The Eurovision Song Contest 2016 was the 61st edition of the
Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...
. It took place in
Stockholm
Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
,
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
, following the country's victory at the with the song "
Heroes" by
Måns Zelmerlöw. Organised by the
European Broadcasting Union
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; , UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are member states of the Council of Europe, members of the ...
(EBU) and host broadcaster (SVT), the contest was held at the
Globe Arena and consisted of two semi-finals on 10 and 12 May, and a final on 14 May 2016. The three live shows were presented by
Petra Mede
Petra Maria Mede (; born 7 March 1970) is a Swedish comedian, dancer, actress and television presenter. Mede is known for her several roles in comic shows and as a television presenter, and is best known outside of Sweden for hosting the Eurovis ...
and the previous year's winner Måns Zelmerlöw.
Forty-two countries participated in the contest. , , and returned after absences from recent contests, while also returned after debuting as a special guest in 2015. did not enter, largely due to their national broadcaster's insufficient promotion of its music-based media, while had planned to participate, but was disqualified due to repeated non-payment of debts by its national broadcaster to the EBU.
The winner was with the song "
1944
Events
Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.
January
* January 2 – WWII:
** Free France, Free French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny is appointed to command First Army (France), French Army B, part of the Sixt ...
", performed and written by
Jamala
Susana Alimivna Jamaladinova. (born 27 August 1983), known professionally as Jamala,. is a Ukrainian singer. She represented and won the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with her song "1944 (song), 1944". In 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023 and 2024 ...
. , , and host country rounded out the top five. This was the first time since the introduction of professional jury voting in that the overall winner won neither the jury vote, which was won by Australia, nor the televote, which was won by Russia, with Ukraine placing second in both. "1944" is the first song containing lyrics in
Crimean Tatar to win the contest.
The Czech Republic managed to qualify for the final for the first time in five attempts since its debut in , while both Bosnia and Herzegovina and Greece failed to qualify from the semi-finals for the first time ever, the latter being absent from the final for the first time since 2000. In the final, Australia's second-place finish was an improvement on its fifth-place finish in 2015, while finished fourth, its best result since its debut and first participation in a final since 2007.
The contest was the first to implement a
voting system
An electoral or voting system is a set of rules used to determine the results of an election. Electoral systems are used in politics to elect governments, while non-political elections may take place in business, nonprofit organizations and inf ...
change since : each country's professional jury points were announced largely as before, while the results of each national
televote were combined and announced in reverse order. It was also the first contest to be broadcast on live television in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
, and the EBU recorded a record-breaking 204 million viewers for the contest, beating the 2015 viewing figures by over 5 million.
Location
Venue
The contest took place in the
Globe Arena in
Stockholm
Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
, following Sweden's victory at the 2015 contest. The Globe Arena has a capacity of approximately 16,000 attendees, and this was the second time the contest has been staged at the venue, after the
Eurovision Song Contest 2000
The Eurovision Song Contest 2000 was the 45th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 13 May 2000 at the Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden and presented by Kattis Ahlström and Anders Lundin. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union ( ...
.
Bidding phase
Host broadcaster (SVT) announced on 24 May, the day after winning the 2015 contest, that the
Tele2 Arena
3Arena, formerly the Stockholmsarenan (and Tele2 Arena), is a retractable roof multi-purpose arena in Stockholm Globe City, Johanneshov, just south of Stockholm City Centre, Sweden. It is used mostly for concerts and Association football, footbal ...
in Stockholm was their first choice venue. However, other cities and arenas were invited to apply, and those making a bid had approximately three weeks to submit their offer to SVT.
SVT announced on 1 June the conditions under which cities and venues could announce their interest in hosting the contest:
* SVT had to have access to the venue at least 4–6 weeks before the contest to build the stage and rig up lighting and technology.
* A press centre with a specific size had to be made available at the venue.
* A specific number of hotels and hotel rooms had to be made available in the vicinity of the venue.
* The host city had to be near a major airport.
An announcement regarding the venue was expected from SVT by midsummer,
with the Ericsson Globe announced as the venue on 8 July.
Key
Host venue
Other sites
The Eurovision Village was the official Eurovision Song Contest fan and sponsors' area during the events week. There it was possible to watch performances by local artists, as well as the live shows broadcast from the main venue. Located at
Kungsträdgården
Kungsträdgården (Swedish language, Swedish for "King's Garden") is a park in central Stockholm, Sweden. It is colloquially known as ''Kungsan''.
The park's central location and its outdoor cafés makes it one of the most popular hangouts ...
in
Stockholm
Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
, it was open from 6 to 13 May 2016.
The EuroClub was the venue for the official after-parties and private performances by contest participants. Unlike the Eurovision Village, access to the EuroClub was restricted to accredited fans, delegates, and press. It was located in a temporary building on the quay next to the water in front of the
Royal Palace of Stockholm.
The EBU announced on 14 March 2016 that the Tele2 Arena in Stockholm would host a live event running alongside the final of the contest on 14 May.
''Eurovision the Party'', hosted by
Sanna Nielsen
Sanna Viktoria Nielsen (born 27 November 1984) is a Sweden, Swedish singer, television presenter and musical theatre performer. On her seventh attempt, she won Melodifestivalen 2014, Melodifestivalen in 2014 with the song "Undo (Sanna Nielsen so ...
