Eurovision Song Contest 2001

Location

Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark was the host city for the 46th edition of Eurovision. The venue choice for the contest was Parken Stadium, a football stadium in the Indre Østerbro district of Copenhagen, Denmark, built from 1990–1992.

Format

The logo of the 2001 Eurovision Song Contest was made out of four circles, placed in the shape of a heart. The four circles were also present in the stage design, with the light construction was made of the same four rings.

The Danish national broadcaster faced some problems whilst organising 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 to add 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 success: 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.

Changes occurred in the qualification process for the 2002 Contest: along with the "Big 4" countries, the top 15 placed countries would qualify for next year's 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.

Incidents

Controversy was again rife in the contest: the United Kingdom TV commentator Terry Wogan repeatedly made critical comments about the hosts and dubbed them "Doctor Death and the Tooth Fairy/The Little Mermaid" after providing their entire commentary in rhyming couplets. The Danes were so offended that the BBC was obliged to issue an apology on Wogan's comments. Controversy also surrounded the Swedish song, "Listen To Your Heartbeat", which was repeatedly accused as a plagiarism of the Belgian entry for the 1996 Contest, "Liefde is een kaartspel". Eventually the EBU decided for the matter to be settled in court, with the song allowed to compete as long as the courts did not declare the song as plagiarism. At first this was denied by the Swedish songwriters, one of whom was Thomas G:son, but after the Belgian songwriters and the author's organisation SABAM pressed for legal action, a cash settlement was agreed.

During the voting the Danish band Aqua performed with a medley of their singles, with percussion ensemble Safri Duo performing in the medley. Although enjoyable, people complained about it being a little bit "rude" as there was some swearing during the performance, both at the beginning and end of "Barbie Girl".

Participating countries

Due to the EBU's relegation rule of the lowest ranked countries from the contest had to miss the follow year's contest, meant several countries had to withdraw, while relegated countries from the 1999 contest were able to return this year. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, and Slovenia returned, while Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, Macedonia, Romania, and Switzerland, the seven countries with the lowest average result in the past five contests, were relegated. This brought the total number of participating countries to twenty-three.

Returning artists

Tanel Padar was a backing vocalist for Ines in 2000.

Scoreboard

The majority of participating countries held a televote, where the top ten most voted for songs were awarded the 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points. This year the EBU introduced for the first time a mix of voting systems (50% televoting and 50% jury) for those countries that didn't want to use 100% televoting. Only three votes were allowed per household. According to the EBU rules (published on 05/10/00), every broadcaster was free to make a choice between the full televoting system and the mixed 50-50 system. In exceptional circumstances, where televoting was not possible at all, only a jury was used: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Turkey and Russia. Only a few countries are confirmed to have used the mixed voting system: Croatia, Greece and Malta.

12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final:

International broadcasts and voting

The table below shows the order in which votes were cast during the 2001 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country. Each national broadcaster also sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the broadcasting station for which they represented are also included in the table below.

1.^ 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, shown a few weeks later. 2.^ After the breakup of Yugoslavia, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was last participated in 1992. YU Info channel broadcast the show, although Yugoslavia did not participate.

Official album

Eurovision Song Contest: Copenhagen 2001 was the official compilation album of the 2001 Contest, put together by the European Broadcasting Union and released by EMI Records and CMC International on 5 May 2001. The album featured all 23 songs that entered in the 2001 contest.