Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011

Selection process

After 6 years of internal selections it was announced in June 2010 that SRG SSR were looking at possibilities to hold a national final to select the Swiss entry, the first time since 2004, depending on budget details to be finalised in early autumn.

On 24 August Schweizer Fernsehen (SF) announced that a national final would be organised, after increased popularity for Eurovision in Switzerland after victories for Norway and Germany. SRG SSR compiled the list of candidates for the national selection final with the Swiss radio broadcaster DRS 3 and the Swiss French and Italian-language television networks TSR and RSI. A national final with 12 finalists was held on 11 December 2010 in Kreuzlingen. Seven finalists came from SF, three from DRS 3, one from TSR and one from RSI. Televoting selected the final winning song.

SF selection

The overall SF selection selected seven finalists. Candidates could submit entries to the broadcaster from 1–30 October. Former Eurovision Song Contests participants applied to take part in this selection: DQ, Todomondo (both 2007), Miodio from San Marino 2008, as well as Mariella Farré who represented Switzerland in the 1983 and 1985 contests. Piero Esteriore, Switzerland's representative in 2004 also submitted a song. However, none of these made it to the final.

Voting was held from 1 November to 10 November, with a jury and internet voting (each with 50%) selecting seven songs from the 327 submissions to qualify to the national final. The seven finalists were announced on 16 November by SF:

DRS 3 selection

DRS 3 selected its three finalists via online voting. Over 4 weeks the submitted entries were discussed and voted on in the radio show ESC-Club. Listeners and a jury decided 10 entries to proceed to the online voting which was held from 2–12 November on the DRS 3 website. DRS 3 stated afterwards that one user had tried to manipulate the voting, but this was spotted in time and the result was corrected after the voting had closed. The three entries which received the most votes and proceed therefore to the final are Dominique Borriello, Duke, and The Colors and Illira. The ten songs in the voting were:

RSI selection - RSI Eurosong Contest

Italian language Swiss broadcaster Radiotelevisione svizzera di lingua italiana (RSI) chose one song for the national final. A jury selected five songs from 46 submissions, which took part firstly in an internet vote from 3–9 November, and then in a radio final on 10 November from the Hotel Besso in Lugano, broadcast on radio station Rete Uno. The winner was chosen by online voting (10%), SMS voting (50%) and jury voting (40%). The winner of the final was Orpheline with "Surrender", but the singer renounced for personal reasons. Therefore, Vittoria Hyde (2nd) was planned to be sent to the Swiss final, as RSI announced on 15 November. On 23 November however, SF disqualified her because her song had already been published before 1 September, which was a clear violation of the rules. This meant that 3rd-placed Scilla was the RSI finalist. The five songs in the RSI final

TSR selection

French-language broadcaster TSR selected its finalist internally. They chose the duo Aliose. On 29 November, TSR announced that they would send "Sur les pavés" to the national final.

National final

The national final was held on 11 December 2010 in the Bodensee Arena, Kreuzlingen and hosted by Sven Epiney. The entries were commented by an "expert group", consisting of Baschi, Nik Hartmann and the three former Swiss ESC participants Francine Jordi (2002), Pepe Lienhard (1977), and Peter Reber (member of Peter, Sue and Marc, representants in 1971, 1976, 1979, 1981). Televoting was used to select the winner. Switzerland was the first country to announce its artist and song for the 2011 contest.

At Eurovision

Switzerland started their Eurovision campaign for 2011 with Anna Rossinelli selected as their representative. Switzerland competed in the first semi final on 10 May 2011 with position 8. She sang "In love for a while" and was one of the crowd favorites in the contest. She managed to earn 10th place after a good performance, with 55 points, narrowly beating Armenia and Malta who both drew on 54 points. This ended a run of not qualifying for the grand final since 2006, their last qualification into it. Switzerland drew position 13 in the grand final on 14 May 2011. Anna sung very well, and again drew a good reaction from the crowd. However at the end of voting, Switzerland came 25th and last.