, allowed fans to watch the final on a big screen and featured backstage material from the Globe Arena such as Nielsen conducting exclusive interviews and appearing with hosts Petra Mede and Måns Zelmerlöw. The results of the Swedish jury vote was also announced live from the event by
Gina Dirawi. A pre-party and after-party was also held and featured performances from former contest winners
Carola and
Loreen
Lorine Zineb Nora Talhaoui (born 16 October 1983), known professionally as Loreen (), is a Swedish singer and songwriter. Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest, Representing Sweden, she won the Eurovision Song Contest in Eurovision Song Conte ...
as well as
Danny Saucedo,
Panetoz and DJ Tim Henri.
Executive producer Johan Bernhagen has stated that the event complements existing events being held at the Eurovision Village and the EuroClub, and it is hoped that ''Eurovision the Party'' would become an annual event in the host city of the contest.
Participants
Eligibility for potential participation in the Eurovision Song Contest requires a national broadcaster with
active EBU membership capable of receiving the contest via the
Eurovision network and broadcasting it live nationwide.
The EBU issued an invitation to participate in the contest to all active members and associate member .
Participating countries had until 15 September 2015 to submit their applications for participation in the contest, and until 10 October to withdraw their applications without facing financial sanctions.
It had been initially announced on 26 November 2015 that 43 countries would participate in the contest, equalling the record number of participants set in and .
However, was disqualified from participation on 22 April 2016, subsequently reducing the number of participating countries to 42.
Four countries returned after absences from recent contests: since , and since and since . Australia also returned after debuting as a special guest in 2015, but by invitation of the EBU due to the associate membership status of the
Special Broadcasting Service
The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) is an Australian hybrid-funded public broadcasting, public service broadcaster. About 80 percent of funding for the company is derived from tax revenue. SBS operates six TV channels (SBS (Australian TV chann ...
. However, instead of pre-qualifying for the final and voting in all three live shows, as was the case in 2015, Australia entered the second semi-final and voted only in that semi-final and the final. did not enter, largely due to its national broadcaster's insufficient promotion of their music-based media, as well as a poorly structured selection process,
while Romania was disqualified on 22 April 2016 due to repeated non-payment of debts by their national broadcaster to the EBU.
Returning artists
Seven artists returned after having previously participated in the contest.
Deen returned after previously representing , finishing ninth in the final with the song "
In the Disco".
Kaliopi
Kaliopi Bukle (, ; born 28 December 1966 as Kaljopa Bukleska (Macedonian: Каљопа Буклеска)), known professionally as Kaliopi, is a Macedonian singer-songwriter. In her career, Kaliopi has progressed from singing lead vocal with ...
returned after previously representing , finishing 13th in the final with the song "
Crno i belo". She was also selected to represent with "Samo ti", but was eliminated in a non-televised pre-qualifying round.
Poli Genova returned after previously representing , finishing 12th in the second semi-final with the song "
Na inat".
Ira Losco returned after previously representing , finishing in second place with the song "
7th Wonder".
Donny Montell returned after previously representing , finishing 14th in the final with the song "
Love Is Blind".
Greta Salóme returned after previously representing with
Jónsi, finishing 20th in the final with the song "
Never Forget".
Bojan Jovović returned for Montenegro as part of
Highway
A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It includes not just major roads, but also other public roads and rights of way. In the United States, it is also used as an equivalent term to controlled-access highway, or ...
after previously representing as part of
No Name, finishing seventh in the final with the song "
Zauvijek moja".
Monica, providing backing vocals for Armenia, had previously represented .
Sahlene, providing backing vocals for Australia, had represented .
Martina Majerle, providing backing vocals for Croatia, had represented and provided backing vocals for , and , and , , and .
Other countries
Active EBU members
* –
Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP) had encouraged viewers to suggest changes to their selection process, assuming they had chosen to participate in the contest. Portugal had failed to qualify for the final since , which the majority of the Portuguese public believed to be due to RTP's selection format,
Festival da Canção.
Kátia Aveiro, sister of
Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (; born 5 February 1985) is a Portuguese professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward for and Captain (association football), captains both Saudi Pr ...
, had launched a campaign on Twitter asking fans to back her bid to represent Portugal. However, RTP announced on 7 October 2015 that Portugal would not participate in the 2016 contest, adding that they were looking forward to participating in the 2017 contest with a restructured selection process. RTP's ombudsman, Jaime Fernandes, stated on 7 November during the television show ''A Voz do Cidadão'' that the decision was due not only to poor results in previous contests, but also RTP's insufficient promotion of music-related content.
* – Romania had originally confirmed their participation in the contest with the song "
Moment of Silence
A moment of silence (also referred to as a minute's silence or a one-minute silence) is a period of silent contemplation, prayer, reflection, or meditation. Similar to flying a flag at half-mast, a moment of silence is often a gesture o ...
", performed by
Ovidiu Anton
Ovidiu Anton (; born 24 February 1983 in Bucharest) is a Romanian singer-songwriter. He was to represent Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with the song "Moment of Silence", but Romania was forced to withdraw from the contest on 22 Apr ...
. However, the EBU announced on 22 April 2016 that
Televiziunea Română
Televiziunea Română (), more commonly referred to as TVR , is the short name for Societatea Română de Televiziune ("Romanian Television Society"; SRTV), the Romanian public television. It operates nine channels: TVR 1, TVR 2, TVR 3, TVR Cu ...
(TVR) had repeatedly failed to pay debts totalling
CHF 16 million (
€
The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...
14.56 million) by 20 April, the deadline set by the EBU. TVR's failure to repay their debts resulted in their expulsion from the EBU, and consequently Romania's disqualification from the contest. This led to strong reactions against the decision.
