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The Eurovision Song Contest 2011 commonly abbrieviated to Eurovision 2011 or ESC 2011 was the 55th annual contest of the Eurovision Song Contest. It was hosted in Esprit Arena, Düsseldorf, Germany, after Lena Meyer-Landrut won for Germany in 2010 with "Satellite". The two semi finals were hosted on the 10th and 12th of May 2011 and the final on 14th of May, 2011.
The contest was won by duo Ell & Nikki from Azerbaijan with their song "Running Scared". The Song earned a total of 221 points, placing it in the top spot. The runner up was Italy, and Sweden finished in third place. Italy (2nd) and Germany (10th) were the only members of the "Big Five" to make it into the top 10, with the United Kingdom close behind at 11th place. However, out of the 25 countries who made it into the final, the remaining two of the "Big Five", France and Spain, failed to make it into the top half of the leader board coming 15th (82 points) and 23rd (50 points) respectively.
Venue
The Esprit Arena in Düsseldorf was announced by German broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) as the venue for the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest on 12 October 2010. This was the first Eurovision Song Contest held in Germany since German reunification, with West Germany having previously hosted the contest in 1957 and 1983. Germany is also the first member of the "Big Five" to host the Contest since the implementation of the rule in 2000 which permits the five largest contributors to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) – Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Spain and Italy – to qualify automatically for the final alongside the previous year's winner.
Bidding phase
23 cities had ordered the terms of tender for the event by NDR. Eight of these cities continued to show interest in hosting the event including Berlin, Hamburg, Hanover, Gelsenkirchen, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Frankfurt and Munich. It was announced on 21 August 2010 by NDR that four of those cities had officially applied to host the 2011 Contest: Berlin, Hamburg, Hanover, and Düsseldorf.
Esprit Arena Düsseldorf
The newspaper Der Westen announced that construction and dismantling work within the Esprit Arena will allow the stadium to be rented for a period of six weeks. The stadium can accommodate 24,000 spectators for the Eurovision Song Contest. Düsseldorf will offer 23,000 hotel beds and 2,000 additional beds in the Düsseldorf surroundings and on ships on the River Rhine. Düsseldorf Airport is nearby and an athletics arena near the Esprit Arena is reportedly planned to be used as press centre for 1,500 journalists. Advert banners will be removed from the arena, and lodgers and business-seat-owners who have an annual ticket for the football matches of Fortuna Düsseldorf will be compensated. Initially it was reported that Paul-Janes-Stadion would be upgraded to 2nd Bundesliga requirements. Instead, a mobile arena was build next to Esprit Arena for €3 million, with a capacity of around 20,000. It was used for three second division games.
Event concept and ticket sale
On 13 October 2010 Thomas Schreiben, coordinator at ARD outlined details of Düsseldorf's event concept. The Esprit Arena was to be split in two parts separated from each other. On one side of the stadium the stage will be installed while the other side will function as background dressing rooms for the artist delegations. An athletics arena next to the Esprit Arena will serve as the press centre for the event. The Esprit Arena offers comfortable seats relatively near to the stage that created rather an indoor event arena atmosphere than a football-stadium ambiance. There were plans to open also the dress rehearsals for the public. Altogether, tickets are going to be sold for seven shows (the final, two semi-finals and four dress rehearsals).
He also said in that interview that tickets for the event were likely to go on sale "within the next four weeks" (by mid-November 2010). NDR had already opened a preregistration e-mail-newsletter on its website for all people interested in tickets for the event.
Ticket sales was announced to start on 12 December 2010 at 12:12 CET on the website www.dticket.de, which was the only authorised seller of tickets for the Eurovision Song Contest 2011. However matter of factly the ticket page was open for sales about two hour earlier, which was announced just minutes before opening by an email newsletter send to preregistered buyers only, giving them a slight benefit in acquiring tickets. The final 32,000 tickets that were put on sale on 12 December sold out within less than six hours. Once camera positions had been determined, a few thousand tickets more were put on sale. Tickets for the semi-finals were put on sale in mid-January, when it was known which countries would take part in each semi-final.
Media reports regarding host city
- Düsseldorf
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 Esprit Arena in Düsseldorf was awarded the 2011 Song Contest. This message already indicated that talks with Düsseldorf to host the song contest in the Esprit Arena were at an advanced stage at that moment. Fortuna Düsseldorf football club later announced on its website on 6 October 2010 that the club had obtained permission to move their games if necessary. The Neue Ruhr Zeitung newspaper, which is part of the WAZ Media Group, reported on 12 December 2010 that Fortuna Düsseldorf were to be moved to the Paul-Janes-Stadio due to the contest. Fortuna Düsseldorf's training venue next to the Esprit Arena will be equipped with mobile stands from a Swiss event construction specialist, Nussli Group, creating 20,000 extra seats. This decision was made because the Arena Sportpark Düsseldorf holds better logistic qualifications. This is expected to cost approximately €1.5 million.
- Hamburg
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.
- Berlin
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 "secrecy about the bid concepts were promised to the NDR", Meng commented.
Role of national host broadcaster
ARD, which is the European Broadcasting Union member to broadcast the Eurovision Song Contest in Germany is a joint organisation of Germany's regional public-service broadcasters. The venues that were in consideration are located in the areas of three different members: Berlin is located within the Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB) member area, Hamburg and Hanover within the Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) area and Düsseldorf within the Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) broadcasting area. While NDR has been responsible for the transmission of the Eurovision Song Contest in recent years when the final took place in other countries, the financial scope of the three broadcasters seemed to have become a decisive factor in the application procedure for the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest. The Tagesspiegel reported on 7 October that the costs for hosting this event resulted in a tense discussion about necessary savings on other programme contents made by the three broadcasters. The press alleged that RBB's weak financial state was the biggest hurdle for Berlin staging the contest.
