Eurovision Song Contest 2001

Aarhus

Copenhagen

Odense

Locations of the candidate cities: the chosen host city is marked in blue, while the eliminated cities are marked in red.

Parken Stadium, Copenhagen - host venue of the 2001 contest.

Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, was the chosen host city. The venue choice for the contest was Parken Stadium, the national football stadium, located in the Indre Østerbro district of Copenhagen, Denmark, built from 1990 to 1992.

The Danish national broadcaster (DR) faced some problems whilst organising the contest such as a lack of funds and the search for a suitable venue. The three largest cities in Denmark - Copenhagen, Aarhus and Odense - all made bids to host the contest. Eventually, DR chose the large football stadium Parken as the host venue, 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 with room for an audience of 38,000, breaking the record of 16,000 held by the previous year's hosts Sweden.[1] However, the scale of it all wasn't entirely a success: many audience members could not see the stage, and for many entries the hall appeared to be too big.[2]

The show was opened by the reigning champions, the Olsen Brothers, with a snippet from their winning Eurovision song, followed by their latest single "Walk Right Back", which was already a smash hit in Denmark at the time.

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 made of the same four rings. The whole rig could be formed into various shapes to add to each country's staging.[2]

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.[2] Had the older qualification rule still been in use, the relegated countries from 2002 would have been Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Portugal and Slovenia.

Draw for the running order took place on 21 November 2000.[3]

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 could not participate, 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.[1]

Prior to the contest Greece were hotly tipped to win by the bookmakers, Sweden the second favorites, with France, Slovenia and host country Denmark expected to round out the top 5. However, as the voting progressed it quickly became a two-horse race between host Denmark and surprisingly Estonia.[2]

Dave Benton, who was born and raised in Aruba, was the first black person and, at the age of 50 years and 101 days, the oldest contestant at the time to win the contest.[1]

Qualification

In addition the host country, Denmark, and the "Big Four", the 12 countries with the highest average scores between 1996 and 2000 were allowed to take part in the 2001 contest alongside new or returning countries.[4]

Table key

  Automatic qualifier

  Qualifier

Calculation of average points to determine qualification for the 2001 contest

Rank	Country	Average	Yearly Point Totals
			1996	1997	1998	1999	2000
1	Latvia	136.00					136
2	United Kingdom	107.20	77	227	166	38	28
3	Ireland	98.60	162	157	64	18	92
4	Denmark	97.00		25		71	195
5	Russia	94.00		33			155
6	Israel	90.67			172	93	7
7	Sweden	88.00	100	36	53	163	88
8	Germany	86.00		22	86	140	96
9	Malta	80.80	68	66	165	32	73
10	Croatia	80.40	98	24	131	79[lower-alpha 1]	70
11	Estonia	80.00	94	82	36	90	98
12	Netherlands	68.80	78	5	150	71	40
13	Iceland	65.00	51	18		146	45
14	Norway	57.00	114	0	79	35	57
15	Turkey	56.60	57	121	25	21	59
16	Belgium	46.00	22		122	38	2
17	Austria	44.75	68	12		65	34
18	Cyprus	43.40	72	98	37	2	8
19	Spain	30.60	17	96	21	1	18
20	France	27.00	18	95	3	14	5
21	Macedonia	22.50			16		29
22	Finland	16.33	9		22		18
23	Romania	15.50			6		25
24	Switzerland	10.25	22	5	0		14

Returning artists

Artist	Country	Previous year(s)
Tanel Padar (with Dave Benton and 2XL)	Estonia	2000 (as backing vocalist for Ines)

Results

  Winner

Draw	Country	Artist	Song	Language[6]	Place[7]	Points
01	Netherlands	Michelle	"Out on My Own"	English	18	16
02	Iceland	Two Tricky	"Angel"	English	22	3
03	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Nino	"Hano"	Bosnian, English	14	29
04	Norway	Haldor Lægreid	"On My Own"	English	22	3
05	Israel	Tal Sondak	"Ein Davar" (אין דבר)	Hebrew	16	25
06	Russia	Mumiy Troll	"Lady Alpine Blue"	English	12	37
07	Sweden	Friends	"Listen to Your Heartbeat"	English	5	100
08	Lithuania	Skamp	"You Got Style"	English, Lithuanian[lower-alpha 2]	13	35
09	Latvia	Arnis Mednis	"Too Much"	English	18	16
10	Croatia	Vanna	"Strings of My Heart"	English	10	42
11	Portugal	MTM	"Só sei ser feliz assim"	Portuguese	17	18
12	Ireland	Gary O'Shaughnessy	"Without Your Love"	English	21	6
13	Spain	David Civera	"Dile que la quiero"	Spanish	6	76
14	France	Natasha St-Pier	"Je n'ai que mon âme"	French, English	4	142
15	Turkey	Sedat Yüce	"Sevgiliye Son"	Turkish, English	11	41
16	United Kingdom	Lindsay Dracass	"No Dream Impossible"	English	15	28
17	Slovenia	Nuša Derenda	"Energy"	English	7	70
18	Poland	Piasek	"2 Long"	English	20	11
19	Germany	Michelle	"Wer Liebe lebt"	German, English	8	66
20	Estonia	Tanel Padar, Dave Benton and 2XL	"Everybody"	English	1	198
21	Malta	Fabrizio Faniello	"Another Summer Night"	English	9	48
22	Greece	Antique	"Die for You"	Greek, English	3	147
23	Denmark	Rollo and King	"Never Ever Let You Go"	English	2	177

