The Eurovision Song Contest 2010 was the 55th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Oslo, Norway, following the country's victory at the 2009 contest with the song "Fairytale" by Alexander Rybak. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Norsk rikskringkasting (NRK), the contest was held at the Telenor Arena, and consisted of two semi-finals on 25 and 27 May, and the final on 29 May 2010.[1][3] The three live shows were presented by Erik Solbakken, Haddy N'jie and Nadia Hasnaoui.[2]
Thirty-nine countries took part in the contest, with Georgia returning after its one-year absence. Meanwhile, Andorra, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Montenegro all decided against participation, mainly for financial reasons related to the global financial crisis. Lithuania originally announced its non-participation, but was later among the participants confirmed by the EBU.[4][5]
The winner was Germany with the song "Satellite", performed by Lena and written by Julie Frost and John Gordon. This was Germany's second victory in the contest, following their win in 1982, and their first win as a unified country. It was also the first win for one of the "Big Four" countries, since the rule's introduction in 2000. Turkey, Romania, Denmark and Azerbaijan rounded out the top five. Romania, finishing third, equalled their best result from 2005, while Georgia achieved their best result to date, finishing ninth. It was also the first and to date only time since the introduction of the semi-finals in 2004 that Sweden failed to qualify for the final. The last time Sweden was absent from the Eurovision final was in 1976.
The global financial crisis at the time, affected how the event was run; the host broadcaster NRK was forced to sell its broadcast rights for the 2010 FIFA World Cup to TV 2 and Viasat in order to finance the event.[6]
The EBU announced prior to the contest, that the voting system used in the semi-finals would change from previous years to balance jury voting with televoting. A return of accompaniment by orchestra was also proposed, but did not happen.
150 million Norwegian kroner (€17 million) was originally the venue budget agreed upon by Trond Giske and Hans-Tore Bjerkaas, respectively the Norwegian Minister for Culture and the head of Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK).[7][8] This represents a larger budget than that allotted in the 2007 Contest in Helsinki, but is not as much as the budget in Moscow for 2009.[7] The revised estimated cost for the concert now stands at 211 million kroner (€24 million).[9]