This week the 56th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest took place in Düsseldorf, Germany, following the country’s victory at the 2010 contest with the song Satellite by Lena. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcasters Arbeitsgemeinschaft Rundfunkanstalten Deutschland (ARD) and Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR), the contest was held at the Düsseldorf Arena and consisted of two semi-finals on 10 and 12 May, and a final on 14 May 2011. The three live shows were presented by German comedians Anke Engelke and Stefan Raab, and television presenter Judith Rakers.
Forty-three countries participated in the contest, equalling the record for the 2008 edition. Four countries returned to the contest this year; Austria returned after their last participation in 2007, Hungary returned after their last participation in 2009, San Marino returned after their very first participation in 2008. Italy also returned to the contest after their last participation fourteen years earlier, in 1997.
The winner was Azerbaijan 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 4 years of participation. It was also the first male-female duo to win the contest since 1963. Azerbaijan won the televote and combined vote, while Italy won the jury vote and came second overall. Sweden, Ukraine and Denmark 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 their best result from 2010.
The broadcast of the final won the Rose d’Or award for Best Live Event.
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