The national final took place on 3 March 2015 and featured eight competing acts, one of which was selected through a Club Concert wildcard round.

The confirmation of national final runner-up "Black Smoke" performed by Ann Sophie as the German entry occurred during a post-show press conference.

In 2014, the German entry "Is It Right" performed by Elaiza placed eighteenth out of twenty-six competing songs scoring 39 points.

[2] Since 2013, NDR had set up national finals with several artists to choose both the song and performer to compete at Eurovision for Germany.

The competition took place on 5 March 2015 at the TUI Arena in Hannover, hosted by Barbara Schöneberger with Janin Reinhardt reporting from the green room.

[9] The ten participating artists each performed an original song during a Club Concert show that took place on 19 February 2015 at the Große Freiheit 36 in Hamburg, hosted by Barbara Schöneberger with Janin Reinhardt reporting from the green room and was broadcast on NDR Fernsehen and EinsPlus as well as online via eurovision.de.

[10] The winner, Ann Sophie, was selected solely by public televoting, including options for landline and SMS voting, and proceeded to the national final.

"[12] Following the show, NDR held a press conference confirming "Black Smoke" performed by Ann Sophie as the German entry for the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest.

[19][20] Ann Sophie made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Black Smoke" as the German Eurovision entry.

On 18 April, Ann Sophie performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Cornald Maas and Edsilia Rombley.

[24] According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final.

The running order for the semi-finals and final was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other.

[35][36] The four backing vocalists that joined Ann Sophie on stage were Giovanna Winterfeldt, Bibi Vongehr, Lan Syreen and Kayna Okwuazu.

The jury consisted of five music industry professionals who were citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency.

This jury was asked to judge each contestant based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act.