Premature end for the band Frida Gold in the German preliminary round for the Eurovision Song Contest: Alina Süggeler, the singer of the band, is so ill that she no longer has a voice for the performance on Friday evening, as the Norddeutscher Rundfunk in Hamburg announced.
Already the second day of rehearsals had to be reduced to two runs, in which they could only sing sporadically, the band from the Bochum area is quoted in the message. "Any short-term medical measures had not led to any acute improvement to make a performance possible. For Alina and everyone involved, after weeks of work and preparation, this is a shock and an immense disappointment."
Bassist Andi Weizel spoke on Instagram of a "bitter" situation: "Unfortunately, the worst case has occurred." He wished the other participants every success, even the joint rehearsals had been a "really cool experience". Weizel also thanked the fans and the ESC community, who had received the band great.
The band Frida Gold ("What should we dream of") was next to the party singer Ikke Hüftgold (46, "Big tits, potato salad") to the better known participants of the preliminary round. Now only eight applicants are in the race for the ticket to the popular music competition.
In addition to Ikke Hüftgold, singer-songwriter Will Church, rock band Lord Of The Lost, musician René Miller, singer-songwriter Anica Russo, pop-punk band Lonely Spring, singer TRONG and pop-folk musician Patty Gurdy are among them. The show will be moderated on Friday evening, 22.20 pm, by Barbara Schöneberger (48). The winner will be decided equally by a jury and half by the audience.
The ESC final will take place on 13 May in Liverpool. The UK is hosting, although it finished second behind Ukrainian band Kalush Orchestra in 2022. Because of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, the European Broadcasting Union EBU did not want to hold the ESC final in the country of last year's winner.