2011 Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final - Enjoy the mix of music and madness from Düsseldorf
Published by Ryan Gault
Looking for 2012 coverage?
Follow this year's Eurovision conversation here
Guten Abend Europe (and the rest of the world). I must say you all look fantastic tonight (or morning/afternoon).
It's that time of year again when 25 European nation battle each other on a Saturday night in the medium of song, to see who is supreme in this years competition. It only seems like 5 minutes since we did all of this back in Oslo, where we saw Jimmy Jump, Epic Sax Guy and a Heikki Kovalainen lookalike. In the end it was Lena, with her song 'Satellite', who took the stage and dominated the rest of the competition.
And that means Eurovision finds itself in the German city of Düsseldorf, in the 66,000 capacity Düsseldorf Arena (changed from the Esprit Arena for sponsorship reasons, of course the venue for last years Race of Champions, and that is your tenuous Motorsport link #1). It has been fourteen days of build-up for these three and a half hours, and unlike previous years, no one has the slightest clue who might be taking victory away tonight.
There are some stand out songs of course, France have sent Amaury Vassilli with 'Sognu' and are currently the bookies favourite, but in the end that means nothing. Because just behind them are Ireland, and Jedward, who I previously said would either finish 14th in the Semi Final or go on to win it. And well, they got through the semi final. (Dear Dustin the Turkey, please, please come back, all is forgiven).
The UK have decided to take it seriously again as well and have sent Blue, who have reunited in the aim to see Eurovision come to British shores for the first time since 1998. Blue aren't the only people from the UK competing, David Bryan, lead singer for Romania, is from Newton Aycliffe, County Durham and therefore is unbelievably awesome. I shouldn't use this power to persuade who you vote for.... but vote for Romania. Do it. And elsewhere you can find LED costumes, glass smashing, giant cone hats, unicyclists and of course so much pyrotechnics that if you take part in ESCInsights drinking game of drinking everytime there is a pyrotechnic, you will at least forget Jedward 'singing'.
And look out for tenuous Motorsport link #2 in the show as well, I'll have a moan about it when we get there.
You can find the order that everyone will be singing in on the official website, and if you live in a far away land (basically if you ain't in Europe or the Czech Republic), you can watch the whole thing there as well, sans commentary. Your hosts for this evening will be German newsreader Judith Rakers, comedian Anke Engelke and musician Stefan Raab, who comes from Cologne, the birthplace of Wolfgang von Trips (tenuous Motorsport link #3)
So, my predictions? I'd love to give you a final answer for sure, but I can't. But the top 3 will probably be Iceland, Ireland and France. In what order I have no idea.
Get your drinks out, sit back from 21:00 CET and enjoy Eurovision 2011.
Comment from The Boston Red Scott: yikes. fifteen minutes to go. The country with the most costume changes should always win.
It's starting!
Anke, Stefan and Judith.
Pyrotechnics!
Da Da Dam sung by Paradise Oskar.
You can press the red button on the BBC if you want to singalong. Maybe not to Jedward.
Tweet from 
Tenuous F1 link in the intro VT for Italy.
Tilt shift Nurburgring.
Blue... or green.
Voting over!
Azerbaijan, winners!
Ell and Nikki sing us out.
Eurovision says goodbye.
