After Måns Zelmerlöw won the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 in Austria with the song called Heroes, Eurovision Song Contest 2016 took place in Stockholm, Sweden. This was the sixth time Sweden hosted the competition. Total of 42 countries participated, also including Australia that was announced to be part of the competition at least until 2023. The first Semi-Final was held on May 10th and the second Semi-Final was held on May 12th. The winner was selected at the Grand Final on May 14th. The winner of the competition was Jamala from Ukraine with the song called 1944. The song gained a total of 534 points. This was the second Eurovision Song Contest victory for Ukraine.
For the first time Czech Republic managed to qualify for the final since its debut in 2007, while it was the first time ever when Bosnia and Herzegovina and Greece didn’t qualify from the semi-finals.
On 18 February 2016 the EBU announced a new voting system where both juries and televoters would give their own set of points meaning that the overall amount of points would be doubled from the previous years. Also the representatives would only announce the 12 points from the jury and points from 1-8 and 10 would be displayed on the screen and points from the televotes are combined together and are announced to each country after all the jury votes.
In the original line up there was also Romania’s Ovidiu Anton with a song called Moment of Silence. However due to the debts by Televiziunea Română (TVR) to the EBU, Romania was expelled from EBU and wasn’t allowed to participate in the contest. As the announcement came on 22 April 2016, the official album of the contest was already produced and Romania’s entry remained on the album.
The contest also had few issues with the jury votes. 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. The video showed jury members who were not paying attention to the performances and one member claimed supporting Armenia as “husband is Armenian”. The video also showed a glimpse of Stotskaya’s voting results. On 10th of May 2016 EBU stated that Stotskaya’s voting results would be invalid and Russia would provide a replacement judge for the Grand Final.
Also one Danish jury member submitted her ranking for the second Semi-Final and Grand Final in the opposite order, ranking her favorite entry in last place and the least favorite first. The mistake didn’t affect the overall ranking, but the correct results would have left the United Kingdom and Ukraine without any points from the Danish jury and would have reduced the gap between Ukraine and Australia.
Order | Country | Song | Performed by | Points | Ranking | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | | Belgium | What's The Pressure | Laura Tesoro | 181 | 10 |
2 | | Czech Republic | I Stand | Gabriela Gunčíková | 41 | 25 |
3 | | The Netherlands | Slow Down | Douwe Bob | 153 | 11 |
4 | | Azerbaijan | Miracle | Samra | 117 | 17 |
5 | | Hungary | Pioneer | Freddie | 108 | 19 |
6 | | Italy | No Degree Of Separation | Francesca Michielin | 124 | 16 |
7 | | Israel | Made Of Stars | Hovi Star | 135 | 14 |
8 | | Bulgaria | If Love Was A Crime | Poli Genova | 307 | 4 |
9 | | Sweden | If I Were Sorry | Frans | 261 | 5 |
10 | | Germany | Ghost | Jamie-Lee | 11 | 26 |
11 | | France | J'ai cherché | Amir | 257 | 6 |
12 | | Poland | Color Of Your Life | Michał Szpak | 229 | 8 |
13 | | Australia | Sound Of Silence | Dami Im | 511 | 2 |
14 | | Cyprus | Alter Ego | Minus One | 96 | 21 |
15 | | Serbia | Goodbye (Shelter) | Sanja Vučić ZAA | 115 | 18 |
16 | | Lithuania | I've Been Waiting for This Night | Donny Montell | 200 | 9 |
17 | | Croatia | Lighthouse | Nina Kraljić | 73 | 23 |
18 | | Russia | You Are The Only One | Sergey Lazarev | 491 | 3 |
19 | | Spain | Say Yay! | Barei | 77 | 22 |
20 | | Latvia | Heartbeat | Justs | 132 | 15 |
21 | | Ukraine | 1944 | Jamala | 534 | 1 |
22 | | Malta | Walk On Water | Ira Losco | 153 | 12 |
23 | | Georgia | Midnight Gold | Nika Kocharov and Young Georgian Lolitaz | 104 | 20 |
24 | | Austria | Loin d'ici | ZOË | 151 | 13 |
25 | | United Kingdom | You're Not Alone | Joe and Jake | 62 | 24 |
26 | | Armenia | LoveWave | Iveta Mukuchyan | 249 | 7 |
Order | Country | Song | Performed by | Points | Ranking | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | | Finland | Sing It Away | Sandhja | 51 | 15 |
2 | | Greece | Utopian Land | Argo | 44 | 16 |
3 | | Moldova | Falling Stars | Lidia Isac | 33 | 17 |
4 | | Hungary | Pioneer | Freddie | 197 | 4 |
5 | | Croatia | Lighthouse | Nina Kraljić | 133 | 10 |
6 | | The Netherlands | Slow Down | Douwe Bob | 197 | 5 |
7 | | Armenia | LoveWave | Iveta Mukuchyan | 243 | 2 |
8 | | San Marino | I Didn't Know | Serhat | 68 | 12 |
9 | | Russia | You Are The Only One | Sergey Lazarev | 342 | 1 |
10 | | Czech Republic | I Stand | Gabriela Gunčíková | 161 | 9 |
11 | | Cyprus | Alter Ego | Minus One | 164 | 8 |
12 | | Austria | Loin d'ici | ZOË | 170 | 7 |
13 | | Estonia | Play | Jüri Pootsmann | 24 | 18 |
14 | | Azerbaijan | Miracle | Samra | 185 | 6 |
15 | | Montenegro | The Real Thing | Highway | 60 | 13 |
16 | | Iceland | Hear Them Calling | Greta Salóme | 51 | 14 |
17 | | Bosnia and Herzegovina | Ljubav Je | Dalal & Deen feat. Ana Rucner and Jala | 104 | 11 |
18 | | Malta | Walk On Water | Ira Losco | 209 | 3 |
Order | Country | Song | Performed by | Points | Ranking | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | | Latvia | Heartbeat | Justs | 132 | 8 |
2 | | Poland | Color Of Your Life | Michał Szpak | 151 | 6 |
3 | | Switzerland | The Last Of Our Kind | Rykka | 28 | 18 |
4 | | Israel | Made Of Stars | Hovi Star | 147 | 7 |
5 | | Belarus | Help You Fly | IVAN | 84 | 12 |
6 | | Serbia | Goodbye (Shelter) | Sanja Vučić ZAA | 105 | 10 |
7 | | Ireland | Sunlight | Nicky Byrne | 46 | 15 |
8 | | North Macedonia | Dona | Kaliopi | 88 | 11 |
9 | | Lithuania | I've Been Waiting for This Night | Donny Montell | 222 | 4 |
10 | | Australia | Sound Of Silence | Dami Im | 330 | 1 |
11 | | Slovenia | Blue And Red | ManuElla | 57 | 14 |
12 | | Bulgaria | If Love Was A Crime | Poli Genova | 220 | 5 |
13 | | Denmark | Soldiers Of Love | Lighthouse X | 34 | 17 |
14 | | Ukraine | 1944 | Jamala | 287 | 2 |
15 | | Norway | Icebreaker | Agnete | 63 | 13 |
16 | | Georgia | Midnight Gold | Nika Kocharov and Young Georgian Lolitaz | 123 | 9 |
17 | | Albania | Fairytale | Eneda Tarifa | 45 | 16 |
18 | | Belgium | What's The Pressure | Laura Tesoro | 274 | 3 |