After 6 years of internal selections it was announced in June 2010 that SRG SSR were looking at possibilities to hold a national final to select the Swiss entry, the first time since 2004, depending on budget details to be finalised in early autumn. On 24 August Schweizer Fernsehen announced that a national final would be organised, after increased popularity for Eurovision in Switzerland after victories for Norway and Germany. SRG SSR compiled the list of candidates for the national selection final with the Swiss radio broadcaster DRS 3 and the Swiss French and Italian-language television networks TSR and RSI. A national final with 12 finalists was held on 11 December 2010 in Kreuzlingen. Seven finalists came from SF, three from DRS 3, one from TSR and one from RSI. Televoting selected the final winning song.
SF selection
The overall SF selection selected seven finalists. Candidates could submit entries to the broadcaster from 1 October 2010 until 30 October 2010. Former Eurovision Song Contests participants applied to take part in this selection: DQ, Todomondo, Miodio from San Marino2008, as well as Mariella Farré who represented Switzerland in the 1983 and 1985 contests. Piero Esteriore, Switzerland's representative in 2004 also submitted a song. SF received 327 entries during the submission period. Voting was held from 1 November to 10 November 2010, with the combination of the votes from a jury and online voting selecting seven songs from the 327 submissions to qualify for the national final. The seven qualifiers were announced on 16 November 2010, which revealed that none of the aforementioned artists made it to the final.
DRS 3 selection
DRS 3 selected its three finalists via online voting. Over 4 weeks the submitted entries were discussed and voted on in the radio showESC-Club. Radio listeners and a jury decided 10 entries to proceed to the online voting which was held between 2 November and 12 November on the DRS 3 website. The three entries which received the most votes and proceed therefore to the final are Dominique Borriello, Duke, and Ilira & The Colors. 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.
RSI selection - RSI Eurosong Contest
Italian language Swiss broadcaster Radiotelevisione svizzera di lingua italiana chose one song for the national final. A jury selected five songs from 46 submissions. Firstly, an online vote was held between 3 November and 6 November 2010. A radio final was then held on 10 November 2010 from the Hotel Besso in Lugano, broadcast on radio stationRete Uno. The winner was chosen by online voting, SMS voting and jury voting. The winner of the final was Orpheline with "Surrender", but the singer renounced for personal reasons. Therefore, Vittoria Hyde, who came second, was planned to be sent to the Swiss final, as RSI announced on 15 November 2010. On 23 November 2010, however, SF disqualified her because her song had already been published before 1 September 2010, which was a clear violation of the rules. Therefore, Scilla, who came third, was selected as the RSI finalist.
TSR selection
On 29 November 2010, French-language broadcaster TSR announced the duo Aliose as the TSR finalist with the song "Sur les pavés".
Final
The final was held on 11 December 2010 in the Bodensee Arena, Kreuzlingen and hosted by Sven Epiney. Public televoting solely selected "In Love for a While" performed by Anna Rossinelli as the winning entry. Switzerland was the first country to announce its artist and song for the 2011 contest. During the show, an "expert group" provided commentary and feedback to the artists. The members of the "expert group" were Baschi, Nik Hartmann, alongside with three former Swiss ESC participants Francine Jordi, Pepe Lienhard and Peter Reber.
At Eurovision
Switzerland started their Eurovision campaign for 2011 with Anna Rossinelli selected as their representative. Switzerland competed in the first semi final on 10 May 2011 with position 8. She sang "In love for a while" and was one of the crowd favorites in the contest. She managed to earn 10th place after a good performance, with 55 points, narrowly beating Armenia and Malta who both drew on 54 points. This ended a run of not qualifying for the grand final since 2006, their last qualification into it. Switzerland drew position 13 in the grand final on 14 May 2011. Anna sung very well, and again drew a good reaction from the crowd. However at the end of voting, Switzerland came 25th and last.
Split results
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.
