The 2010 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest was held at the Telenor Arena in Bærum outside Oslo, Norway. The 2009 edition, held in Moscow, Russia, was won by Norwegian singer Alexander Rybak with his song "Fairytale", which scored a record-breaking 387 points in the grand final on 16 May. Therefore, Norway, represented by public broadcaster NRK, got to host the 2010 contest.
The semi-finals were held on 25 and 27 May, and the grand final on 29 May. Germany won the contest with 246 points, represented by Lena Meyer-Landrut, then nineteen years old, and her song "Satellite". This was Germany’s second Eurovision victory, the first being in 1982, and the first win for a ‘Big Four’ country since the concept was introduced in 2000.[1]
The German victory was attributed to the success of the talent seach competition Unser Star für Oslo (‘Our Star for Oslo’), organised jointly by the German national public broadcaster ARD, its Northern German regional affiliate NDR and the private TV channel ProSieben. This was the brainchild of the German television personality Stefan Raab, a regular on ProSieben talk shows, who conceptualised the idea of a nationwide competition to stop Germany’s series of disappointing results at Eurovision in recent years.[2]
2010
Footnotes
- ↑ The United Kingdom, France, Germany and Spain are the four biggest monetary contributors to the EBU. Therefore, since 2000, they have automatically qualified for the grand final (along with the host country) without having to participate in the semi-finals. Italy was added to the list of ‘Big Four’ countries in 2011, thereby enlarging the group to the ‘Big Five’ countries.
- ↑ Spiegel Online (English)
