The winner was Azerbaijan with the song "Running Scared", performed by Ell and Nikki and written by Stefan Örn, Sandra Bjurman and Iain James Farquharson.

[4] Germany was also the first member of the "Big Five" to host the contest since the implementation of the rule in 2000 that permits the five largest contributors to the EBU – Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Spain and Italy – to qualify automatically for the grand final alongside the previous year's winner.

The stadium acquired a rental period of six weeks, in order to allow construction and dismantling work in relation to the contest to be carried out.

[8] Eight of these cities continued to show interest in hosting the event including Berlin, Hamburg, Hanover, Gelsenkirchen,[9] Düsseldorf, Cologne, Frankfurt and Munich.

[10] NDR announced on 21 August 2010 that four of those cities had officially applied to host the 2011 contest: Berlin, Hamburg, Hanover, and Düsseldorf.

[12] Concerns were raised about Berlin's bid concept which consisted of an inflatable tent to be built on Tempelhof's hangar area.

Decision makers at NDR reportedly doubted the venue's ability to provide advantageous acoustic conditions.

Berlin's speaker Richard Meng neither confirmed nor denied that because, he stated, "secrecy about the bid concepts was promised to the NDR".

This message indicated that talks with Düsseldorf to host the song contest in the Esprit Arena were already at an advanced stage.

[15] The Neue Ruhr Zeitung newspaper reported on 12 December 2010 that Fortuna Düsseldorf were to be moved to the Paul-Janes-Stadion due to the contest.

On 12 October 2010, the German broadcaster NDR announced that the Düsseldorf Arena had been chosen as the host venue for the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest.

[22] Slovakia announced its withdrawal from the 2011 contest due to financial reasons, despite holding a public poll on the Slovenská televízia (STV) website on its Eurovision participation which received an 87.5% positive vote.

[21] STV announced in January 2011 that Slovakia would yet withdraw from the contest, citing to financial reasons and organisational changes.

[26][27] At a meeting in Belgrade on 28 August 2010, the EBU decided that each country had to choose its artist and song before 14 March 2011.

[21] Several artists made their return to the Eurovision Song Contest, including Dino Merlin,[31] who had represented Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1999.

Stefan Raab, who represented Germany in 2000 and appeared as a conductor and backing artist for other German entries, hosted the contest.

The four countries that were part of the "Big Four", along with the host of the contest, automatically qualify for a place in the grand final.

At a Reference Group meeting in Belgrade it was decided that the existing rules would remain in place, and that the number of participants in the grand final would simply be lowered from twenty-five to twenty-four.

[36] On 31 December 2010, the official participation list was published by the EBU, which stipulated that with the return of Italy to the contest, the nation would become a member of the newly expanded "Big Five".

[21] On 30 August 2010, it was announced that Svante Stockselius, Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest, would be leaving his position on 31 December 2010.

[37] On 26 November 2010, the EBU announced that Jon Ola Sand would succeed Stockselius as Executive Supervisor.

[39] The postcard introducing each performance included the logo in the colours of the performing country (e.g. the United Kingdom in red, white and blue); then a German place was shown in a toy-like view using tilt-shift photography and a story happened there, whose main characters were people either living in Germany or tourists from that country.

The Tagesspiegel reported on 7 October 2010 that the costs for hosting this event resulted in a tense discussion about necessary savings on other programme contents made by the three broadcasters.

On 16 December 2010, NDR announced that Anke Engelke, Judith Rakers, and Stefan Raab were to be the presenters for the contest.

On 13 October 2010 Thomas Schreiber, coordinator at ARD, outlined details of Düsseldorf's event concept.

Dropouts in the multi-channel sound connections were the cause of this fault, which was corrected, with a second backup system put into place, and tested extensively before the second semi-final.

The Marcel Bezençon Awards, organised since 2002 by Sweden's then-Head of Delegation and 1992 representative Christer Björkman, and 1984 winner Richard Herrey, honours songs in the contest's final.

The album featured all 43 songs that entered in the 2011 contest, including the semi-finalists that failed to qualify into the grand final.