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.[4]

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.[4] In exceptional circumstances, where televoting was not possible at all, only a jury was used: Bosnia and 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:

N.	Contestant	Nation(s) giving 12 points
9	Estonia	Greece,  Latvia,  Lithuania,  Malta,  Netherlands,  Poland,  Slovenia,  Turkey,  United Kingdom
6	Denmark	Croatia,  Estonia,  Germany,  Iceland,  Ireland,  Norway
3	France	Bosnia and Herzegovina,  Portugal,  Russia
2	Greece	Spain,  Sweden
1	Spain	Israel
	Malta	Denmark
	Portugal	France

Most countries sent commentators to Copenhagen or commented from their own country, in order to add insight to the participants and, if necessary, the provision of voting information.

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries

Country	Broadcaster(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Bosnia and Herzegovina	BHTV1	Ismeta Dervoz-Krvavac
Croatia	HRT 1	Aleksandar "Aco" Kostadinov	[19]
	HR2	Draginja Balaš
Denmark	DR1	Hans Otto Bisgaard and Hilda Heick	[18]
Estonia	ETV	Marko Reikop	[20]
	Raadio 2	Vello Rand
France	France 3	Marc-Olivier Fogiel and Dave	[21]
	France Bleu	Olivier Chiabodo
Germany	Das Erste	Peter Urban	[22]
	Deutschlandfunk/NDR 2	Thomas Mohr	[23]
Greece	ET1	Dafni Bokota	[24]
	ERA 1	Giorgos Mitropoulos
Iceland	Sjónvarpið	Gísli Marteinn Baldursson	[25]
Ireland	RTÉ One	Marty Whelan	[26]
	RTÉ Radio 1	Larry Gogan
Israel	Channel 1	No commentator
	Reshet Gimel	Daniel Pe'er
Latvia	LTV1	Kārlis Streips
Lithuania	LRT	Darius Užkuraitis
Malta	TVM	Alfred Borg
Netherlands	Nederland 2	Willem van Beusekom	[27]
	Radio 2	Hijlco Span
Norway	NRK1	Jostein Pedersen	[28]
	NRK P1	Stein Dag Jensen	[29]
Poland	TVP1	Artur Orzech	[30]
Portugal	RTP1	Eládio Clímaco	[14]
Russia	ORT	Alexander Anatolyevich and Konstantin Mikhailov
Slovenia	SLO1	Andrea F
Spain	La Primera	José Luis Uribarri	[31]
Sweden	SVT1	Henrik Olsson	[11]
	SR P3	Carolina Norén	[32]
Turkey	TRT 1	Ömer Önder
	TRT Radyo 3	Ümit Tunçağ
United Kingdom	BBC One	Terry Wogan
	BBC Radio 2	Ken Bruce

Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries

Country	Broadcaster(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Australia	SBS TV	Terry Wogan, Effie[lower-alpha 3]	[33]
Austria	ORF 1	Andi Knoll
	FM4	Stermann & Grissemann	[34]
Belgium	RTBF La Une	French: Jean-Pierre Hautier	[21]
	VRT TV1	Dutch: André Vermeulen and Anja Daems	[35]
	RTBF La Première	French: Laurent Daube and Éric Russon
	VRT Radio 2	Dutch: Julien Put and Michel Follet
Cyprus	RIK 1	Evi Papamichail	[36]
Finland	YLE TV1	Jani Juntunen and Asko Murtomäki	[37]
	YLE Radio Suomi	Iris Mattila and Tarja Närhi
Macedonia	MTV 2	Milanka Rašić
Romania	TVR2	Andreea Marin and Leonard Miron
Switzerland	SF 2	German: Sandra Studer
	TSR 1	French: Phil Mundwiller
	TSI 1	Italian: Jonathan Tedesco
Yugoslavia	YU Info	Unknown	[38]

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.[39] The Danes were so offended that the BBC was obliged to issue an apology on Wogan's comments.[39]

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".[40] 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.[2][41]

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.[42][43]

During the voting the Danish band Aqua performed with a medley of their singles, with percussion ensemble Safri Duo performing in the medley.[2] 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".

Eurovision Song Contest: Copenhagen 2001
Compilation album by Eurovision Song Contest
Released	5 May 2001
Genre	Pop
Length	70:09
Label	EMI / CMC
Eurovision Song Contest chronology
Eurovision Song Contest: Stockholm 2000 (2000) Eurovision Song Contest: Copenhagen 2001 (2001) Eurovision Song Contest: Tallinn 2002 (2002)

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.[44]

• Official website