Some days after the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 rumours about Austria's return to Eurovision were spread. These rumours were confirmed by ORF in the end of July 2010.
The selection of the Austrian entry for the 2011 contest took place over two rounds. The first round was titled Guten Morgen Düsseldorf, held online where thirty songs competed with public voting and an expert jury panel selecting the top ten entries to compete in the televised final. The sum of all the jury scores created an overall ranking from which the song that came in first place would receive one point, while the song that came in last place would receive thirty points. Viewers were able to vote via SMS between 3 and 31 January 2011 and the overall ranking of the entries was also assigned scores from 1 to 30. Ten songs competed in the final where the winner was selected over two rounds of public voting. In the first round, the top three entries were selected to advance to the second round where the winner was selected.
Competing entries
ORF invited all interested artists to submit their entries to the broadcaster between 26 October 2010 and 10 December 2010. However, their application had to be backed by at least 33 people in order to compete in the national final. The Austrian public were also able to nominate artists, also on the condition they have at least 33 supporters. At the close of the deadline, the broadcaster received 210 applications. ORF, in cooperation with radio stationHitradio Ö3, selected thirty artists from the submissions to compete in the online vote. Among the applicants were former Austrian Eurovision representatives Hans Kreuzmayr–Waterloo, Robinson, Petra Frey, Alf Poier and di Bernando ; talent show winners Nadine Beiler, Oliver Wimmer and Freddy Sahin-Scholl ; well-known Austrian artists Alkbottle, Excuse Me Moses, Louie Austen and Luttenberger*Klug; and 1998 presidential candidateRichard Lugner.
''Guten Morgen Düsseldorf''
The thirty artists selected to compete in Guten Morgen Düsseldorf were announced on 3 January 2011. The top ten were selected by the combination of votes from a jury panel and a public SMS vote to proceed to the final. The SMS vote ran until 31 January 2011, and the full results were revealed on 1 February 2011.
Final
The televised final took place on 25 February 2011. Ten songs competed in the first round where the top three were selected by a public vote to proceed to the second round. The top three were "Oida Taunz" performed by Trackshittaz, "Paris, Paris" performed by Klimmstein feat. Joe Sumner and "The Secret Is Love" performed by Nadine Beiler. In the second round, public televoting selected "The Secret Is Love" performed by Nadine Beiler as the winner.
At Eurovision
Austria competed second in the second semi-final of the contest, on 12 May. In the semifinal Nadine placed seventh with 69 points and advanced to the final. In the final on 14 May, Nadine performed eighteenth and placed eighteenth with 64 points.
Split results
In the Semi-final 2 Austia came 7th with 69 points: the public awarded Austria 10th place with 52 points and the jury awarded 4th place with 95 points.
In the Final Austria came 18th with 64 points: the public awarded Austria 24th place with 25 points and the jury awarded 5th place with 145 points.