Active EBU member broadcasters in , , , (despite the country's return to the
Eurovision Young Dancers in
2015
2015 was designated by the United Nations as:
* International Year of Light
* International Year of Soil __TOC__
Events
January
* January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...
) and confirmed non-participation prior to the announcement of the participants list by the EBU. broadcaster
TL had not ruled out debuting in 2016, but it ultimately did not appear on the final list of participating countries.
Associate EBU members
The EBU announced on 18 December 2015 that broadcaster
Khabar Agency would become an associate EBU member on 1 January 2016. However, Kazakhstan would be unable to debut at the contest as eligibility for participation requires a national broadcaster with active EBU membership.
Non-EBU members
Despite the EBU's positive response to broadcaster
Hunan Television
Hunan Television or Hunan TV () is a state-owned provincial satellite TV station launched on September 29, 1970. It is currently China's second-most-watched television channel, second to China Central Television's CCTV-1, although Hunan TV has oc ...
's interest in participating, in June 2015 the union denied that China would debut at the contest.
That same month, it was reported that broadcaster
KVF had applied for active EBU membership in order to take part in the contest; the application was rejected due to the islands' membership of the
Danish Realm
The Danish Realm, officially the Kingdom of Denmark, or simply Denmark, is a sovereign state consisting of a collection of constituent territories united by the Constitution of Denmark, Constitutional Act, which applies to the entire territor ...
.
Despite
not being recognised by 15 states in Europe and its broadcaster
RTK having neither active nor associate EBU membership, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs
Petrit Selimi tweeted that the country would debut at the 2016 contest, without further elaboration; this was promptly denied by the EBU.
broadcaster
1 FL TV was also unable to debut at the contest due to insufficient funding for EBU membership.
Format
The preliminary dates for the contest were announced on 16 March 2015 at a Heads of Delegation meeting in Vienna, with the semi-finals taking place on 10 and 12 May, and the final on 14 May 2016. These were subject to change depending on SVT, but were later confirmed when Stockholm was announced as the host city.
Discussions were held in 2014 between the
EBU
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; , UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are member states of the Council of Europe, members of the ...
and the
Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union
The Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU or APBU), formed in 1964, is a non-profit, professional association of broadcasting organisations. It currently has over 288 members in 57 countries and regions, reaching a potential audience of about 3 b ...
(ABU) regarding the inclusion of a guest performance from the
ABU TV Song Festival at the contest. The EBU confirmed on 16 July 2015 that they would be looking into the possibility of the proposal, which was discussed at the ABU General Assembly in 2014.
SVT proposed a change of start time of the contest from 21:00
CEST to 20:00 CEST on 9 September, arguing that such a change would help to promote family viewing of the contest, especially in eastern Europe when it would run late into the night.
However, the EBU published the public rules of the contest on 28 October, which stated that the start time would remain at 21:00 CEST.
The EBU announced on 23 September that rather than using clips from their respective music videos, extended clips from the dress rehearsals of the six acts who qualified directly to the final (the "
Big Five" and host nation Sweden) would be shown as previews during the semi-final in which they were allocated to vote.
The core team for the contest was announced by SVT and the EBU on 26 October. Johan Bernhagen and
Martin Österdahl
Erik Martin Österdahl (; born 12 October 1973) is a Swedish television producer and author. From 2008 to 2014 he worked on broadcasts of '' Mästarnas mästare'', '' Allt för Sverige'' and '' Skavlan'' for SVT. His first book, ''Be inte om nå ...
were executive producers, while Tobias Åberg was head of production. The three live shows were directed by
Sven Stojanović
Sven Nikola Stojanović (Serbian Cyrillic: Свен Никола Стојановић; born 14 November 1969) is a Sweden, Swedish director of Serbs, Serb descent mostly involved with Swedish TV productions, notably Melodifestivalen.
Stojanović ...
and the contest was produced by
Christer Björkman.
New voting system
The EBU announced on 18 February 2016 that a new voting system would be implemented at the contest for the first time since 1975. The new system, inspired by the voting system of
Melodifestivalen
Melodifestivalen (; ) is an annual song competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR). It determines the country's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest, and has been staged almo ...
, involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1–8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Televoting votes from all the countries would be pooled. After viewers cast their votes, the results of each professional jury would be presented, with countries receiving 1–8 and 10 points being displayed on-screen, instead of 1–7 as had been the case since , and the national spokesperson announcing only the country to which they award 12 points. After the results of the professional juries were presented, the televoting points from all participating countries would be combined, providing one score for each song. The new voting system would also be used to determine the qualifiers from each semi-final, but, as before, the qualifiers are announced in a random order.
As the new voting system would give equal weight to jury and televoting results, a national jury result could not be used as a backup result for the televoting or vice versa. Therefore, if a country could not deliver a valid televoting/jury result, a substitute result would be calculated by the jury/televoting result of a pre-selected group of countries approved by the contest's Reference Group. The Director General of
Radiotelevisione della Repubblica di San Marino (SMRTV),
Carlo Romeo, stated on 23 February that the use of a substitute televoting result discriminated against microstates like San Marino, which only used a professional jury due to their use of the Italian phone system and would therefore have its voting representation diminished under the new system, and criticised the EBU for not contacting its members before making the decision.
