With Sweden as yet again the last country to pick its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest, all 43 participating nations have made their minds up upon their representatives in Düsseldorf next May. The countdown is already on – it's only 58 days until the first semifinal of the 2011 Eurovision takes place and 62 till the grand finale!

It's been a crazy national selections season, with a gazillion of live shows to follow and two 'Super Saturdays' that have challenged the attention capacity of every sleepless Eurovision fan. But it's been all worth it – here we are, with all 43 entries selected and almost all of them already released.

Despite the fact that most of the countries have selected their songs via televised selection series, the main headlines have come from countries that have gone internal this year. There are several examples: Slovakia was determined to withdraw from the contest, but finally decided to stick around as the costs of withdrawal would be higher than staying in. They will be represented by the duo TWiiNS with the song I'm still alive.

It is remarkable to mention that four countries are returning to the contest this year: Austria, Hungary, San Marino and Italy. Of these four, only Austria decided to hold an open selection. Hungarian broadcaster MTV is back with Kati Wolf and What about my dreams? But the main news have come from the Italian peninsula: Italy is back after a 13-year-long absence, fulfilling the dreams of many fans. The country will be represented by Rafael Gualazzi with the song Madness of love. He participated in the Sanremo Festival, being selected by a special jury. San Marino, the republic landlocked within Italy, is returning after its debut in 2008. Senit with Stand by will defend the Sammarinese colours on the Düsseldorf stage.

Also, several national selections have resulted in the big favourites not being chosen to represent their countries or knocked out before expected. Maybe the best example for this is Iceland – Yohanna was strongly tipped to represent the island this year after her successful debut in 2009, but failed to win the competition, losing out to Sjonni's friends singing Aftur heim as a tribute to Sigurjón Brink, who died days before his participation in the Icelandic selection. Something alike happened in Lithuania with Ruta Sciogolevaite, Latvia with Lauris Reiniks or Greece with Nikki Ponte. Ukraine is a different case, given that the hot favourite Jamala withdrew to show her disagreement with the latest developments in the country's selection.

The list of the 43 participants in the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest is as follows:

Semifinal 1, May 10th

Half	Country	Representative	Song
1		Albania	Aurela Gaçe	Feel the passion
1		Armenia	Emmy	Boom boom
1		Finland	Paradise Oskar	Da da dam
1		Georgia	Eldrine	One more day
1		Norway	Stella Mwangi	Haba haba
1		Poland	Magdalena Tul	Jestem
1		Russia	Alexey Vorobyov	Get you
1		Serbia	Nina	Caroban
1		Switzerland	Anna Rossinelli	In love for a while
1		Turkey	Yüksek Sadakat	Live it up
2		Azerbaijan	Ell&Niki	Running scared
2		Croatia	Daria Kinzer	Celebrate
2		Greece	Loukas Yiorkas ft. Stereo Mike	Watch my dance
2		Hungary	Kati Wolf	What about my dreams?
2		Iceland	Sigurjón's Friends	Aftur heim
2		Lithuania	Evelina Sasenko	C'est ma vie
2		Malta	Glen Vella	One life
2		Portugal	Homens da Luta	A luta é alegria
2		San Marino	Senit	Stand by

Semifinal 2, May 12th

Half	Country	Representative	Song
1		Austria	Nadine Beiler	The secret is love
1		Belgium	Witloof Bay	With love baby
1		Bosnia & Herzegovina	Dino Merlin	Love in rewind
1		Cyprus	Christos Mylordou	San angelos s'agapisa
1		Moldova	Zdob si Zdub	So lucky
1		The Netherlands	3JS	Never alone
1		Slovakia	TWiiNS	I'm still alive
1		Sweden	Eric Saade	Popular
1		Ukraine	Mika Newton	Angel
2		Belarus	Anastasiya Vinnikova	I love Belarus
2		Bulgaria	Poly Genova	Na inat
2		Denmark	A friend in London	New tomorrow
2		Estonia	Getter Jaani	Rockefeller Street
2		Ireland	Jedward	Lipstick
2		Israel	Dana International	Ding dong
2		Latvia	Musiqq	Angel in disguise
2		FYR Macedonia	Vlatko Ilievski	Rusinka
2		Romania	Hotel FM	Change
2		Slovenia	Maja Keuc	Vanilija

Final, May 14th

Country	Representative	Song
	France	Amaury Vassili	Sognu
	Germany	Lena	Taken by a stranger
	Italy	Rafael Gualazzi	Madness of love
	Spain	Lucía Pérez	Que me quiten lo bailao
	United Kingdom	Blue	I can

On March 15th, the draw for the running order of the semifinals will take place.