EDGUY frontman Tobias Sammet's AVANTASIA project is one of ten artists who will take part in the preliminary TV casting show to choose the candidate to represent Germany at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm this May. AVANTASIA will compete with its current single, "Mystery Of A Blood Red Rose".

Sammet explained his reasons for getting involved in the Eurovision Song Contest: "It seemed like a quite unusual idea to compete with anyone in art, to play music against someone. It's still weird anyhow, to play music against each other like in the Olympic Games. Anyway, who am I to get in the way of a great promotional opportunity?! Three minutes to show millions that we exist?"

"Unser Lied für Stockholm" will be broadcast live on February 25 at 20:15 CET, both online and on public TV channel Das Erste. The TV public will solely decide on the winner by means of televoting, SMS voting and the Eurovision app, and the voting will be organized in two rounds. The presenter of the show will again be Barbara Schöneberger.

The following ten acts will battle to represent Germany:

* AVANTASIA - "Mystery Of A Blood Red Rose"

* ALEX DIEHL - "Nur ein Lied"

* ELLA ENDLICH - "Adrenalin

* GREGORIAN - "Masters Of Chant"

* JAMIE-LEE KRIEWITZ - "Ghost"

* JOCO - "Full Moon"

* KEØMA - "Protected"

* LAURA PINSKI - "Under The Sun We Are One"

* LUXUSLÄRM - "Solange Liebe in mir wohnt"

* WOODS OF BIRNAM - "Lift Me Up (From The Underground) "

Around 150 suggestions were submitted to broadcaster NDR from radio broadcasters, producers, record labels and artists. The final 10 were chosen by NDR, two youth radio shows, music labels, and the TV production company Brainpool.

"Mystery Of A Blood Red Rose" is taken from AVANTASIA's seventh studio album, "Ghostlights", which will be released on January 29 via Nuclear Blast. The twelve-song CD was produced by Tobias and Sascha Paeth at Gatestudio in Wolfsburg, Germany. Paeth engineered and mixed "Ghostlights", while the mastering was done by Michael Rodenberg.