Presenters
After his victory in the 2015 contest, Måns Zelmerlöw announced his interest in hosting the 2016 contest. His experience as a television presenter includes
Melodifestivalen 2010 and SVT sing-along show ''
Allsång på Skansen
''Allsång på Skansen'' (''Sing-along at Skansen'') is a Sweden, Swedish show held at Skansen, Stockholm, every summer on Tuesdays between 8pm and 9pm. The audience is encouraged to sing-along, sing along with musical guest stars to well-known ...
''. Christer Björkman told ''
Expressen
(''The Express'') is one of two nationwide evening newspapers in Sweden. Describing itself as independent liberal, was founded in 1944; its symbol is a wasp and its slogans are "it stings" or " to your rescue".
The newspaper awards the cultu ...
'' on 25 May that
Gina Dirawi,
Petra Mede
Petra Maria Mede (; born 7 March 1970) is a Swedish comedian, dancer, actress and television presenter. Mede is known for her several roles in comic shows and as a television presenter, and is best known outside of Sweden for hosting the Eurovis ...
and
Sanna Nielsen
Sanna Viktoria Nielsen (born 27 November 1984) is a Sweden, Swedish singer, television presenter and musical theatre performer. On her seventh attempt, she won Melodifestivalen 2014, Melodifestivalen in 2014 with the song "Undo (Sanna Nielsen so ...
were also being considered as hosts, but it was reported on 1 June that SVT was considering Zelmerlöw and
Dolph Lundgren
Hans "Dolph" Lundgren (, ; born 3 November 1957) is a Swedish actor, filmmaker, and martial artist. Lundgren made his acting debut in 1985 with a cameo in the List of James Bond films, James Bond film ''A View to a Kill''. Also that year, he h ...
as co-hosts. ''Expressen'' reported on 19 August that Mede and Zelmerlöw were SVT's first choice of hosts, while it was announced at a press conference on 14 December that they would indeed co-host.
The press conferences were presented by
Jovan Radomir and Catarina Rolfsdotter-Jansson, who also provided commentary from the red carpet event in front of the
Stockholm Palace
Stockholm Palace, or the Royal Palace, ( or ) is the official residence and major royal palace of the Swedish monarch (King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia use Drottningholm Palace as their usual residence). Stockholm Palace is in Stadsholm ...
, before the official welcome party at
Stockholm City Hall
Stockholm City Hall (, ''Stadshuset'' locally) is the seat of Stockholm Municipality in Stockholm, Sweden. It stands on the eastern tip of Kungsholmen island, next to Riddarfjärden's northern shore and facing the islands of Riddarholmen and ...
on 8 May 2016.
Semi-final allocation draw

The draw to determine the allocation of the participating countries into their respective semi-finals took place at Stockholm City Hall on 25 January 2016, hosted by
Alexandra Pascalidou and Jovan Radomir. The first part of the draw determined in which semi-final the "Big Five" and host country Sweden would have to vote. The second part of the draw decided in which half of the respective semi-finals each country would perform, with the exact running order determined by the producers of the show at a later date. The EBU originally announced that the running order would be revealed on 5 April, however for undisclosed reasons this was later put back to 8 April. Eighteen countries participated in the first semi-final, while nineteen countries were planned to participate in the second semi-final, but this was reduced to eighteen on 22 April due to the disqualification of . From each semi-final, ten countries joined the "Big Five" and Sweden in the final, where a total of twenty-six countries participated.
The thirty-seven semi-finalists were allocated into six pots, which were published by the EBU on 21 January, based on historical voting patterns as calculated by the contest's official televoting partner Digame. Drawing from different pots helps in reducing the chance of so-called
neighbour voting and increasing suspense in the semi-finals. and were pre-allocated to vote and perform in the first and second semi-final respectively due to requests from their respective broadcasters, which were approved by the EBU.
Opening and interval acts

The EBU announced on 1 May 2016 that the opening act of the first semi-final would be a performance of "Heroes" by Måns Zelmerlöw, while the opening act of the second semi-final would be a musical theatre comedy song entitled "That's Eurovision", composed by
Matheson Bayley and written by Bayley,
Edward af Sillén and Daniel Réhn, and performed by Zelmerlöw and Mede.
The opening act of the final was a parade of flags similar to final opening ceremonies since 2013, themed as a tribute to Swedish fashion design and dance music with artists being welcomed on stage in a catwalk fashion show with flags being projected onto 26 dresses designed by
Bea Szenfeld.
The interval acts of both semi-finals were sketches choreographed by
Fredrik Rydman: "The Grey People" in the first semi-final and "Man vs Machine" in the second semi-final respectively. The EBU announced on 9 May that one of the interval acts of the final would be a world premiere live performance of "
Can't Stop the Feeling!
"Can't Stop the Feeling!" is a song recorded by American singer-songwriter Justin Timberlake. It was released on May 6, 2016, as the lead single of the soundtrack to the film ''Trolls'' (2016), in which Timberlake voiced the character "Branch" ...
" and "
Rock Your Body
"Rock Your Body" is a song by American singer Justin Timberlake from his debut studio album, '' Justified'' (2002). The Neptunes (consisting of Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams) wrote and produced the song. The song features background vocals by ...
" by Justin Timberlake. He was the first "global megastar" in the contest's 61-year-history to perform during the interval. Other interval acts in the final included a sketch called "Love Love Peace Peace", a pastiche of past entries which featured appearances from
Lordi
Lordi () is a Finnish Rock music, rock band. Formed in 1992 by the band's lead singer, songwriter and costume maker Mr Lordi (Tomi Petteri Putaansuu), Lordi are known for wearing monster masks and using horror elements with pyrotechnics during c ...
and
Alexander Rybak
Alexander Igorevich Rybak (; born 13 May 1986) or Alyaksandr Iharavich Rybak () is a Belarusian-born Norwegian musician and actor. Based in Oslo, Norway, Rybak extensively worked on television programs and on tours in Europe, particularly in S ...
