Meanwhile, Andorra, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Montenegro ceased their participation, mainly for reasons related to the 2007–2008 financial crisis.

[4][5] The winner was Germany with the song "Satellite", performed by Lena and written by American Julie Frost and Danish John Gordon.

[11] The Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT) initially announced its non-participation after failing to achieve the necessary funds of 300,000 litas (€90,000) for participation.

To keep tension high, the qualifiers were announced in random order in the semi-finals, and scores were published online only after the final took place.

[17][18][19] In late October 2009, the 2010 contest project manager Jon Ola Sand stated that "countries such as Monaco and Luxembourg [had] indicated that they [wished] to participate in next year's competition in Norway".

Wolfgang Lorenz, the programme director of the Austrian broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF), informed that they would not take part stating that the contest had been "ruined by the regulations".

[21] Télé Monte Carlo (TMC) also declared that they would not be returning for the 2010 edition, mainly due to a lack of finances to send a Monegasque entry.

[23] Radiotelevisione della Repubblica di San Marino (SMRTV) also considered returning in 2010 for San Marino; however, after deliberations with Italian artists, including Italian sister duo Paola & Chiara, they informed to withhold returning after failing to receive funding from the Sammarinnese parliament or sponsors.

1FLTV's programme director Peter Kölbel had confirmed interest in their participation as soon as full EBU membership is granted, which may have happened in December 2009.

Thus they were getting ready to debut in 2010, considering a national final concept similar to the German version of the Idol series – Deutschland sucht den Superstar (DSDS).

[17][25] In November 1FLTV decided against applying for EBU membership in December for financial reasons, ruling out a debut at the 2010 contest.

[26][27] From July to December 2009, four countries who participated in the 2009 contest announced their non-participation in 2010: Andorra, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Montenegro.

[37] The theme art, a series of intersecting circles, was selected to "represent gathering people and the diversity of emotions surrounding the Eurovision Song Contest.

The basic synopsis of the postcards is a numerous group of little golden balls (the theme of the ESC 2010) forms the shape of each country.

Then, they move and form a screen where we can see a pre-recorded video of a little crowd from in a city of the country (usually the capital) about to perform supporting and cheering their act.

On 11 October 2009, the EBU announced that the format of the semi-finals was to be changed so that the results would be determined by a combination of 50% national jury and 50% televoting, making it more consistent with the final.

The tenth semi-final place was then given to the country with the highest number of points from the jury's votes which had not already qualified for the final from the televoting results.

[45] A number of fans began a campaign on social networking site Facebook for the return of an orchestra to the contest in Oslo, for the first time since 1998.

[56][57][58][59] The interval act involved a number of live public outdoor dance events from across Europe, which were planned for promotional purposes, but done in the style of a series of spontaneous flashmobs.

The official Eurovision Song Contest website provided a live stream without commentary via the peer-to-peer medium Octoshape.

Some broadcasters aired the contest in HD through their high-definition channel: The performance of "Algo pequeñito" by Daniel Diges representing Spain was disrupted by Catalan pitch invader Jaume Marquet, also known as Jimmy Jump.

The performance continued as Marquet, wearing a barretina, joined in with the choreographed routine, but he ran off when security personnel appeared on the stage.

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.

After all votes were cast, the top-ranked entry in the 2010 poll was Denmark's "In a Moment like This" performed by Chanée and N'evergreen; the top five results are shown below.