Germany participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 in Turin, Italy with the song "Rockstars" performed by Malik Harris. The German entry for the 2022 contest was selected through the national final Germany 12 Points, organised by the German broadcaster ARD in collaboration with (NDR). The national final took place on 4 March 2022 and featured six competing acts with the winner being selected through online radio voting and public voting.
Background
Prior to the 2022 contest, Germany has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest sixty-four times since its debut as one of seven countries to take part in . Germany has won the contest on two occasions: in with the song "" performed by Nicole and in with the song "Satellite" performed by Lena. Germany, to this point, has been noted for having competed in the contest more than any other country; they have competed in every contest since the first edition in 1956 except for the when the nation was eliminated in a pre-contest elimination round. In , the German entry "I Don't Feel Hate" performed by Jendrik placed twenty-fifth out of twenty-six competing songs scoring 3 points.
The German national broadcaster, ARD, broadcasts the event within Germany and delegates the selection of the nation's entry to the regional broadcaster (NDR). NDR confirmed that Germany would participate in the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest on 19 March 2021. Between 2013 and 2019, NDR set up national finals with several artists to choose both the song and performer to compete at Eurovision for Germany, while an internal selection was organised in 2020 and 2021. On 3 November 2021, the broadcaster announced that they would organise a multi-artist national final to select the German entry.
Before Eurovision
Germany 12 Points
Germany 12 Points was the competition that selected Germany's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2022. The competition took place on 4 March 2022 at the Studio Berlin Adlershof in Berlin, and was hosted by Barbara Schöneberger. The show was broadcast on Das Erste and One as well as via radio on the nine ARD radio channels and online via the broadcaster's Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.de. The national final was watched by 3.25 million viewers in Germany.
Competing entries
Interested artists and composers were able to submit their entries for the competition between 4 November 2021 and 30 November 2021. By the end of the process, it was announced that 944 submissions were received by NDR and 25 entries were shortlisted. The six competing entries were selected during a final casting round held in Berlin in January 2022 by a seven-member panel consisting of Alexandra Wolfslast (head of German delegation for Eurovision), Meike Nett (NDR 2 head of music), Holger Lachmann (Antenne Brandenburg head of music), Edi van Beek (Bayern 3 head of music), Gregor Friedel (SWR3 music director), Andreas Loeffler (WDR 2, WDR 4 and 1LIVE head of music) and Alexander Schmitz (MDR Jump music director). The six participating acts were announced during a press conference on 10 February 2022. Before the national final, a show called ESC vor Acht ("ESC pre Eight O'clock"), where the participants presented their songs and discussed topics related to the contest.
Final
The televised final took place on 4 March 2022. The running order for the participating entries was determined on 23 February 2022 during the show on Das Erste, hosted by Alina Stiegler and Peter Großmann. The winner, "Rockstars" performed by Malik Harris, was selected through a 100% public voting, being divided into a 50/50 combination of votes from radio voting and public voting, the latter which included options for landline and SMS voting. For the radio vote, listeners were able to vote via the official websites of the nine ARD radio channels between 28 February 2022 and 4 March 2022. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, Jamala performed her winning song "1944", while Conchita Wurst performed a medley of Eurovision entries together with Gitte Hænning and member of Texas Lightning, Jane Comerford.