, winners of the contest in and respectively and performed by Zelmerlöw and Mede, a sketch starring Lynda Woodruff, played by
Sarah Dawn Finer, and a performance of "
Fire in the Rain" and "Heroes" by Zelmerlöw, from his albums ''
Chameleon
Chameleons or chamaeleons (Family (biology), family Chamaeleonidae) are a distinctive and highly specialized clade of Old World lizards with 200 species described as of June 2015. The members of this Family (biology), family are best known for ...
'' and ''
Perfectly Damaged'' respectively.
During the live broadcast of the final on
Logo TV
Logo TV (often shortened to Logo, and stylized as Logo.) is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Media Networks, a division of Paramount Global. Launched in 2005, Logo was originally dedicated to lifestyle and entertainment progra ...
in the United States, Timberlake's performance was replaced by a reprise of "The Grey People" from the first semi-final, while the official DVD release removed it entirely. In an interview with ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'', the contest's Executive Supervisor,
Jon Ola Sand, revealed that this was due to rights restrictions.
Contest overview
Semi-final 1
Eighteen countries participated in the first semi-final. , , and voted in this semi-final.
The highlighted countries qualified for the final.
Semi-final 2
Eighteen countries participated in the second semi-final. , , and the voted in this semi-final.
were originally planned to perform twelfth in this semi-final, but were disqualified due to repeated non-payment of debts to the EBU, resulting in countries originally planned to perform thirteenth or later to do so one place earlier.
The highlighted countries qualified for the final.
Final
26 countries participated in the final, with all 42 participating countries eligible to vote. The running order for the final was revealed after the second semi-final qualifiers' press conference on 13 May.
Spokespersons
The spokespersons announced the 12-point score from their respective country's national jury in the following order:
#
Kati Bellowitsch
# Unnsteinn Manúel Stefánsson
#
Tural Asadov
#
#
#
Sinéad Kennedy
#
Nina Sublatti
# Ivana Crnogorac
# Ben Camille
#
#
#
Sebalter
Sebastiano Paù-Lessi, (born 1 July 1985) better known by his stage name, Sebalter (stylised SEBalter) is a Swiss people, Swiss singer, fiddler, and attorney who represented his country at the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 in Copenhagen, Denmark. H ...
#
Ulla Essendrop
#
Élodie Gossuin
# Olivia Furtună
# Arman Margaryan
# Loukas Hamatsos
# Anna Angelova
#
Trijntje Oosterhuis
#
#
Ofer Nachshon
#
Uzari
#
Barbara Schöneberger
#
Nyusha
#
Elisabeth Andreassen
Elisabeth Gunilla Andreassen (; born 28 March 1958), also known simply as Bettan, is a Norwegian-Swedish singer who has finished both first and second in the Eurovision Song Contest.
Career
Her talent was discovered in 1979 by Swedish musician an ...
#
Lee Lin Chin
#
#
Richard Osman
Richard Osman (born 28 November 1970) is an English television presenter, producer, and novelist. He is the creator and former co-presenter of the BBC One television quiz show ''Pointless''. He has presented the BBC Two quiz shows ''Two Tribes ( ...
# Nevena Rendeli
#
Constantinos Christoforou
Constantinos Christophorou (Κωνσταντίνος Χριστοφόρου, born in Limassol, Cyprus on 25 April 1977) is a Greek-Cypriot singer. He represented Cyprus in Eurovision Song Contest as a solo singer with " Mono Yia Mas" (1996) a ...
# Ugnė Galadauskaitė
#
Dragana Kosjerina
# Dijana Gogova
#
Andri Xhahu
#
#
Verka Serduchka
#
Claudia Andreatti
#
#
Marjetka Vovk
#
Csilla Tatár
#
Danijel Alibabić
#
Gina Dirawi
Detailed voting results
Semi-final 1
12 points
Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points awarded by each country's professional jury and televote in the first semi-final. Countries in bold gave the maximum 24 points (12 points apiece from professional jury and televoting) to the specified entrant.
Semi-final 2
12 points
Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points awarded by each country's professional jury and televote in the second semi-final. Countries in bold gave the maximum 24 points (12 points apiece from professional jury and televoting) to the specified entrant.
Final
12 points
Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points awarded by each country's professional jury and televote in the final. Countries in bold gave the maximum 24 points (12 points apiece from professional jury and televoting) to the specified entrant.
Broadcasts
Most countries sent commentators to Stockholm or commentated from their own country, in order to add insight to the participants and, if necessary, the provision of voting information.
It was reported by the EBU that the contest was viewed by a worldwide television audience of over 200 million viewers, beating the
2015 record which was viewed by 197 million.
