Eurovision Song Contest 2016

Venue

The contest took place in the Ericsson Globe in Stockholm, following Sweden's victory at the 2015 contest in Vienna with the song "Heroes", performed by Måns Zelmerlöw. The Ericsson Globe 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.

Bidding phase

Host broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT) announced on 24 May, the day after winning the 2015 contest, that the Tele2 Arena 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:

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

Format

The preliminary dates for the contest were announced on 16 March 2015 at a meeting of Heads of Delegation in Vienna, with the semi-finals took 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 and the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (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 are 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 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 were Executive Producers, while Tobias Åberg was Head of Production. The three live shows were directed by Sven 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, involves each country now 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 countries are pooled. After viewers have cast their votes, the results of each professional jury are presented, with countries receiving 1-8 and 10 points being displayed on-screen instead of 1-7, which had been the case since 2006, and the national spokesperson announcing only the country to which they award 12 points. After the results of the professional juries are presented, the televoting points from all participating countries are combined, providing one score for each song. The results of countries finishing between 11th and 26th in the public vote are automatically added to the scoreboard, with only the results of the top ten countries being announced by the hosts. The new voting system is also 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 gives equal weight to jury and televoting results, a national jury result cannot be used as backup result for the televoting or vice versa. Therefore, if a country cannot deliver a valid televoting/jury result, a substitute result is 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.

Other Eurovision events

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, allowed fans to watch the final on a big screen and featured backstage material from the Ericsson Globe 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 as well as Danny Saucedo, Panetoz and DJ Tim Henri. Executive Producer of the contest 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.

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. Christer Björkman told Expressen on 25 May that Gina Dirawi, Petra Mede and Sanna Nielsen were also being considered as hosts, but it was reported on 1 June that SVT was considering Zelmerlöw and Dolph Lundgren as co-hosts. Expressen reported on 19 August that Mede and Zelmerlöw were SVT's first choice of hosts, with SVT announcing 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, before the official welcome party at Stockholm City Hall 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 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 forced withdrawal of Romania. From each semi-final, ten countries joined the "Big 5" 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. Sweden and Germany were pre-allocated to vote and perform in the first and second semi-final respectively due to requests from their respective broadcaster, which were approved by the EBU.

Opening and interval acts

It was 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 meets 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!" and "Rock Your Body" 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 such as No Name's song "Zauvijek moja" featuring appearances from Lordi and Alexander Rybak, winners of the contest in 2006 and 2009 respectively, a sketch starring Lynda Woodruff, played by Sarah Dawn Finer, and a performance by "Fire in the Rain" and "Heroes" by Zelmerlöw, both from his latest album Perfectly Damaged.

During the live broadcast of the final on Logo TV in the United States, Timberlake's performance was replaced by a reprise of "The Grey People" from the first semi-final. In an interview with The Guardian, the contest's Executive Supervisor, Jon Ola Sand, revealed that this was due to rights restrictions.

Participating countries

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. The EBU had initially announced on 26 November that 43 countries would participate in the contest, equalling the record number of participants set in 2008 and 2011. However, Romania were forcefully withdrawn from participation on 22 April 2016, subsequently reducing the number of participating countries to 42.

Four countries returned after absences from recent contests: Bosnia and Herzegovina after a three-year absence, Bulgaria and Croatia after two-year absences and Ukraine after a one-year absence. 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. 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. Portugal withdrew, largely due to their national broadcaster's insufficient promotion of their music-based media, as well as a poorly structured selection process, while Romania were forcefully withdrawn from participation 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 Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2004, finishing ninth in the final with the song "In The Disco".

Kaliopi returned after previously representing Macedonia in 2012, finishing 13th in the final with the song "Crno i belo". She was also selected to represent Macedonia in 1996 with "Samo ti", but was eliminated in a non-televised pre-qualifying round.

Poli Genova returned after previously representing Bulgaria in 2011, finishing 12th in the second semi-final with the song "Na inat".

Bojan Jovović returned for Montenegro as part of Highway after previously representing Serbia and Montenegro in 2005 as part of No Name, finishing seventh in the final with the song "Zauvijek moja".

Ira Losco returned after previously representing Malta in 2002, finishing in second place with the song "7th Wonder".

Donny Montell returned after previously representing Lithuania in 2012, finishing 14th in the final with the song "Love Is Blind".

Greta Salóme returned after previously representing Iceland in 2012 with Jónsi, finishing 20th in the final with the song "Never Forget".

Semi-final 1

Eighteen countries participated in the first semi-final. France, Spain, and Sweden voted in this semi-final. The highlighted countries qualified for the final.

Semi-final 2

Eighteen countries participated in the second semi-final. Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom voted in this semi-final. Romania were originally planned to perform twelfth in this semi-final, but were forced to withdraw 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.

Scoreboard

Countries in bold represent those awarded full 24 points (12 points apiece from professional jury and televoting) to a specified entrant.

12 points

Jury

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points awarded by each country's professional jury in the first semi-final:

Televoting

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points awarded by each country's televote in the first semi-final:

12 points

Jury

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points award by each country's professional jury in the second semi-final:

Televoting

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points awarded by each country's televote in the second semi-final:

12 points

Jury

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points awarded by each country's professional jury in the final:

Televoting

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points awarded by each country's televote in the final:

While no country received nul points when the two sets of points were combined, the Czech Republic received nul points in televoting.

