Eurovision Song Contest 2001 - Format

Format

The logo of the 2001 Eurovision Song Contest was made out of four circles, placed in the shape of a heart. The four circles were also present in the stage design, with the light construction was made of the same four rings.

The Danish national broadcaster faced some problems whilst organising the contest such as the lack of funds and the search for a suitable venue. The event was eventually located in the football stadium Parken, after the company running the stadium agreed to add a retractable roof to the building. This solution made it the biggest venue ever to host a Eurovision Song Contest, but the scale of it wasn't entirely a success: many of the 38,000 people in the audience could not see the stage, and for many entries the hall appeared to be too big.

All of the countries participating in this year's Eurovision were required to use televoting for the first time after becoming compulsory. The jury backup votes were only used by some countries with either technical problems with their televotes or a weak fixed-telephone infrastructure. Further changes occurred in the qualification process for the 2002 Contest: along with the "Big 4" countries, the top 15 placed countries of the country would qualify for next year's competition. The other spots for 2002 would be filled by countries that were excluded from the 2001 contest because of their low point average for the years 1996-2000.

France, Greece and Slovenia were the heavy favourites to win the contest, however as the voting progressed it became a two-horse race between Denmark and Estonia, with Estonia ending as the unexpected winners.

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