International sign broadcast
SVT announced on 22 April 2016 that they would offer
International Sign
International Sign (IS) is a pidgin sign language which is used in a variety of different contexts, particularly as an international auxiliary language at meetings such as the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) congress, in some European Union s ...
broadcasts of all three live shows for the hearing impaired. All three broadcasts were produced by Julia Kankkonen. The performances of competing entries were interpreted by ten sign language performers and the dialogue of hosts were interpreted by three sign language performers:
* Markus Aro (Finland)
* Ebru Bilen Basaran (Denmark)
* Vivien Batory (Denmark)
* Laith Fathulla (Sweden)
* Rafael-Evitan Grombelka (Germany)
* Amadeus Lantz (Sweden)
* Georg Marsh (Austria)
* Amina Ouahid (Sweden)
* Tommy Rangsjö (Sweden)
* Pavel Rodionov (Russia)
* Laura Levita Valytė (Lithuania)
* Kolbrún Völkudóttir (Iceland)
* Xuejia Rennie Zacsko (Sweden)
The international sign broadcasts was streamed online alongside the three live shows,
with the following countries also televising the broadcasts:
* –
ORF 2 (final)
* –
DR Ramasjang (all shows)
* –
LRT Kultūra (all shows)
* –
NRK Tegnspråk (all shows)
* –
SVT24
SVT24, stylized as svt24, formerly known as SVT 24 (then stylized svt 24) or 24 is a Swedish language TV channel broadcast by Sveriges Television (SVT). It started broadcasting in 1999 as a dedicated news channel. In 2003 it extended its scope ...
(all shows)
Incidents and controversies
Disqualification of Romania
Romania's participation was reported to be in danger on 19 April 2016 due to repeated non-payment of debts by Televiziunea Română (TVR) to the EBU, totalling CHF 16 million (€14.56 million) dating back to January 2007. The EBU had requested the Romanian government to repay the debt before 20 April or face exclusion from the contest. The EBU announced on 22 April that after the Romanian government had failed to repay the debt by the deadline, TVR were expelled from the EBU, consequently disqualifying Romania from the contest. The Director General of the EBU,
Ingrid Deltenre, said that while "it is regrettable that we are forced to take this action
��The continued indebtedness of TVR jeopardizes the financial stability of the EBU itself".
However, because the official album of the contest had been produced before the disqualification, the planned Romanian entry, "Moment of Silence", performed by Ovidiu Anton, would remain on both digital and physical copies of the album.
The song had been written following the
Colectiv nightclub fire in October 2015.
German artist replacement
Norddeutscher Rundfunk
(; "North German Broadcasting"), commonly shortened to NDR (), is a public broadcasting, public radio and television broadcaster, based in Hamburg. In addition to the city-state of Hamburg, NDR broadcasts for the German states of Lower Saxony, ...
(NDR) announced on 19 November 2015 that
Xavier Naidoo
Xavier Kurt Naidoo (; born 2 October 1971) is a German soul and R&B singer, songwriter and record producer. He is a founding member of German band Söhne Mannheims, and started two record labels, Beats Around the Bush and Naidoo Records. Naid ...
would represent Germany in the contest. However, his selection was criticised due to his history of expressing
far-right
Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...
political views in his actions and lyrics, including a speech made at a protest in 2014 supporting the
assertion that the
German Reich
German ''Reich'' (, from ) was the constitutional name for the German nation state that existed from 1871 to 1945. The ''Reich'' became understood as deriving its authority and sovereignty entirely from a continuing unitary German ''Volk'' ("na ...
continues to exist within its
pre-World War II borders, his propagation of conspiracy theories surrounding the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
and the
2008 financial crisis
The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...
, and a song in which he referred to
Baron Rothschild as "Baron Deadschild" and a "
schmuck", as well as a collaboration with
Kool Savas
Savaş Yurderi (born 10 February 1975), known by his stage name Kool Savas, is a German rapper of Turkish Origin. Along with Taktlo$$, he formed the highly influential German rap duo Westberlin Maskulin (1997–2000). He was also a founding me ...
titled "Wo sind sie jetzt?", which contained
homophobic
Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who identify or are perceived as being lesbian, Gay men, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred, or ant ...
lyrics which were interpreted as
associating homosexuality with paedophilia. Critics of his selection included
Johannes Kahrs, who branded the decision "unspeakable and embarrassing", the
Amadeu Antonio Foundation and ''
Bild
''Bild'' (, ) or ''Bild-Zeitung'' (, ) is a German tabloid newspaper published by Axel Springer SE. The paper is published from Monday to Saturday; on Sundays, its sister paper '' Bild am Sonntag'' () is published instead, which has a differen ...
''.
In light of the negative response and the need to quickly decide a new selection process, NDR withdrew its proposal to send Naidoo on 21 November.
ARD co-ordinator Thomas Schreiber stated that "Xavier Naidoo is a brilliant singer who is, according to my own opinion, neither racist nor homophobe. It was clear that his nomination would polarise opinions, but we were surprised about the negative response. The Eurovision Song Contest is a fun event, in which music and the understanding between European people should be the focus. This characteristic must be kept at all costs."
Russian jury votes
The EBU announced on 10 May 2016 that they were investigating reports of possible rule violations after Russian jury member Anastasia Stotskaya streamed footage of the Russian jury deliberation during the dress rehearsal of the first semi-final on 9 May on the live-streaming social media site
Periscope
A periscope is an instrument for observation over, around or through an object, obstacle or condition that prevents direct line-of-sight observation from an observer's current position.
In its simplest form, it consists of an outer case with ...
. The video showed one jury member not paying attention to the Dutch performance, while another jury member was filmed during the Armenian performance stating that she will support Armenia "because
erhusband is Armenian". The video also shows jury members on their phones during other performances, as well as a glimpse of Stotskaya's voting result, which also included notes evaluating performances. The rules of the contest stipulate that all jury members are to evaluate performances individually, without discussing the results with other jury members, a stipulation that was clearly violated by the Russian jury.