Other countries

Eligibility for potential participation in the Eurovision Song Contest requires a national broadcaster with active EBU membership that would be able to broadcast the contest via the Eurovision network. The EBU issued an invitation of participation in the contest to all fifty-six active members and associate member Australia, with forty-three countries confirming their participation. Morocco, Tunisia and five other countries did not publish their reasons for declining, however the following countries declined to participate, stating their reasons as shown below.

Active EBU members

Associate EBU members

EBU non-members

Forced Romanian withdrawal

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 forced to withdraw from the EBU, consequently forcing the withdrawal of 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 withdrawal, 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 (NDR) announced on 19 November 2015 that Xavier Naidoo would represent Germany in the contest. However, his selection was criticised due to his history of expressing far-right political views in his actions and lyrics, including a speech made at a protest in 2014 supporting the assertion that the German Reich continues to exist within its pre-World War II borders, his propagation of conspiracy theories surrounding the September 11 attacks and the 2008 financial crisis, and a song in which he referred to Baron Rothschild as "Baron Deadschild" and a "schmuck", as well as a collaboration with Kool Savas titled "Wo sind sie jetzt?", which contained homophobic 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.

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. 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 [her] husband 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, 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 official 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 alongside other flags such as those of some unrecognised nations and the Islamic State, and called on the organisers of the contest to rectify the issue. Radiotelevisión Española (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 flag of the European Union 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 Ericsson Globe 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, Armenian artist 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, Mukuchyan stated: "My thoughts are with my Motherland. I want peace everywhere." Commenting on the situation, Azerbaijani artist Samra Rahimli 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 final and the semifinal 2 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:

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 nine.

Petition for cancellation of tender results

A petition was started on Change.org on 15 May 2016 calling on the EBU and the contest's organisers to void the final results in view of the fact that the overall winner only placed second in both the jury and televote. The EBU later responded to the petition by stating that Jamala's win was decided upon by juries made up of professionals of the music industry and by the viewing public. The EBU went on to say that Ukraine will remain the winner, regardless of the petition's view.

Controversy over winning song release date

A video surfaced depicting Ukrainian Eurovision winner Jamala performing 1944 four months before the eligibility date for prior commercial releases. However, the European Broadcasting Union "concluded that...the song was eligible to compete", citing past relaxations of the rule.

Other awards

The Marcel Bezençon Awards, the OGAE voting poll and the Barbara Dex Awards are awards that were contested by the entries competing at the Eurovision Song Contest 2016, in addition to the main winner's trophy.

Marcel Bezençon Awards

The Marcel Bezençon Awards were first handed out during the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 in Tallinn, Estonia, honouring the best competing songs in the final. Founded by Christer Björkman (Sweden's representative in the 1992 Eurovision Song Contest and the current Head of Delegation for Sweden) and Richard Herrey (a member of the Herreys and the Eurovision Song Contest 1984 winner from Sweden), the awards are named after the creator of the annual competition, Marcel Bezençon. The awards were divided into three categories: Press Award, Artistic Award, and Composer Award. The winners were revealed shortly before the final on 14 May.

OGAE

Organisation Générale des Amateurs de l'Eurovision (more commonly known as OGAE) is an international organisation that was founded in 1984 in Savonlinna, Finland by Jari-Pekka Koikkalainen. The organisation consists of a network of over 40 Eurovision Song Contest fan clubs across Europe and beyond, and is a non-governmental, non-political, and non-profit company. In what has become an annual tradition for the OGAE fan clubs, a voting poll runs prior to the main Eurovision Song Contest allowing members from over 40 clubs to vote for their favourite songs of the 2016 contest. The 2016 OGAE Poll began on 4 April 2016 and finished on 2 May 2016. The table below shows the top 5 results.

*Table reflects the final voting result from the 45 OGAE member clubs, with two clubs (OGAE Bulgaria and OGAE Moldova) abstaining from voting in this 2016 poll.

Barbara Dex Award

The Barbara Dex Award was annually awarded by the fan website House of Eurovision since 1997, and is a humorous award given to the worst dressed artist each year in the contest. It is named after the Belgian artist, Barbara Dex, who came last in the 1993 contest, in which she wore her own self designed dress. After twenty editions, 2016 ended up being the final edition that the Barbara Dex Award was organised by House of Eurovision, as they handed the reigns to another website, songfestival.be not long after the contest.

International broadcasts and voting

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.

Voting and spokespersons

The spokespersons announced the 12-point score from their respective country's national jury in the following order:

International sign language broadcast

SVT announced on 22 April 2016 that they would offer international sign language 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:

The international sign language broadcasts was streamed online alongside the three live shows, with the following countries also televising the broadcasts:

Official album

Eurovision Song Contest: Stockholm 2016 is the official compilation album of the contest, put together by the European Broadcasting Union and was released by Universal Music Group 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. The album also features the Romanian entry which was withdrawn from the contest by the EBU due to non-payment of debts.