for them. The possibility of possibly singing it in Liverpool as a German contribution was a “great motivation”, it said. But that will not happen now.
Bassist Andreas Weizel spoke of the “worst case” in an Instagram story and called the failure “really bitter”.
The departure of Frida Gold does not change the type of voting, as the NDR further announced. The remaining eight participating acts Will Church (28), Patty Gurdy (26), Ikke Hipgold (46), Lord Of The Lost, René Miller (28), Anica Russo (22), Lonely Spring and TRONG (30) become 50 Percent rated by eight juries from eight different countries.
The other 50 percent of the points come from the German audience. They are made up of votes during the show by phone call and SMS and online voting in the week before the preliminary decision on ARD radio pop waves. The same number of points, which were distributed by the international juries, will be distributed to the eight songs in percentage of the German televoting.
The listeners’ online voting ends on March 3 at 10 p.m. The previous voting for Frida Gold will not be counted. Moderator Barbara Schöneberger (48) will present “Our Song for Liverpool” live from Cologne on March 3rd from 10:20 p.m. Fans can also follow the preliminary round on ONE, Deutsche Welle, eurovision.de and in the ARD media library. The latter two will get in the mood for the show with a warm-up from 9:20 p.m.
