Four cities competed to host the first Grand Prix on German soil for 28 years. Then mid-May the 56th Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) took place in Düsseldorf. An estimated 125 million viewers tuned in to this year’s final, according to broadcaster NDR.
Most of the fans had actually favoured Berlin – especially Lena Meyer- Landrut, last year’s winner, who would have loved to defend her top spot in the German capital. “Berlin is big, multicultural and has everything I need,” said the 19 year-old. Düsseldorf’s eternal rival Cologne, presenter Stefan Raab’s native city, initially placed a bid but then withdrew from the race because the Lanxess Arena was fully booked. Lenas birthplace Hanover was another contender, but from the very outset no one gave it much of a chance. The co-favourite alongside Berlin was Hamburg, the headquarters of the broadcaster NDR in charge of Eurovision transmission.
For many months Düsseldorf was perceived as an outsider in the race to host the ESC. But ultimately the songs were sung from the North Rhine-Westphalia state capital’s song sheet, because in the final reckoning it’s not about cool or not cool but all about the concept, a multipurpose arena and last but certainly not least money.The city with a populace of 600,000 had something very crucial that the 3.5 millionstrong metropolis Berlin could not offer in its pitch: a multipurpose arena capable of holding concert audiences of over 66,000. With the aid of a retractable roof the Esprit Arena opened in 2005 can be converted into a hall simply by pressing a button.
In Berlin the Song Contest would have taken place at the mothballed airport Tempelhof, where the covered apron would have had to be transformed into a makeshift hall – which even then would barely have been able to hold 10,000 spectators. Düsseldorf’s Esprit Arena was likewise already occupied, but the city fathers solved that problem by digging deep into the exchequer. The second league Fortuna Düsseldorf football players were relocated to a small converted and extended stadium. “Hosting the ESC cost Düsseldorf almost ten million euros,” Hilmar Guckert says.
But the image boost was worth it, he insists, giving Düsseldorf an enormous lift. The city “demonstrated that we can successfully organise and handle an event of this size,” the Congress Center Düsseldorf CEO states, adding that this has now opened up new avenues in the business of big events for the city on the Rhine. With its elegant Königsallee boulevard, Düsseldorf has so far tended to be labelled a suave playground of the ‘in’ set, or reduced only to the business dimension. Marketing expert Bernd Günter from Düsseldorf’s Heinrich Heine University had previously judged, “There’s a problem in Düsseldorf, you might even call it a complex, namely the level of international awareness – or non-awareness for the city.” In the light of this, the city’s spokesman Kai Schumacher puts the promotional value of the Grand Prix at EUR 140 million. You’d need to spend that much, he maintains, to draw people’s attention to Düsseldorf as a brand. A specially installed group of experts travelled twice to each aspiring host city to inspect the potential ESC venues. Peter Boudgoust, chairman of national broadcaster ARD, says that in the final reckoning the directors were convinced by Düsseldorf: “Both the ideal production conditions and the lower costs tipped the balance.” Last year’s contest in Oslo cost the Norwegian broadcasting corporation NRD around EUR 25 million. The Düsseldorf Esprit Arena was transformed into the largest, tastefully decorated, TV studio in Europe, featuring the biggest European LED wall and the biggest stage fireworks. When the Italian delegates finally announced their votes after two hours of competitive singing, they praised the show as “full of technology but very full of soul, too”.
According to Germany’s NDR, which televised the ESC, an estimated 125 million viewers watched this year’s final; an audience of 13.83 million in Germany (representing a 49.3 percent market share) marked the third most successful result of the last 30 years – following the Lena year 2010 (14.73 million) and 1984, when Mary Roos came thirteenth with “Aufrecht gehn” (14.23 million). In the underground railway on the way to the Esprit Arena (most of which was above ground) visitors to the biggest song contest in the world mingled with attendees at the world’s biggest packaging fair, interpack, which took place only a few metres away. And despite all the bashing from the press (in Germany only, incidentally) the city on the Rhine proved an excellent ESC host. In the afternoon already, and again after the final, there was hardly a space to be had at the longest bar in the world, namely the Old Town. DM
Technical data on the Eurovision Song Contest
Show: During the show 25 cameras were in use. This included four camera cranes, two steadycams and two portable wireless cameras. A so-called Spidercam under the ceiling that could be moved to any desired position in the hall and a camera on rails that could be lowered twelve metres provided an all-round overview of the entire arena. Additionally, at this ESC a camera on rails circled the whole of the stage, with another Highspeed Rail and Towercam situated in front of the stage. The show was produced completely independently of the “normal” power network: 35 kilometres of high-voltage cables and eight diesel-powered electricity generators with output of altogether 6 megawatts provided power for the arena and TV section.
Stage: Florian Wieder designed the stage for the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest. In Germany, for instance, he is responsible for the studio designs for many ARD shows (“Echo”, “Anne Will”), for “Wetten, dass ...?” and “Unser Song für Deutschland”. Internationally, he has shaped the appearance of such shows as the The X Factor and the MTV Europe Music Awards. In 2009 Wieder was presented with the British Royal Television Society Judges Award; in 2006 he took home the Deutscher Fernsehpreis (German TV award) in the category Best Outfitting. To deliver the stage material for the ESC, at least 40 38-ton trucks were necessary. The stage on the Arena football pitch was 13 metres in diameter. For the two semi- finals and the final there was a 60 metre-wide and 18 metre-high LED screen at the back of the stage consisting of 520 lighting elements to create the right atmosphere for the artists. Practically everywhere in the hall the audience could sit round the stage.
Sound engineering: Roughly 90 microphones in all were used at the ESC shows, handheld and headband mikes. Amplification totalled altogether roughly 350,000 watts. The long reverberation time due to the size of Düsseldorf Arena was especially challenging for the sound engineers. To reduce the echo, fabric panels were hung throughout the hall. Before the television viewers in 43 countries heard the live singing onstage, it would already have been mixed in four containers adjacent to the hall – two for the pre-mix and two for the final mix.
Lighting design: Roughly 120 38-ton trucks were needed to transport the hall lighting, LED technology, the light, sound etc. rigging and the power supply units. The light rig was fitted out with more than 2,200 units. They included more than 1,100 movable automated light sources and 1,000 other multipurpose spotlights, e.g. LED lights mounted on trusses over seven metres long in all. The lighting in the audience room was made into part of the overall production. Colour and lighting moods onstage were also channelled in the hall lighting, with LED strips extending way into the public section.
