The Eurovision Song Contest 2011 was the 56th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It consisted of two semi-finals on 10 and 12 May and a final on 14 May 2011, held at the Esprit Arena in Düsseldorf, Germany, and presented by Anke Engelke, Stefan Raab, and Judith Rakers. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (NDR) on behalf of ARD, which staged the event after winning the for with the song "Satellite" by Lena.
Broadcasters from forty-three countries participated in the contest, equalling the record for the . Four countries returned to the contest this year; returned after their last participation , returned after their last participation , returned after their first participation . also returned to the contest after their last participation fourteen years earlier, .
The winner was with the song "Running Scared", performed by Ell and Nikki, and written by Stefan Örn, Sandra Bjurman, and Iain James Farquharson. This was Azerbaijan's first victory in the contest, after only four years of participation. It was also the first male-female duo to win the contest since . Azerbaijan won the televote and combined vote, while won the jury vote and came second overall. , , and rounded out the top five. Apart from Italy, the only other "Big Five" country to make the top 10 was host nation Germany, finishing tenth. The United Kingdom followed closely behind, finishing eleventh. This was the first time since the juries were reintroduced alongside the televoting in 2009 that the winner did not place first in the jury voting; Italy was the jury winner, while Azerbaijan was the televote winner. Georgia, finishing ninth, equalled its best result from . For the first time since the introduction of semi-finals in , Turkey failed to qualify for the final. Additionally, Armenia failed to qualify for the final for the first time since its debut in .
The broadcast of the final won the Rose d'Or award for Best Live Event.
Location
The contest took place in Düsseldorf, the seventh-largest city in Germany. This was the first contest to take place outside the host nation's capital city since the in Istanbul. It was also the first Eurovision Song Contest held in Germany since German reunification, with West Germany having previously hosted the contest in and . Germany was also the first country of the "Big Five" to host the contest since the implementation of the rule in 2000 that permits the five countries whose broadcasters are the largest contributors to the EBU – , , the , , and – to qualify automatically for the final alongside the previous year's winner.
The Esprit Arena, a multi-functional football stadium, hosted the contest. The stadium acquired a rental period of six weeks, in order to allow construction and dismantling work in relation to the contest to be carried out. The arena accommodated 35,000 spectators during the contest. Düsseldorf offered 23,000 hotel beds and 2,000 additional beds in the Düsseldorf surroundings and on ships on the River Rhine.
Bidding phase Twenty-three cities submit official bids to (NDR), in order to be the host city for the 2011 contest. Eight of these cities continued to show interest in hosting the event including Berlin, Hamburg, Hanover, Gelsenkirchen, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Frankfurt, and Munich. NDR announced on 21 August 2010 that four of those cities had officially applied to host the 2011 contest: Berlin, Hamburg, Hanover, and Düsseldorf. On 2 October 2010 the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper announced that Hamburg would be unable to host the 2011 Song Contest, because the city could no longer fulfil the required financial conditions.
Concerns were raised about Berlin's bid concept which consisted of an inflatable tent to be built on Tempelhof's hangar area. Decision makers at NDR reportedly doubted the venue's ability to provide advantageous acoustic conditions. Berlin's speaker Richard Meng neither confirmed nor denied that because, he stated, "secrecy about the bid concepts was promised to the NDR".
On 24 September 2010, it was announced that Fortuna Düsseldorf football club had applied to the Deutsche Fußball Liga for permission to move its home matches to the Paul-Janes-Stadion if the Düsseldorf Arena was awarded the Song Contest. This message indicated that talks with Düsseldorf to host the song contest in the Düsseldorf Arena were already at an advanced stage. The club later announced on 6 October 2010 that it had obtained permission to move its games if necessary."DFL genehmigt Umzug in den Flinger Broich" , Fortuna Düsseldorf, 6 October 2010 The Neue Ruhr Zeitung newspaper reported on 12 December 2010 that Fortuna Düsseldorf were to be moved to the Paul-Janes-Stadion due to the contest, however it was later decided Fortuna Düsseldorf's training venue next to the Düsseldorf Arena would be equipped with mobile stands from a Swiss event construction specialist, Nussli Group, creating 20,000 extra seats, the decision being made for logistical purposes. The stadium would be named the Lena-Arena and host the remaining 3 home games of Fortuna Düsseldorf's 2. Bundesliga campaign.
On 12 October 2010, NDR announced that the Düsseldorf Arena had been chosen as the host venue for the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest.
Key
Host venue City Venue Notes Berlin A large tent on the grounds of Tempelhof Airport If chosen, the tent would have been located on the field near the hangars. Allegedly only room for 9,000 spectators. Düsseldorf Esprit Arena Home of the Fortuna Düsseldorf football club. The stadium can hold up to 50,000 spectators, but would hold up to 38,000 spectators for the contest Hamburg Hamburg Messehallen, Hall A1 Would be staged at Hall A1, but with room for less than 10,000 spectators. Hanover Hanover Exhibition Centre —
Participants
On 31 December 2010, it was confirmed that 43 countries would compete in the 2011 contest. The 2011 edition saw the returns of , which had last participated ; , which had last participated ; , which had only taken part ; and , which had last participated . Montenegro had applied to take part in the contest on 4 December, but decided against participation and withdrew on 23 December, two days before 25 December no-strings-attached deadline.
