Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011

Eurovision Song Contest 2011
Country	Germany
National selection
Selection process	Artist: Internal Selection Song: Unser Song für Deutschland 100% Televoting
Selection date(s)	Artist: 30 June 2010 Song: Semi-final 31 January 2011 7 February 2011 Final 18 February 2011
Selected entrant	Lena Meyer-Landrut
Selected song	"Taken by a Stranger"
Finals performance
Final result	10th, 107 points

Germany hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in Düsseldorf and selected their song through a national final, organised by German broadcaster NDR which is part of ARD. In June 2010, ARD announced that Lena Meyer-Landrut will represent Germany at the contest again.

Unser Song für Deutschland

Titlecard of "Unser Song für Deutschland"

At the winner's press conference of Eurovision 2010, Stefan Raab announced that Lena Meyer-Landrut will represent Germany in 2011 to defend her title.^[1] ARD didn't, however, confirm the news until 30 June.^{[2][clarification needed]} In December 2010, ARD's head of entertainment Thomas Schreiber said in an interview that the song would be selected via televoting during three live shows, two semi-finals broadcast by ProSieben and the final on Das Erste (ARD), thereby confirming earlier media reports.^[3] As confirmed by NDR, these three shows were held on 31 January and 7 February (semi-finals) and 18 February (final) with six songs been presented in each of the two semi-finals the half of which proceeded to the final.^[4]

Like one year earlier, the three shows were presented by Sabine Heinrich and Matthias Opdenhövel.^[5] On 27 January, ARD announced the six jury members of the competition:^[6] Lena Meyer-Landrut will perform the title Taken by a Stranger as the German song for the Eurovision Song Contest. It won the super final against the pop ballad Push Forward with 79 % of the votes in the final telephone voting.^[7]

Semi-final 1

The first semi-final of Unser Song für Deutschland (Our Song for Germany) was held on 31 January 2011 in Cologne, Germany, and broadcast live by the commercial television station ProSieben.

The jury consisted of (advisory only, no voting rights):

• Stefan Raab
• Der Graf, singer of the German band Unheilig
• Stefanie Kloß, singer of the German band Silbermond

Lena Meyer-Landrut performed six songs, from which three were chosen through televoting to advance to the final.

Draw	Song	Composers	Note
1	"Good News"	Audra Mae & Ferras Alqaisi	Out
2	"Maybe"	Daniel Schaub & Pär Lammers	Qualified
3	"I Like You"	Rosi Golan & Johnny McDaid	Out
4	"That Again"	Stefan Raab	Out
5	"Taken by a Stranger"	Gus Seyffert, Nicole Morier, Monica Birkenes	Qualified
6	"What Happened to Me"	Lena Meyer-Landrut & Stefan Raab	Qualified

Semi-final 2

The second semi-final was held on 7 February 2011 in Cologne and broadcast live by ProSieben.

The jury consisted of (advisory only, no voting rights):

• Stefan Raab
• Anke Engelke, comedian, singer and host of the Eurovision Song Contest 2011
• Joy Denalane, soul singer

Lena Meyer-Landrut again performed six songs, from which three were chosen through televoting to advance to the final.

Draw	Song	Composers	Note
1	"A Million and One"	Errol Rennalls & Stavros Ioannou	Qualified
2	"Teenage Girls"	Viktoria Hansen, Lili Tarkow-Reinisch, Yacíne Azeggagh	Out
3	"Push Forward"	Daniel Schaub & Pär Lammers	Qualified
4	"At All"	Aloe Blacc	Out
5	"A Good Day"	Audra Mae, Todd Wright, Scott Simons	Out
6	"Mama Told Me"	Stefan Raab & Lena Meyer-Landrut	Qualified

Final

The final of Unser Song für Deutschland has been held on 18 February 2011 in Cologne, and shown live by the public broadcaster Das Erste (ARD).

The jury consisted of (advisory only, no voting rights):

• Stefan Raab
• Barbara Schöneberger, hostess and singer
• Adel Tawil, singer of the German band Ich + Ich

Lena Meyer-Landrut performed the six selected songs from the semi-finals again. Through televoting, Germany's entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 has been chosen.

Draw	Song	Composers	Note
1	"Maybe"	Daniel Schaub & Pär Lammers	Out
2	"What Happened to Me"	Lena Meyer-Landrut & Stefan Raab	Out
3	"Push Forward"	Daniel Schaub & Pär Lammers	Superfinalist
4	"Mama Told Me"	Lena Meyer-Landrut & Stefan Raab	Out
5	"A Million and One"	Erroll Rennalls & Stavros Ioannou	Out
6	"Taken by a Stranger"	Gus Seyffert, Nicole Morier, Monica Birkenes	Superfinalist

Super final

Draw	Song	Composers	Result
1	"Push Forward"	Daniel Schaub & Pär Lammers	21%
2	"Taken by a Stranger"	Gus Seyffert, Nicole Morier, Monica Birkenes	79%

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 finished 10th in the final with 107 points.

See also

• Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest
• Eurovision Song Contest 2011

References

1. ^ Bakker, Sietse (30 June 2010). "Final of Eurovision 2011 set for 14 May, Lena returns!". EBU. http://www.eurovision.tv/page/news?id=18903&_t=Final+of+Eurovision+2011+set+for+14+May%2C+Lena+returns!. Retrieved 30 June 2010. 
2. ^ "ESC-Finale 2011 findet am 14. Mai statt" (in German). Eurovision.de. 30 June 2010. http://eurovision.ndr.de/news/meldungen/terminesc100.html. Retrieved 15 August 2010. 
3. ^ "Auf der ESC-Baustelle (Video)" (in German). NDR. http://eurovision.ndr.de/videoblog/videoblog163.html. Retrieved 6 December 2010. 
4. ^ "Unser Song für Deutschland" (in German). NDR. 16 December 2010. http://eurovision.ndr.de/news/meldungen/unsersongfuerdeutschland101.html. Retrieved 16 December 2010. 
5. ^ "Will Lena defend her title?". Eurovision.tv. 16 December 2010. http://www.eurovision.tv/page/news?id=22583&_t=Will+Lena+defend+her+title%3F. Retrieved 16 December 2010. 
6. ^ "USFD: Die Jury steht fest". Eurovision.de. 27 January 2011. http://eurovision.ndr.de/news/national/unsersongfuerdeutschland107.html. Retrieved 27 January 2011. 
7. ^ RP Online: Lovely Lena tritt an mit „Taken by a Stranger“, accessed on February 18th 2011.

External links

• NDR's official Eurovision site
• Official "Unser Song für Deutschland" site