Switzerland participated at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 with the song "Il pleut de l'or" written by Michael von der Heide, Pele Loriano and Heike Kospach. The song was performed by Michael von der Heide, who was internally selected by the Swiss broadcaster SRG SSR idée suisse to represent the nation at the 2010 contest in Oslo, Norway. "Il pleut de l'or" was announced as the Swiss entry on 18 December 2009, while the song was presented to the public on 9 January 2010.
Switzerland was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 27 May 2010. Performing during the show in position 5, "Il pleut de l'or" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Switzerland placed seventeenth (last) out of the 17 participating countries in the semi-final with 2 points.
Background
Prior to the 2010 contest, Switzerland had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty times since its first entry in 1956. Switzerland is noted for having won the first edition of the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Refrain" performed by Lys Assia. Their second and, to this point, most recent victory was achieved in 1988 when Canadian singer Céline Dion won the contest with the song "Ne partez pas sans moi". Following the introduction of semi-finals for the , Switzerland had managed to participate in the final two times up to this point. In 2005, the internal selection of Estonian girl band Vanilla Ninja, performing the song "Cool Vibes", qualified Switzerland to the final where they placed 8th. Due to their successful result in 2005, Switzerland was pre-qualified to compete directly in the final in 2006. Since 2007, the nation failed to qualify to the final with a string of internal selections. In 2009, Lovebugs and their song "The Highest Heights" failed to qualify Switzerland to the final placing 14th in their semi-final.
The Swiss national broadcaster, SRG SSR idée suisse, broadcasts the event within Switzerland and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. SRG SSR idée suisse confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest on 3 July 2009. Along with their participation confirmation, the broadcaster also announced that the Swiss entry for the 2010 contest would be selected internally. Switzerland has selected their entry for the Eurovision Song Contest through both national finals and internal selections in the past. Since 2005, the Swiss entry was internally selected for the competition.
Before Eurovision
Internal selection
SRG SSR idée suisse opened a submission period between 3 July 2009 and 22 October 2009 for interested artists and composers to submit their entries. Eligible artists were those that have had television and stage experience (live performances), have made at least one video and have released at least one CD which placed among the top 50 in an official chart. In addition to the public submission, the broadcaster was also in contact with individual composers and lyricists as well as the music industry to be involved in the selection process. On 18 December 2009, "Il pleut de l'or" performed by Michael von der Heide was announced as the Swiss entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. Michael von der Heide had previously attempted to represent Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1999, placing fifth in the national final Countdown Grand Prix 1999 with the song "Bye Bye Bar". Both the artist and song were selected from over 60 entry submissions by a jury panel consisting of representatives of the three broadcasters in Switzerland: the Swiss-German broadcaster Schweizer Fernsehen (SF), the Swiss-French broadcaster Télévision Suisse Romande (TSR) and the Swiss-Italian broadcaster Radiotelevisione svizzera (RSI).
"Il pleut de l'or", which was written by Michael von der Heide together with Pele Loriano and Heike Kospach, was presented to the public on 9 January 2010 during the annual SwissAward show broadcast on SF1, TSR 2 and RSI La 2. The official music video of the song was released on 14 March 2010. English and German language versions of the song, respectively titled "It's Raining Gold" and "Es regnet Gold", were also released afterwards.
