Michael Schulte is off to Lisbon for Germany!

On Thursday, Michael Schulte was selected as Germany's representative for the contest in Lisbon this year! His song, "You Let Me Walk Alone", which was written in memory of his deceased father, beat another five songs in the national final "Unser Lied for Lissabon", all hoping to claim the German ticket for the contest! However, Michael wowed the public and juries scoring a perfect 36 points and claiming an 11 point lead over runner-up, Xavier Darcy, to claim the victory.

Unlike most national finals, the voting was split into three sections - a Eurovision panel (made up of 100 fans from across Europe), the televoting, and an international jury which also featured many former Eurovision participants including Margaret Berger (Norway 2013), Tinkara Kovac (Slovenia 2014), Helga Moller (Iceland 1986) and Ruth Lorenzo (Spain 2014).

Michael began his singing career in 2008, when he began posting covers on YouTube. He later appeared on the first season of The Voice of Germany, where he placed third, behind Ivy Quainoo (who finished fourth in this year's national final for Germany) and Kim Sanders. Following his appearance on The Voice of Germany, Michael released his debut album "Wide Awake" which reached number 54 in the German Album Charts. The album's lead single, "Carry Me Home", fared a bit better on the charts than the album itself, reaching number 8 in Germany, number 25 in Switzerland and number 30 in Austria.

As a member of the Big 5, Germany will automatically qualify for the final, joining France's Madame Monsiuer, Italy's Ermal & Fabrizio, Spain's Alfred & Amaia and the UK's SuRie. Portugal is the only automatic qualifier yet to have confirmed their entry. Their entry will be confirmed, following the final of Festival da Canção, on 4th March. You can watch Michael's entry below:

Germany first debuted in the contest during the inaugural contest in 1956, and have only ever missed one contest, which was in 1996, when they failed to make it past the pre-qualification round. Since they made their debut, Germany have finished in the top 3 eleven times, which includes their two wins in 1982 and 2010. Germany hasn't had the best of times in the past few editions, only reaching the top 20 once in the last five contests and finishing last twice, including one entry which scored 'nul points' - the first time Germany had scored 'nul points' since 1965. You can watch Germany's 'nul points' performance from 2015 below: