Eurovision Song Contest 2001

Infobox Eurovision
name = Eurovision Song Contest 2001


final = 12 May 2001
presenters = Natasja Crone Back,
Søren Pilmark
conductor =
director =
host = flagicon|Denmark DR
venue = Parken Stadium, Copenhagen, Denmark
winner = flag|Estonia
"Everybody"
vote = Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs
entries = 23
debut = None
return = flag|Bosnia and Herzegovina flag|Greece flag|Lithuania|1989 flag|Poland flag|Portugal flag|Slovenia
withdraw = flag|Austria flag|Belgium flag|Cyprus flag|Finland flag|Macedonia|name=FYR Macedonia flag|Romania flag|Switzerland
null = None
interval = Aqua,
Safri Duo
opening =
con = Eurovision Song Contest
pre = ◄2000
nex = 2002►The Eurovision Song Contest 2001 was the 46th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on May 12, 2001 in the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, Denmark. The presenters were Natasja Crone Back and Søren Pilmark. The contest was won by Tanel Padar, Dave Benton & 2XL who were representing Estonia with the song "Everybody". Dave Benton, from Aruba, is the only black person to have ever won the Eurovision Song Contest. The Danish national broadcaster faced some problems whilst organizing the contest such as the lack of funds and the search for a suitable venue. The event was eventually located in the football stadium Parken, after the company running the stadium agreed on adding a retractable roof to the building. This solution made it the biggest venue ever to host a Eurovision Song Contest, but the scale of it wasn't entirely a succes: Many of the 38,000 people in the audience could not see the stage, and for many entries the hall appeared to be too big.

All of the countries participating in this year’s Eurovision had to use televoting as it became compulsory from now on. The jury backup votes were only used for some countries because of either technical problems with their televotes or a weak fixed-telephone infrastructure. There was also a rule change concerning the qualification of countries from 2002. Along with the ‘Big 4’, the top 15 placed countries this year would qualify for next years competition. The other spots for 2002 would be filled by countries that were excluded from the 2001 contest because of their low point average for the years 1996-2000.

Big favourites in this contest were France (above all), a lot of people thought France would be the winner in this festival of Eurovision Song Contest, Greece and Slovenia. Also the Latino singers from Malta and Spain were expected to do very well. The Swedish song ran into controversy, as it sounded very much like the 1996 Belgian entry "Liefde is een kaartspel". When the voting came it was a two-horse race, with only Estonia and Denmark in contention. Estonia ended up the unexpected winners.

The hosts provided their entire commentary in rhyming couplets which were full of jokes, attracting criticism from many people, especially the UK TV commentator Terry Wogan. His constant caustic comments about the hosts — who he repeatedly referred to as 'Doctor Death and the Tooth Fairy/The Little Mermaid' — so offended the Danes that the BBC was obliged to issue an apology.

For the interval act, the Danish-Norwegian band Aqua performed, while people were voting, with a medley of their singles. Safri Duo performed the drums in the medley. Aqua originally planned to play new song Shakin' Stevens (Is A Superstar) on ESC, but later change it to Medley with Safri Duo. Song Shakin' Stevens (Is A Superstar) was finally played on they last tour before split in 2001 (Gron Koncert 2001) and first tour after reunion in 2008 (Gron Koncert 2008).

It was the first time in 36 years, that Denmark hosted the Eurovision Song Contest, thanks to the Olsen Brothers' win the previous year in Stockholm.

The official EBU compilation CD was released with the songs in the order in which they were performed at the contest. This was the first time this order was used and it was also used for the 2002 and 2003 CDs as well. in 1999, the CD was issued in the orider of the highest placed down to the lowest (omitting the four songs they were not authorised to use) and in 2000 the songs were placed in a more random order but in a way which featured the most favoured tracks together. From 2004, when the semis were introduced it was not known until too close to the contest which order the songs would be run in so they therefore listed the songs in alphabetical order of the two letter country codes, the United Kingdom is treated as GB (Great Britain) as opposed to UK.

Other involved countries

; flagicon|Australia Australia : Although Australia is not itself eligible to enter, the event was broadcast on SBS. As is the case each year, it did not however broadcast it live due to the difference in Australian time zones. This year, the broadcast contained a locally produced addition of a studio audience of young representatives from the competing countries. However, a number of complaints saw the United Kingdom's broadcast, including commentary from Terry Wogan, broadcast a few weeks later. [http://www.sbs.com.au/annualreports/sbsannualreport2001.pdf]

Commentators

* The Netherlands - Willem van Beusekom
* Iceland - "TBC"
* Bosnia & Herzegovina - "TBC"
* Norway - Jostein Pedersen
* Israel - "TBC"
* Russia - "Alexandr Anatolievich & Konstantin Mihailov"
* Sweden - Henrik Olsson & Anders Berglund
* Lithuania - "TBC"
* Latvia - "TBC"
* Croatia - "TBC"
* Portugal - "TBC"
* Ireland - Marty Whelan
* Spain - José Luis Uribarri
* France - "TBC"
* Turkey - "TBC"
* United Kingdom - Terry Wogan (BBC TV), Ken Bruce (BBC Radio 2)
* Slovenia - "TBC"
* Poland - Artur Orzech
* Germany - Peter Urban
* Estonia - "TBC"
* Malta - "TBC"
* Greece - Daphne Bokota
* Denmark - "TBC"

pokespersons

* The Netherlands - Marlayne
* Iceland - Eva María Jónsdóttir
* Bosnia & Herzegovina - Segmedina Srna
* Norway - Roald Øyen
* Israel - Yoav Ginai
* Russia - Larisa Verbitskaya
* Sweden - Josefine Sundström
* Lithuania - Loreta Tarozaite
* Latvia - Renars Kaupers
* Croatia - Danijela Trbovic
* Portugal - Margarida Mercês de Mello
* Ireland - Bláthnaid Ní Chofaigh
* Spain - Jennifer Rope
* France - Corinne Hermès
* Turkey - Meltem Ersan Yazgan
* United Kingdom - Colin Berry
* Slovenia - Mojca Mavec
* Poland - Maciej Orlos
* Germany - Axel Bulthaupt
* Estonia - dn|Elektra
* Malta - Claire Fabri
* Greece - Alexis Kostalas
* Denmark - Gry Johansen

Map

* Green = Participating countries
* Yellow = Countries which had previously participated but did not do so in this year