Eurovision Song Contest

Behind the Scenes in Düsseldorf
Germany Preparing to Host Perfect Eurovision Song Contest
By Juan Moreno

Düsseldorf's Esprit Arena will host the Eurovision Song Contest on May 10, 12 and 14. Long on kitsch and camp, the event is an international showcase for German broadcaster ARD. Here, construction crews prepare the arena for 35,000 people on April 19.

Germany is finalizing preparations to host its biggest show since the World Cup -- the Eurovision Song Contest, which is expected to attract 100 million TV viewers worldwide. Public broadcaster ARD wants to portray a new, confident Germany that's ready to have a good time. Will it live up to the World Cup?

Thomas Schreiber, the program organizer of the Eurovision Song Contest for ARD, the German public TV network, is fielding a barrage of questions from a journalist. What is it going to be like for the viewers who still have old television sets without high definition or Dolby Digital? Will they all be able to hear everything? Even the bass in the background of the Belarusian entry?


Schreiber looks at the reporter and asks: "You mean cathode-ray tube televisions?"

Exactly, the journalists says. "Were those viewers thought of as well?"

"The background bass in the Belarusian entry?" Schreiber asks again. He apparently wants to be sure that the question was asked in seriousness.

"Yes, the bass," the journalist says. "Will viewers be able to hear it well on older televisions?"

For the past half hour, Schreiber has been showing reporters around the venue of what will be the biggest TV show on the planet. Since last spring, after a little-known 18-year-old German schoolgirl called Lena Meyer-Landrut won the 2010 contest, Schreiber has been working almost non-stop to prepare the event. He is showing journalists and camera teams around the Düsseldorf Arena, a 55,000-seater stadium which usually plays host to second-division soccer club Fortuna Düsseldorf.

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