The EBU released a statement later on 10 May, stating that following talks with
Russia-1
Russia-1 () is a state-owned Russian television channel, first aired on 14 February 1956 as Programme Two in the Soviet Union. It was relaunched as RTR on 13 May 1991, and is known today as Russia-1. It is the flagship channel of the All-Russia ...
, the broadcaster proposed to withdraw Stotskaya, declaring her voting results to be invalid, and provide a replacement judge for the final on 14 May. The statement also clarified that the other four jury members submitted a valid jury vote. The EBU also stated that while streaming a video online from the jury deliberation is not considered to be a breach of the rules of the contest, so long as individual rankings, combined rankings or jury points are kept confidential until after the final, it regards Stotskaya's actions "as not in keeping with the spirit of the contest and potentially prejudicial as it imposes a potential risk of accidentally revealing results".
Protests over flag policy
In ensuring the apolitical nature of the contest and the safety of attendees, the EBU released an official flag policy on 29 April 2016, which included a list of flags which would be banned from the three live shows. The President of the
Basque Country,
Iñigo Urkullu, and the Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation,
José Manuel García-Margallo, protested at the specific inclusion of the
flag of the Basque Country
The flag of the Basque Country, also known as the ikurrina (in Basque language, Basque)EuskaltzaindiaDictionary of the Standard Basque, retrieved 2010-10-04. or ikurriña (Spanish language, Spanish spelling of the Basque term), is the official ...
alongside other flags such as those of some unrecognised nations and the
Islamic State
The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadism, Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS ...
, and called on the organisers of the contest to rectify the issue.
Radiotelevisión Española
The Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española (; ), known as Radiotelevisión Española (''Spanish Radio and Television'', RTVE), is the Spanish national public Broadcasting, television and radio broadcaster. It is a state-owned enterprise f ...
(RTVE) also expressed their concern to the EBU and requested a rectification,
with the EBU responding, saying that while the flag of the Basque Country is not specifically forbidden, it is an example of a banned flag, adding that only the "official national flags of the 42 participating countries, or from one of the countries that have recently taken part", "official national flags of any of the other
United Nations member states
The United Nations comprise sovereign states and the world's largest intergovernmental organization. All members have equal representation in the UN General Assembly.
The Charter of the United Nations defines the rules for admission of ...
", the
flag of Europe
The flag of Europe or European flag consists of twelve Or (heraldry), golden stars forming a Circle of stars, circle on a Azure (heraldry), blue field. It was designed and adopted in 1955 by the Council of Europe (CoE) as a symbol for the who ...
and the
rainbow flag were permitted.
The EBU issued a statement later on 29 April, clarifying that it was not their intention to publish such a document, while acknowledging that the decision to publish a selection of flags of organisations and territories, each of which were "of a very different nature", was an insensitive one, and apologised for any offence caused by the publication of the original flag policy. The EBU also called on both the Avicii Arena and the contest's official ticketing partner
AXS to publish an updated flag policy which did not include examples of banned flags.
The EBU released another statement on 6 May, stating that after discussing the matter with several participating delegations, the organisers of the contest had "agreed to relax the flag policy, and to allow national, regional and local flags of the participants" such as the
Welsh flag (as
Joe Woolford, representing the United Kingdom as part of Joe and Jake, is
Welsh) and the
Sami flag (as
Agnete, representing Norway, is of
Sami heritage), as well as the flags of all UN member states, the flag of the EU and the rainbow flag, as stated in the original flag policy. The EBU also proposed a more tolerant approach to other flags as long as attendees respect the apolitical nature of the contest and do not attempt to deliberately obstruct the camera views. Such a proposal was approved by the contest's Reference Group.
The
Spanish Embassy in Stockholm filed a formal complaint to Swedish police on 15 May after a Spanish citizen carrying the flag of the Basque Country had his flag confiscated by security personnel and was asked along with two of his compatriots to leave the venue. After an urgent intervention by the Spanish Consul, who was present in the arena, the flag was returned to the attendees and they were permitted to return to the venue.
Nagorno-Karabakh flag dispute
Despite the official flag policy published by the EBU allowing only "national, regional and local flags of the participants" and banning the
flag of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, during the first voting recap of the first semi-final on 10 May, the Armenian representative
Iveta Mukuchyan was filmed in the green room holding the flag of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, sparking condemnation from the Azerbaijani press. The situation further escalated during the semi-final qualifiers' press conference afterwards, where a member of the Azerbaijani press criticised the Armenian delegation and the EBU for allowing the flag to be shown during the show. Responding to a question on the incident from a journalist from ''
Aftonbladet
(, lit. "The evening paper") is a Swedish language, Swedish daily tabloid newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden. It is one of the largest daily newspapers in the Nordic countries.
History and profile
The newspaper was founded by Lar ...
'', Mukuchyan stated: "My thoughts are with my Motherland. I want peace everywhere." Commenting on the situation, the Azerbaijani representative
Samra stated that "Eurovision is a song contest and it's all about music."
The EBU and the contest's Reference Group released a joint statement on 11 May, strongly condemning Mukuchyan's actions during the first voting recap of the first semi-final and considering it "harmful" to the overall image of the contest. The Reference Group consequently sanctioned
Public Television of Armenia (AMPTV), citing a breach of the rule stating that "no messages promoting any organisation, institution, political cause or other causes shall be allowed in the shows". Furthermore, the Reference Group has pointed out that a further breach of the rules of the contest could lead to disqualification from the contest or future contests. The spokesman for the
Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hikmet Hajiyev, called Mukuchyan's actions "provocative" and unacceptable, claiming that "the Armenian side deliberately resorts to such steps to encourage and promote the illegal formation created in the occupied Azerbaijani territories".
