Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011

The logo of "Die grosse Entscheidungs Show".

Die grosse Entscheidungs Show 2011 was the first edition of the Swiss national final format that selected Switzerland's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012. The national final was a collaboration between radio broadcaster DRS 3 and three broadcasters in Switzerland: the Swiss-German broadcaster Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SF), the Swiss-French broadcaster Télévision Suisse Romande (TSR) and the Swiss-Italian broadcaster Radiotelevisione svizzera (RSI).

The selection process took place in two stages before the finalists for the live show and ultimately the winner are selected. The first stage of the competition included SF, DRS 3, RTS and RSI each conducting varying selections in order to determine the candidates they submitted for the second stage of the competition. SF submitted seven candidates, DRS 3 submitted three candidates, TSR submitted one candidate and RSI submitted one candidate.[2] The twelve artists and songs proceed to the second stage, the televised national final, where the winning artist and song was selected to represent Switzerland in Düsseldorf.[3][4]

The SF selection involved an online internet voting platform where interested artists could submit their songs and have them listed for public listening. The platform began accepting entries between 1 October 2010 and 30 October 2010. 327 entries were submitted following the submission deadline, including entries from 1983 and 1985 Swiss entrant Mariella Farré, 2004 Swiss entrant Piero Esteriore, 2007 Danish entrant DQ (Peter Andersen), 2007 Romanian entrants Todomondo and 2008 Sammarinese entrants Miodio.[5][6] Internet users had between 1 and 10 November 2010 to vote for their favourite entries. The internet votes were combined with the votes from an expert jury and on 16 November 2010, the top seven entries for the national final were announced.[7] The seven candidates selected from the SF selection were "Drop of Drizzle" performed by Andrina, "In Love for a While" performed by Anna Rossinelli, "Confidence" performed by Bernarda Brunović, "Gib nid uf" performed by CH, "Up to You" performed by Polly Duster, "Just Me" performed by Sarah Burgess and "Come What May" performed by The Glue.[8][9]

A submission period was opened by DRS 3 for artists and composers to submit their entries. Over four weeks, the received submissions were discussed and voted on in the radio show ESC-Club by radio listeners and a jury. Ten candidates were selected to proceed to an online vote which took place between 2 and 12 November 2010 on the DRS 3 website. The top three selected from the DRS 3 selection for the national final were announced on 12 November 2010: "Il ritmo dentro di noi" performed by Dominique Borriello, "Waiting for Ya" performed by Duke and "Home" performed by Ilira & The Colors.[10][11] DRS 3 stated afterwards that one user had tried to manipulate the voting, but this was spotted in time and the result was corrected after the voting had closed.

Following an internal selection, the candidate for the national final was announced on 29 November 2010.[12][13] The candidate selected from the TSR selection for the national final was "Sur les pavés" performed by Aliose.[14][15]

RSI opened a submission period for interested artists and composers to submit their entries. 46 entries were submitted, and a jury panel evaluated the entry submissions received and selected five candidates for the regional final. The regional final, aired on radio station Rete Uno, took place on 10 November 2010 at the Hotel Besso in Lugano.[16] The combination of internet voting (10%), SMS voting (50%) and the votes of an expert jury (40%) selected "Surrender" performed by Orpheline as the candidate from the RSI selection for the national final.[17][12] On 23 November 2010, Orpheline withdrew from the national final due to personal reasons.[16] She was replaced by runner-up, "Play the Trumpet" performed by Vittoria Hyde, but was later disqualified because her song had already been published before 1 September 2010.[2][18][19] As a result of this, Scilla, who came third in the selection, was selected as the candidate instead.

Die grosse Entscheidungs Show 2011 took place on 11 December 2010 at the Bodensee Arena in Kreuzlingen, hosted by Sven Epiney.[20][21] The candidate songs in contention to represent Switzerland were performed, and an expert group consisting of Baschi, Nik Hartmann and three former Swiss entrants Francine Jordi (2002), Pepe Lienhard (1977) and Peter Reber (1971, 1976, 1979 and 1981 as part of Peter, Sue and Marc) provided commentary and feedback to the competing artists.[22][23] Public televoting solely selected "In Love for a While" performed by Anna Rossinelli as the winner.

• In the Semi-final 1 Switzerland came 10th with 55 points: the public awarded Switzerland 12th place with 45 points and the jury awarded 7th place with 76 points.
• In the Final Switzerland came 25th with 19 points: the public awarded Switzerland last place with 2 points and the jury awarded 23rd place with 53 points.