Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

hosted the

Eurovision Song Contest 2011 The Eurovision Song Contest 2011 was the 56th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Düsseldorf, Germany, following the country's victory at the with the song "Satellite" by Lena. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union ...

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

and selected their song through a national final, organised by German broadcaster ARD in collaboration with

Norddeutscher Rundfunk Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR; ''Northern German Broadcasting'') is a public broadcasting, public radio and television broadcaster, based in Hamburg. In addition to the city-state of Hamburg, NDR broadcasts for the German states of Lower Saxony, M ...

(NDR). In June 2010, ARD announced that

Lena Meyer-Landrut Lena Johanna Therese Meyer-Landrut (; born 23 May 1991), also known by the mononym Lena, is a German singer. She rose to fame after representing Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 in Oslo, winning the contest with her song "Satellite". ...

would represent Germany at the contest again.

Before Eurovision

Artist selection

At the winner's press conference of the Eurovision Song Contest 2010, Stefan Raab announced that

would again represent the Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 to defend her title. On 30 June 2010, NDR confirmed that they had internally selected Meyer-Landrut to represent the country.

''Unser Song für Deutschland''

''Unser Song für Deutschland'' (English: Our Song for Germany) was the song selection to select the song that Lena Meyer-Landrut would perform at the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest. The competition consisted of two semi-finals on 31 January and 7 February 2011 and a final on 18 February 2011 all taking place at the Köln-Mülheim Studios in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

, hosted by

Matthias Opdenhövel Matthias Augustinus Wilhelm Georg Opdenhövel (born 25 August 1970) is a German television presenter. Biography Born in Detmold, Opdenhövel has worked as journalist and television presenter for German broadcasters ARD, Sat 1, Pro7, VIVA G ...

and

Sabine Heinrich Sabine Heinrich (born 27 December 1976 in Unna, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany) is a German radio and television presenter. Career Heinrich worked at the radio station 1LIVE in Cologne from 2001 until June 2016. At 1LIVE she presented ...

. Like in the previous year, the national final was co-produced by the production company Brainpool, which would also co-produce the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest in Düsseldorf. The semi-finals were broadcast on

ProSieben ProSieben (, ''sieben'' is German for "seven"; often stylized as Pro7) is a German free-to-air television network owned by ProSiebenSat.1 Media. It was launched on 1 January 1989. It is Germany's second-largest privately owned television company ...

and the final was broadcast on Das Erste as well as online via ARD's official website ''daserste.de''. The final of the competition was watched by 3.25 million viewers in Germany.

Competing entries

German and international composers and lyricists were called upon to submit their entries for the competition. Between 400 and 600 entries were received. A panel of music experts together with Stefan Raab selected the top twelve songs. The twelve participating songs were announced during the semi-finals of the competition.

Semi-finals

Two semi-finals took place on 31 January and 7 February 2011. In each semi-final Meyer-Landrut presented six songs and three were selected by public voting to proceed to the final. Public voting included options for landline and SMS voting. Each show featured a panel of music experts which provided feedback in regards to the songs during the show. Stefan Raab featured on the panel in both semi-finals; in semi-final 1 he was joined by and

Stefanie Kloß Silbermond ("silver moon") is a German pop rock band from Bautzen, Saxony. The band consists of Stefanie Kloß, Andreas Nowak, and brothers Johannes and Thomas Stolle. History The band members originally met in 1998 when they participated in t ...

, and in semi-final 2 by Anke Engelke and

Joy Denalane Joy Maureen Denalane (born 11 June 1973) is a German singer-songwriter, known for her mixture of soul, R&B, and African folk music with lyrics in German and English. Early life Denalane was born in Berlin-Schöneberg to a South African father ...

Final

The televised final took place on 18 February 2011. Meyer-Landrut performed the six finalist songs and the winning was selected through two rounds of public voting. Public voting included options for landline and SMS voting. In the first round of voting, the top two songs were selected to proceed to the second round. In the second round, the winning song, "

Taken by a Stranger "Taken by a Stranger" is a song recorded by German singer Lena for her second studio album '' Good News'' (2011), released as a CD single on 22 February 2011 by We Love Music. Gus Seyffert, Nicole Morier and Monica Birkenes wrote the song, wh ...

", was selected. The members of the expert music panel consisted of Stefan Raab,

Barbara Schöneberger Barbara von Schierstädt (; born 5 March 1974) is a German television presenter, actress and singer. Early life Schöneberger is the only child of clarinet player Hans Schöneberger and his wife Annemarie. She studied sociology, art history and ...

and

Adel Tawil Adel Salah Mahmoud Eid El-Tawil (born 15 August 1978) is a German singer, songwriter and producer. Besides his solo career, he is part of the popular German duo Ich + Ich and a former member of the boy band The Boyz. Early life Tawil was born ...

At Eurovision

Germany was the host of the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 and a " Big Five" member and was therefore in the final, on 14 May. Germany voted in the second semi-final.

Lena Lena or LENA may refer to: Places * Léna Department, a department of Houet Province in Burkina Faso * Lena, Manitoba, an unincorporated community located in Killarney-Turtle Mountain municipality in Manitoba, Canada * Lena, Norway, a village in ...

finished 10th in the final with 107 points. The public awarded Germany 9th place with 113 points and the jury awarded 10th place with 104 points.

Voting

Points awarded to Germany

Points awarded by Germany

Split results from Germany

References

External links

NDR's official Eurovision site

{{Lena Meyer-Landrut

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...