Danish jury result
''
BT'' revealed on 15 May 2016 that Danish professional jury member Hilda Heick had submitted her ranking for the second semi-final and the final the wrong way round, ranking her favourite entry 26th while ranking her least-favourite entry first, in direct opposition to what she had intended to do.
As a result of Heick's mistake, the points of the Danish jury would have been different:
* Instead of 10 points, Australia would have received 12;
* Instead of 7 points, the Netherlands would have received 10;
* Instead of 5 points, Lithuania would have received 1;
* Instead of 4 points, Sweden would have received 7;
* Instead of 2 points, Israel would have received 4;
* Instead of 1 point, Spain would have received 5;
* Instead of receiving no points, France and Russia would have received 2 and 3 points respectively.
The United Kingdom and Ukraine both would have failed to receive any points from the Danish jury. While the overall result was not affected, the margin between second-placed Australia and first-placed Ukraine would have been reduced from 23 points to 9 points.
Protests against the winner
The Ukrainian winning song, "
1944
Events
Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.
January
* January 2 – WWII:
** Free France, Free French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny is appointed to command First Army (France), French Army B, part of the Sixt ...
" by
Jamala
Susana Alimivna Jamaladinova. (born 27 August 1983), known professionally as Jamala,. is a Ukrainian singer. She represented and won the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with her song "1944 (song), 1944". In 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023 and 2024 ...
, is about the
deportation of the Crimean Tatars
The deportation of the Crimean Tatars (, Cyrillic: Къырымтатар халкъынынъ сюргюнлиги) or the ('exile') was the ethnic cleansing and the cultural genocide of at least 191,044 Crimean Tatars that was carried out ...
in 1944 and particularly about the singer's great-grandmother, who lost her daughter while being deported to
Central Asia
Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...
.
Jamala's song was considered by Russian media and lawmakers to be critical of the
Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the
war in Donbas
The war in Donbas, or the Donbas war, was a phase of the Russo-Ukrainian War in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine. The war Timeline of the war in Donbas (2014), began in April 2014, when Russian separatist forces in Ukraine, Russian para ...
. A petition was started on
Change.org the day after the final, which called on the EBU to void the results in view of Ukraine winning overall despite placing second in both the jury and televote, but the EBU reaffirmed Ukraine's win in response.
Later on, a video surfaced depicting Jamala performing "1944" four months before the eligibility date for commercial releases. However, the EBU concluded that "the song was eligible to compete", citing past relaxations of the rule.
Other awards
In addition to the main winner's trophy, the
Marcel Bezençon Awards and the
Barbara Dex Award were contested during the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest. The
OGAE
The (; ), shortened to OGAE, is a non-governmental and non-profit international organisation, consisting of 42 Eurovision Song Contest fan clubs from across Europe and worldwide. It was founded in 1984 in Savonlinna, Finland by Jaripekka Koikka ...
, "General Organisation of Eurovision Fans" voting poll also took place before the contest.
Marcel Bezençon Awards
The
Marcel Bezençon Awards, organised since 2002 by Sweden's then-Head of Delegation and 1992 representative
Christer Björkman, and 1984 winner
Richard Herrey, honours songs in the contest's final. The awards were divided into three categories: Artistic Award, Composers Award, and Press Award. The winners were revealed shortly before the final on 14 May.
OGAE
OGAE
The (; ), shortened to OGAE, is a non-governmental and non-profit international organisation, consisting of 42 Eurovision Song Contest fan clubs from across Europe and worldwide. It was founded in 1984 in Savonlinna, Finland by Jaripekka Koikka ...
, an organisation of over forty Eurovision Song Contest fan clubs across Europe and beyond, conducts an annual voting poll first held in 2002 as the Marcel Bezençon Fan Award. The 2016 poll ran from 4 April to 2 May with votes from 45 clubs while Bulgaria and Moldova's ones abstained,
and after all votes were cast, the top-ranked entry was France's "
J'ai cherché" performed by
Amir
Emir (; ' (), also transliterated as amir, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or ceremonial authority. The title has ...
; the top five results are shown below.
Barbara Dex Award
The
Barbara Dex Award is a humorous fan award given to the worst dressed artist each year. Named after
Belgium's representative who came last in the 1993 contest, wearing her self-designed dress, the award was handed since 1997. After 20 editions, this was the final poll organised by the fansite House of Eurovision, as they handed the reins to the fansite ''Songfestival.be'' shortly after the 2016 contest.
Official album
''Eurovision Song Contest: Stockholm 2016'' is the official compilation album of the contest, put together by the European Broadcasting Union, which was released by
Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, ...
digitally on 15 April and physically on 22 April 2016.
The album features all 42 participating entries including the semi-finalists that fail to qualify for the final, as well as the disqualified Romanian entry.
Charts
See also
*
ABU Radio Song Festival 2016
*
Eurovision Young Musicians 2016
The Eurovision Young Musicians 2016 was the eighteenth edition of the Eurovision Young Musicians contest, which took place on 3 September 2016, outside the Cologne Cathedral, in Cologne, Germany. For a second consecutive time, German public broadc ...
*
Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2016
Notes
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
2016
2016 was designated as:
* International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly.
* International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...
Music competitions in Sweden
2016 in Swedish music
2016 song contests
2010s in Stockholm
May 2016 in Europe
Music in Stockholm