Germany: Taken By A Stranger to Düsseldorf!

Only weeks after her victory in the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo, it was internally decided that Lena would defend her title on home soil in Germany. This decision was heavily discussed in all German media as it is the first time since 1958 that a winner would defend her title in the next year. However, Lena's popularity in Germany soon silenced all critics and it was decided that two semi-finals and a final would decide about the German song in Düsseldorf. Over 5000 songs were entered which were whittled down to twelve for the semi-finals.

Out of these twelve, six songs made it to the grand final tonight, but only one could be crowned the winner. Only televote and sms-vote prevailed.

In the first round of voting, all six songs could be voted for:

• Maybe (composed by Daniel Schaub & Pär Lammers)
• What Happened To Me (composed by Lena Meyer-Landrut & Stefan Raab)
• Push Forward (composed by Daniel Schaub & Pär Lammers)
• Mama Told Me (composed by Lena Meyer-Landrut & Stefan Raab)
• A Million And One (composed by Errol Rennalls & Stavros Ioannou)
• Taken By A Stranger (composed by Gus Seyffert, Nicole Morier & Monica Birkenes)

Two songs went on to the superfinal and the second round of voting was between those two:

• Push Forward (composed by Daniel Schaub & Pär Lammers) 21%
• Taken By A Stranger (composed by Gus Seyffert, Nicole Morier & Monica Birkenes) 79% 

Ultimately, it was Taken By A Stranger that got the biggest appreciation from German televoters, and will now be the country's representative In Düsseldorf!

The jury in tonight's final consisted of three people: Stefan Raab as chairman, TV host Barbara Schöneberger and Adel Tawil from the group Ich & Ich. They commented on the songs, but didn't have any voting rights. 

The presenters of the show were Sabine Heinrich and Matthias  Opdenhövel who already presented the semi-finals.

After the final, the composers of the winning song were asked about their feelings:

Nicole Morier:

"Having one of my songs submitted to Eurovision is a dream come true. It's
especially sweet to me that it's as German entry as I always considered
Germany my second home and living there had such a profound impact on me
both personally and musically. I'm so thrilled to be a part of such a great
legacy of music! Lena is an incredible young talent. I love her performance of the song and
I'm sure she's gonna kick ass in Düsseldorf!"

Gus Seyffert:

"I'm really excited that the song won! It's hard to believe it. Im glad it's
for Germany as my roots are mostly German. It's funny to me that there's
such a thing as a contest for song writing. But I'm very grateful that a
lot of people will get to hear a song I helped write.

As I recall, we just sat down and thought up a tempo and some chords to
sing along to. We programed a beat and I played a quick bass and guitar
track. We then took turns singing melody idea's. Monica sang them down and
once we had a melody we started working on lyrics. We decided to go with a
story about meeting or seeing a stranger who might seem a little dangerous
or who the singer might be dangerous to. I think it's about living out a
fantasy of being with a stranger, but its open to interpretation. After
Monica left I worked on the track for several days."

Monica Birkenes:

"Good news! Go Lena..Germany will definitely be getting my Norwegian vote
this year!"

Germany has been participating in the Eurovision Song Contest since its beginning in 1956 and just missed out on one occasion in 1996. The country has won the contest twice: 1982 with Nicole and last year with Lena.