….and there we were holding out just a faint glimmer of hope that the Germans might do the obvious thing and hold Eurovision 2011 in Berlin. But obviously it wasn’t to be. After weeks of speculation and other possible host cities including the capital, Hamburg and Hannover, it’s finally been confirmed that next year’s contest will take place in – ta-daaaaaa!!!!!!! Dusseldorf. Or to be precise, Dusseldorf’s Fortuna Arena, which holds an impressive at 24,000 people.
Obviously we would have loved it to be in the capital given it is one of our favourite European cities. But when you consider the sheer size of the venue plus the fact that Berlin apparently wanted to hold the contest in a large inflatable tent, it’s not hard to see why Dusseldorf got the nod.
And just to blind you with further useless information, that means next year’s contest will be the first since Istanbul 2004 not to take place in the host nation’s capital city – plus you will also be hard-pressed to find another country who have hosted as many times as Germany (bearing in mind they hosted several times in the 50s) but never actually held it in their capital.
As for our thoughts on this – well, we’re sure they’ll do a fantastic job. And frankly we’re just relieved that we’ll now escape a re-run of the 1983 contest in Munich…..
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