(STV) announced its withdrawal from the 2011 contest due to financial reasons, despite holding a public poll on its website on its Eurovision participation which received an 87.5% positive vote. STV announced that it planned to return in the 2012 contest. However, 's application remained on the provisional list, leading to its participation in the 2011 contest. STV announced in January 2011 that it would yet withdraw from the contest, citing to financial reasons and organisational changes. However it was listed by the EBU as one of the semi-finalist countries in the semi-final allocation draw on 17 January, and STV later confirmed it would continue its participation to avoid a fine for a late withdrawal.
At a meeting in Belgrade on 28 August 2010, the EBU decided that each country had to choose its artist and song before 14 March 2011. On 15 March 2011, the draw for the running order took place in the host city. The semi-final allocation draw took place on 17 January in Düsseldorf.
Several of the performing artists had previously represented the same country in past editions, including Dino Merlin, who had represented . Gunnar Ólason, a member of Sjonni's Friends, had represented as part of Two Tricky. Zdob și Zdub had represented . Sophio Toroshelidze, the lead singer of Eldrine, had provided backing vocals for . In addition, TWiiNS representing Slovakia, had provided backing vocals for the .
Along with those artists, two previous Eurovision winners also returned to the contest: Dana International who won the contest for , and Lena who won for and brought the contest to Düsseldorf. Stefan Raab, who represented and appeared as a conductor and backing artist for other German entries, hosted the contest. This was the first time since and only the second time in the history of the contest that two former winners returned on the same year.
+ Eurovision Song Contest 2011 participants Country Broadcaster Artist Song Language Songwriter(s) RTSH Aurela Gaçe "Feel the Passion" English AMPTV Emmy "Boom Boom" English ORF Nadine Beiler "The Secret is Love" English İTV Ell and Nikki "Running Scared" English BTRC Anastasia Vinnikova "I Love Belarus" English RTBF Witloof Bay "With Love Baby" English BHRT Dino Merlin "Love in Rewind" English Dino Merlin BNT Poli Genova "" () Bulgarian HRT Daria "Celebrate" English CyBC Christos Mylordos "" () Greek DR A Friend in London "New Tomorrow" English ERR Getter Jaani "Rockefeller Street" English Sven Lõhmus Yle Paradise Oskar "Da Da Dam" English Axel Ehnström Amaury Vassili "" Corsican GPB Eldrine "One More Day" English NDR Lena "Taken by a Stranger" English ERT Loukas Yorkas Stereo Mike "Watch My Dance" English, Greek MTVA Kati Wolf "What About My Dreams?" English, Hungarian RÚV Sjonni's Friends "Coming Home" English RTÉ Jedward "Lipstick" English IBA Dana International "Ding Dong" Hebrew, English Dana International RAI Raphael Gualazzi "Madness of Love" Italian, English Raffaele Gualazzi LTV Musiqq "Angel in Disguise" English Marats Ogļezņevs LRT Evelina Sašenko "" English, French, Lithuanian Sign Language MRT Vlatko Ilievski "" () Macedonian, English PBS Glen Vella "One Life" English TRM Zdob și Zdub "So Lucky" English TROS 3JS "Never Alone" English NRK Stella Mwangi "Haba Haba" English, Swahili TVP Magdalena Tul "" Polish Magdalena Tul RTP Homens da Luta "" Portuguese TVR Hotel FM "Change" English C1R Alexey Vorobyov "Get You" English, Russian SMRTV Senit "Stand By" English Radiosa Romani RTS Nina "" () Serbian Kristina Kovač RTVS Twiins "I'm Still Alive" English RTVSLO Maja Keuc "No One" English RTVE Lucía Pérez "" Spanish Rafael Artesero SVT Eric Saade "Popular" English Fredrik Kempe SRG SSR Anna Rossinelli "In Love for a While" English David Klein TRT Yüksek Sadakat "Live It Up" English NTU Mika Newton "Angel" English BBC Blue "I Can" English
Format The four countries that were part of the "Big Four", along with the host of the contest, automatically qualify for a place in the grand final. Since Germany was both a "Big Four" country and the host for the 2011 contest, there was a vacant spot in the grand final. At a Reference Group meeting in Belgrade it was decided that the existing rules would remain in place, and that the number of participants in the grand final would simply be lowered from twenty-five to twenty-four. On 31 December 2010, the official participation list was published by the EBU, which stipulated that with the return of Italy to the contest, the nation would become a member of the newly expanded "Big Five". This change permitted Italy automatic qualification into the grand final, alongside France, Spain, the United Kingdom and host nation Germany, restoring the number of participants for the grand final to twenty-five nations.
On 30 August 2010, it was announced that Svante Stockselius, Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest, would be leaving his position on 31 December 2010. On 26 November 2010, the EBU announced that Jon Ola Sand would succeed Stockselius as Executive Supervisor.
Semi-final allocation draw