Format
The four countries that are part of the Big Four, along with the host of the contest, automatically qualify for a place in the final. For the 2011 Contest, Germany is both a "Big Four" country and the host, resulting in a vacant spot in the final. At a Reference Group meeting in Belgrade it was decided that the existing rules will remain in place, and that the number of participants in the final will simply be lowered from twenty-five to twenty-four. On 31 December 2010, the official participation list was published by the EBU, which states that with the return of Italy to the contest, this nation will become a member of the "Big Five" thus permitting them automatic qualification into the finals, alongside Germany (host), France, Spain, and the United Kingdom, and therefore restores the number of participants for the final to twenty-five nations.
On 30 August 2010 it was announced that Svante Stockselius, Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest, will leave his position on 31 December 2010. On 26 November 2010, EBU reported that Jon Ola Sand will be the new Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest.
Hosts
NDR revealed the presenters of contest on 16 December 2010; Anke Engelke, Judith Rakers, and Stefan Raab. It was the third time three people have hosted the contest after 1999 and 2010.
Pot allocations
The draw to determine the semi-final running orders was held on Monday 17 January 2011. The participating countries excluding the automatic finalists (France, Germany, Italy, Spain & the United Kingdom) were split into six pots, based upon how those countries have been voting. From these pots, half (or as close to half as is possible) competed in the first Semi Final on 10 May 2011. The other half in that particular pot will compete in the second Semi Final on 12 May 2011. This draw also doubled up as an approximate running order, in order for the delegations from the countries to know when their rehearsals commenced. The draw also determined in which Semi Final the automatic finalists voted in.
Israeli broadcaster IBA requested to take part in the second semi-final due to the Israeli Memorial Day, which was held during the first semi-final. German broadcaster NDR also requested that they be allowed to vote in the second semi-final for scheduling reasons.
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 | Pot 5 | Pot 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Semi Final 1
Semi final 1 was on the 10th of May, 2011 in Esprit Arena in Düsseldorf. Spain and the United Kingdom voted in this semi final.
| Draw | Country | Language | Artist | Song | English Translation | Place | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Poland | Polish | Magdalena Tul | "Jestem" | I am | 19 | 18 |
| 02 | Norway | English, Swahili | Stella Mwangi | "Haba Haba" | Little by little | 17 | 30 |
| 03 | Albania | English, Albanian | Aurela Gaçe | "Feel the Passion" | — | 14 | 47 |
| 04 | Armenia | English | Emmy | "Boom Boom" | — | 12 | 54 |
| 05 | Turkey | English | Yüksek Sadakat | "Live It Up" | — | 13 | 47 |
| 06 | Serbia | Serbian | Nina | "Čaroban" | Magical | 8 | 67 |
| 07 | Russia | English, Russian | Alexey Vorobyov | "Get You" | — | 9 | 64 |
| 08 | Switzerland | English | Anna Rossinelli | "In Love for a While" | — | 10 | 55 |
| 09 | Georgia | English | Eldrine | "One More Day" | — | 6 | 74 |
| 10 | Finland | English | Paradise Oskar | "Da Da Dam" | — | 3 | 103 |
| 11 | Malta | English | Glen Vella | "One Life" | — | 11 | 54 |
| 12 | San Marino | English | Senit | "Stand By" | — | 16 | 34 |
| 13 | Croatia | English | Daria | "Celebrate" | — | 15 | 41 |
| 14 | Iceland | English | Sjonni's Friends | "Coming Home" | — | 4 | 100 |
| 15 | Hungary | English, Hungarian | Kati Wolf | "What About My Dreams?" | — | 7 | 72 |
| 16 | Portugal | Portuguese | Homens da Luta | "A luta é alegria" | The struggle is joy | 18 | 22 |
| 17 | Lithuania | English | Evelina Sašenko | "C'est ma vie" | It's my life | 5 | 81 |
| 18 | Azerbaijan | English | Ell & Nikki | "Running Scared" | — | 2 | 122 |
| 19 | Greece | English, Greek | Loukas Giorkas ft. Stereo Mike |
"Watch My Dance" | — | 1 | 133 |
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Voting Results
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Jury/Televote results for semi-final 1
The full split jury/televoting results were announced by the EBU in May 2011.
| Place | Televoting | Points | Jury | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greece | 154 | Lithuania | 113 |
| 2 | Azerbaijan | 124 | Azerbaijan | 109 |
| 3 | Finland | 111 | Iceland | 104 |
| 4 | Russia | 93 | Serbia | 102 |
| 5 | Georgia | 90 | Finland | 86 |
| 6 | Iceland | 79 | Malta | 84 |
| 7 | Armenia | 75 | Switzerland | 76 |
| 8 | Hungary | 73 | San Marino | 74 |
| 9 | Norway | 56 | Greece | 74 |
| 10 | Turkey | 54 | Hungary | 65 |
| 11 | Lithuania | 52 | Albania | 61 |
| 12 | Switzerland | 45 | Turkey | 58 |
| 13 | Albania | 42 | Georgia | 51 |
| 14 | Serbia | 42 | Croatia | 49 |
| 15 | Portugal | 39 | Armenia | 33 |
| 16 | Croatia | 32 | Russia | 31 |
| 17 | Poland | 25 | Norway | 29 |
| 18 | Malta | 24 | Poland | 13 |
| 19 | San Marino | 8 | Portugal | 6 |
Semi-final 2
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