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 26 November 2010, the EBU announced that
Jon Ola Sand would succeed Stockselius as Executive Supervisor.
Semi-final allocation draw The draw to determine the semi-final running orders was held on 17 January 2011. All of the participating countries excluding the automatic finalists were split into six pots, based on the voting history of those countries in previous years. From these pots, half (or as close to half as was possible) competed in the first semi-final on 10 May 2011. The other half in that particular pot competed in the second semi-final on 12 May 2011. This draw doubled 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 of the semi-finals the automatic finalists would be able to cast their votes. Israeli broadcaster IBA requested to compete in the second semi-final, rather than the first semi-final that was pulled in the draw, due to
Israel's Memorial Day coinciding with the first semi-final. German broadcaster NDR also requested that it be allowed to vote in the second semi-final for scheduling reasons. The postcard introducing each performance included the logo in the colours of the performing country (e.g. the United Kingdom in red, white and blue); then a German place was shown in
a toy-like view using
tilt-shift photography and a story happened there, whose main characters were people either living in Germany or tourists from that country. The contest's motto, 'Feel your heart beat', was then shown or said in the country's national or native language. For example, in the first postcard shown (Poland's), the boyfriend drops a piece of paper. The camera then pans down to the paper, to show the Polish phrase "Poczuj bicie serca" handwritten on it. In the second postcard shown (Norway's), a mountain climber from Norway climbs to the top of a mountain and yells the Norwegian phrase "Kjenn ditt hjerte slå.". Then, the heart appeared once again, and the stage and the crowd could be seen, with heartbeat sounds and pink lights pulsating in rhythm with the heartbeat, before the performance started. The main colours of the letterboxes were black and pink. The scoreboard showed a spokesperson from the country giving their votes on the right, while showing a table of results on the left. The large points (8, 10 and 12) were highlighted in pink, whilst the lower points, (1–7) were in purple. This scoreboard design was used again the following year, with minor changes such as the large points appearing progressively larger in size compared to the lower points and the highlighted colours changed to match the
2012 theme, "Light your fire!"
Host broadcaster ,
Judith Rakers, and
Stefan Raab.
ARD, the German participating broadcaster in the Eurovision Song Contest, is a joint organisation of Germany's regional public-service broadcasters. The ARD has
10 members. The venues that were in consideration are located in the areas of three different members: Berlin is located within the (RBB) member area, Hamburg and Hanover within the (NDR) area and Düsseldorf within the (WDR) broadcasting area. While ARD has delegated its participation in the contest to NDR in recent years, the financial scope of the three broadcasters seemed to have become a decisive factor in the application procedure for the 2011 contest. The reported on 7 October 2010 that the costs for hosting this event resulted in a tense discussion about necessary savings on other programme contents made by the three broadcasters.
Hosts On 16 December 2010, NDR announced that
Anke Engelke,
Judith Rakers, and
Stefan Raab were to be the presenters for the contest. It was the third time three people would host the contest, the previous such contests being and . Raab had represented Germany in 2000 with "
Wadde hadde dudde da?", whereas Engelke is an actress and comedian, and Rakers a journalist and television presenter.
Event concept and ticket sale On 13 October 2010 Thomas Schreiber, coordinator at ARD, outlined details of Düsseldorf's event concept. The Düsseldorf Arena was to be split in two parts separated from each other. On one side of the stadium the stage would be installed while the other side would function as background dressing rooms for the artist delegations. An athletics arena next to the Düsseldorf Arena would serve as the press centre for the event. The Düsseldorf Arena offered comfortable seats relatively near to the stage that created an indoor event arena atmosphere rather than a football-stadium ambiance. There were plans to allow the public the chance to attend the dress rehearsals. Altogether, tickets were sold for seven shows (the grand 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 started on 12 December 2010 at 12:12
CET on the website www.dticket.de, the only authorised seller. However, the ticket page opened for sales approximately two hours earlier than originally advertised; this announcement was made by an email newsletter sent to preregistered buyers minutes before opening, giving them a slight benefit in acquiring tickets. The grand final 32,000 tickets that were put on sale on 12 December sold out in less than six hours. Once camera positions had been determined, a few thousand extra tickets 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. == Contest overview ==