"Heroes" is a song by Swedish singer

Måns Zelmerlöw Måns Petter Albert Sahlén Zelmerlöw (; born 13 June 1986) is a Swedish pop singer, songwriter and television presenter. He took part in ''Idol 2005'', eventually finishing fifth, won the first season of '' Let's Dance,'' and scored a hit wit ...

. It was released on 28 February 2015 as a digital download in Sweden. The song was written and composed by

Anton Malmberg Hård af Segerstad Anton may refer to: People * Anton (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Anton (surname) Places * Anton Municipality, Bulgaria ** Anton, Sofia Province, a village * Antón District, Panama ** Antón, a town and capital ...

Joy Deb Joy Neil Mitro Deb, (born 14 January 1979) is a Swedish songwriter and producer. He has worked with artists such as Fifth Harmony, JoJo, MiC Lowry and Akon. Currently, Deb is signed to Northbound Music Publishing in Stockholm, where he is a memb ...

and

Linnea Deb Linnéa Mary Hansdotter Deb (née Sporre; born 23 July 1977), known professionally as Linnea Deb, is a Swedish singer, songwriter and record producer. She has worked with artists such as Fifth Harmony, JoJo, MiC Lowry and Akon. Deb is signed to ...

. On 14 March, the song won

Melodifestivalen 2015 Melodifestivalen 2015 was the Swedish music competition that selected Sweden's 55th entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2015. Måns Zelmerlöw won with the song " Heroes". The hosts for the show were Sanna Nielsen (winner of Melodifestivalen 20 ...

and represented Sweden in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2015 The Eurovision Song Contest 2015 was the 60th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Vienna, Austria, following the country's victory at the with the song "Rise Like a Phoenix" by Conchita Wurst. Organised by the European Broa ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, Austria, which it won. It is the lead single for Zelmerlöw's sixth studio album '' Perfectly Damaged''.

Critical reception

Writing in ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'', Kiran Moodley compared the song with

David Guetta Pierre David Guetta ( , ; born 7 November 1967) is a French DJ and music producer. He has over 10 million album and 65 million single sales globally, with more than 10 billion streams. In 2011, 2020 and 2021, Guetta was voted the number one D ...

's "

Lovers on the Sun "Lovers on the Sun" is a song by French music producer David Guetta from his sixth studio album, ''Listen''. It features vocals by American singer and songwriter Sam Martin. It was released as a digital download and the lead single from the album ...

", concluding "the resemblance is uncanny." Writing for the same outlet in 2022, Ben Kelly named it 36th best Eurovision-winning song of all time, describing it as "a David Guetta production with slightly underwhelming

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while ...

-style verses".

Melodifestivalen

Being Zelmerlöw's third participation in the selection, "Heroes" participated in the fourth semi-final of the 2015 Melodifestivalen which was held in

Örebro Örebro ( , ) is the sixth-largest city in Sweden, the seat of Örebro Municipality, and capital of the Örebro County. It is situated by the Närke Plain, near the lake Hjälmaren, a few kilometers inland along the small river Svartån, and ...

's Conventum Arena on 28 February 2015. The song was performed last at the fourth semi-final. It directly qualified to the final as it got one of the first two places. Right after the second chance, the running order of the final was revealed with "Heroes" being performed at the sixth position. "Heroes" won the selection with 122 points from the international jury and 166 points from the public, receiving 288 points in total, a record under the current voting system. The entry also beat the second placed song with a record margin of 149 points.

Eurovision success

"Heroes" won the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with a total of 365 points. It is the third-highest-scoring song in the history of the contest from 1975 to 2015 (and fourth-highest if results from 2016 are converted to the older system). It is also the first winning song, since the introduction of the split jury-televoting system in 2009, that has not won the televoting. "Heroes" defeated a record number of twenty-six other songs in the final, as it was the largest Eurovision Song Contest final ever with 27 participating countries. "Heroes" received the highest percentage of possible points compared to any other Eurovision winner of the 2010 to 2019 decade.

Track listings

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Heroes (Mans Zelmerlow song) Melodifestivalen songs of 2015 Swedish pop songs English-language Swedish songs Måns Zelmerlöw songs Songs written by Anton Hård af Segerstad Eurovision songs of 2015 Eurovision songs of Sweden Eurovision Song Contest winning songs 2015 singles 2015 songs Songs written by Joy Deb Songs written by Linnea Deb Number-one singles in Austria Number-one singles in Greece Number-one singles in Iceland Number-one singles in Sweden Number-one singles in Switzerland Warner Music Group singles