The national final took place on 25 February 2016 and featured ten competing acts with the winner being selected through two rounds of public voting.

ARD and NDR had initially announced on 19 November 2015 that they had selected the soul and R&B singer-songwriter Xavier Naidoo to represent Germany in Stockholm.

Naidoo was seen as unfit to represent Germany due to political, homophobic and racial statements the performer had made throughout his career.

Two days following the broadcaster's announcement of Naidoo's selection, NDR reneged on their agreement and withdrew the performer as the German representative.

In 2015, the German entry "Black Smoke" performed by Ann Sophie placed last out of twenty-seven competing songs and failed to score any 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.

[3] After facing media fallout and negative public reactions, NDR reneged on their arrangement with Naidoo and later announced that they would organise a multi-artist national final to select the German entry.

[8] The backlash caused NDR to revoke their arrangement with Naidoo two days later on 21 November 2015, which also elicited criticism for the broadcaster's conduct.

[9] Naidoo himself issued a statement on his Facebook page where he stated: "A few months ago, ARD approached me and asked me to compete next year for Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm.

[14] An after-show programme hosted by Bianca Hauda and Thilo Jahn as well as the winner's press conference were also broadcast on EinsFestival as well as online following the competition.

Students attending German film and art schools were tasked with developing staging ideas for the participating entries.

[29] During the opening ceremony festivities that took place on 8 May, Jamie-Lee took part in a draw to determine in which half of the final the German entry would be performed.

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.

The four backing vocalists that joined Jamie-Lee on stage were Anne Leyne, Tina Frank, Ray Lozano and Helen Kaiser.

Voting during the three shows was conducted under a new system that involved each country now awarding two sets of points from 1–8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting.

Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency.

This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act.

The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.