The Eurovision Song Contest 2010 was the 55th annual Eurovision Song Contest, broadcast from the Telenor Arena in Bærum, a suburb of Oslo, Norway. It was the third time Norway has hosted the contest, having previously done so in 1986 and 1996. The 2010 winner was Germany with Lena singing "Satellite" written by American Julie Frost and Dane John Gordon.[4] Second place went to Turkey, third to Romania, fourth to Denmark, and fifth to Azerbaijan. The semi-finals took place on 25 and 27 May 2010 and the final took place on 29 May 2010.[2][5] The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) announced that the voting system used in the semi-finals would change from previous years to balance jury voting with televoting. A return of accompaniment by orchestra was also proposed but did not happen. Thirty-nine countries had taken part in the contest,[3] with Georgia[6] returning to the contest and Andorra,[7] the Czech Republic,[8][9] Hungary,[10] and Montenegro[11][12] withdrawing. Lithuania originally announced its withdrawal from the competition, but was later among the 39 participants confirmed by the EBU.[3][13] A recent global financial crisis affected how the event was run. Many countries that previously were involved in Eurovision elected not to send a song to Eurovision due to budget cuts [1] NRK sold its rights to 2010 FIFA World Cup to a rival broadcaster to finance its hosting of the Eurovision Song Contest 2010.[14] With 246 points, Germany was named the winner of the contest. It was their first win in 28 years, and only their second win since the Contest's inception. It was also the first time since 1997 that a Big 4 country won the contest. www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_2010