Eurovision Song Contest 2016

Eurovision Song Contest 2016
Come Together
Dates
Semi-final 1	10 May 2016 (2016-05-10)
Semi-final 2	12 May 2016 (2016-05-12)
Final	14 May 2016 (2016-05-14)
Host
Venue	Globe Arena Stockholm, Sweden
Presenter(s)	Petra Mede Måns Zelmerlöw
Directed by	Daniel Jelinek Robin Hofwander Sven Stojanović
Executive supervisor	Jon Ola Sand
Executive producer	Johan Bernhagen Martin Österdahl
Host broadcaster	Sveriges Television (SVT)
Opening act	Semi-final 1: "Heroes" performed by Måns Zelmerlöw Semi-final 2: "That's Eurovision" (aka "Story of ESC"/"Story of Eurovision") performed by Petra Mede and Måns Zelmerlöw Final: "Parade of Flags": a tribute to Swedish fashion design and dance music
Interval act	Semi-final 1: "The Grey People" choreographed by Fredrik Rydman Semi-final 2: "Man vs Machine" choreographed by Fredrik Rydman Final: "Rock Your Body" and "Can't Stop the Feeling!" performed by Justin Timberlake "Love Love Peace Peace", a pastiche of past Eurovision songs "Lynda Woodruff" sketch played by Sarah Dawn Finer "Fire in the Rain" and "Heroes" performed by Måns Zelmerlöw
Website	eurovision.tv/event/stockholm-2016
Participants
Number of entries	42
Debuting countries	None
Returning countries	Bosnia and Herzegovina  Bulgaria  Croatia  Ukraine
Non-returning countries	Portugal  Romania
Participation map      Participating countries     Did not qualify from the semi final     Countries that participated in the past but not in 2016
Vote
Voting system	Each country awards two sets of 12, 10, 8–1 points to their 10 favourite songs: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting.
Nul points	None[a]
Winning song	Ukraine "1944"
2015 ← Eurovision Song Contest → 2017

The Eurovision Song Contest 2016 was the 61st edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Stockholm, Sweden, following the country's victory at the 2015 contest with the song "Heroes" by Måns Zelmerlöw. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT), the contest was held at the Globe Arena and consisted of two semi-finals on 10 and 12 May, and the final on 14 May 2016. The three live shows were presented by Petra Mede and Måns Zelmerlöw.

Forty-two countries participated in the contest. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia and Ukraine returned after absences from recent contests, while Australia also returned after debuting as a special guest in 2015. Portugal did not enter, largely due to their national broadcaster's insufficient promotion of their music-based media, while Romania had planned to participate, but was disqualified due to repeated non-payment of debts by their national broadcaster to the EBU.

The winner was Ukraine with the song "1944", performed and written by Jamala. Australia, Russia, Bulgaria and Sweden rounded out the top five. This was the first time since the introduction of professional jury voting in 2009 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. It was also the first song with lyrics in Crimean Tatar to win or enter the contest. Furthermore, this was the first winning song to be performed in one of the Turkic languages. The Czech Republic managed to qualify for the final for the first time in five attempts since its debut in 2007, 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 Bulgaria 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 change since 1975: 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, and the EBU recorded a record-breaking 204 million viewers worldwide for the contest, beating the 2015 viewing figures by over 5 million.

Location[]

Venue[]

The contest took place in the Globe Arena in Stockholm, following Sweden's victory at the 2015 contest in Vienna with the song "Heroes", performed by Måns Zelmerlöw. 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.^[1]

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:^[2]

• 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,^[3][4] with the Ericsson Globe announced as the venue on 8 July.^[5]

Key    Host venue

City[2]	Venue	Notes
Gothenburg	Scandinavium	Venue of the Eurovision Song Contest 1985
	Ullevi	Proposal was dependent on the construction of a roof to cover the stadium. The idea was rejected due to costs.[6]
Linköping	Saab Arena	—
Malmö[7]	Malmö Arena	Venue of the Eurovision Song Contest 2013. Withdrew its bid on 11 June 2015, citing unavailability during the rehearsal weeks of the contest.[7]
Örnsköldsvik[8]	Fjällräven Center	—
Sandviken and Gävle[9]	Göransson Arena	If this option were chosen, Sandviken would have hosted the three live shows in the Göransson Arena, while Gävle would have hosted satellite events such as smaller concerts and shows.[10]
Stockholm[11]
	Annexet	—
	Globe Arena	Host venue of the Eurovision Song Contest 2000 and the final of Melodifestivalen in 1989 and between 2002 and 2012 inclusive.
	Friends Arena	Venue of the final of Melodifestivalen since 2013. Friends Arena is the biggest football stadium and indoor venue in Sweden and the Nordic countries. However, it was reportedly not part of Stockholm's bid.[11][12]
	Hovet	—
	Tele2 Arena	SVT announced on 24 May 2015 that Tele2 Arena was their first choice venue for the contest.[3][13] However, it was not possible to use the venue due to the 4–6 week organisation requirement, which would impact on the pre-scheduled home games of Hammarby Fotboll.[12] The EBU announced on 14 March 2016 that Tele2 Arena would host Eurovision The Party, and the results of the Swedish jury vote would be announced live from the event.[14]

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.^[15] These were subject to change depending on SVT,^[16] but were later confirmed when Stockholm was announced as the host city.^[5]

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 would be looking into the possibility of the proposal, which was discussed at the ABU General Assembly in 2014.^[17]

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.^[18] 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.^[19]

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.^[20]

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.^[21]

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, 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 2006, 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.^[22][23]

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.^[24][25]

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.^[14] Eurovision The Party, hosted by Sanna Nielsen, 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 as well as Danny Saucedo, Panetoz and DJ Tim Henri.^[26][27] 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.^[14]

Presenters[]

After his victory in the 2015 contest, Måns Zelmerlöw announced his interest in hosting the 2016 contest.^[28] His experience as a television presenter includes Melodifestivalen 2010^[29] and SVT sing-along show Allsång på Skansen.^[30] Christer Björkman told Expressen on 25 May that Gina Dirawi, Petra Mede and Sanna Nielsen were also being considered as hosts,^[31] but it was reported on 1 June that SVT was considering Zelmerlöw and Dolph Lundgren as co-hosts.^[32] Expressen reported on 19 August that Mede and Zelmerlöw were SVT's first choice of hosts,^[33] with SVT announcing at a press conference on 14 December that they would indeed co-host.^[34]

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.^[35][36]

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.^[37] 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,^[38] however for undisclosed reasons this was later put back to 8 April.^[39] 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 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.^[40][41]

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4	Pot 5	Pot 6
Albania  Bosnia and Herzegovina  Croatia  Macedonia  Montenegro  Serbia  Slovenia	Denmark  Estonia  Finland  Iceland  Latvia  Norway	Armenia  Azerbaijan  Belarus  Georgia  Russia  Ukraine	Australia  Belgium  Bulgaria  Cyprus  Greece  Netherlands	Czech Republic  Ireland  Lithuania  Malta  Poland  San Marino	Austria  Hungary  Israel[b]  Moldova  Romania[c]   Switzerland

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,^[42] 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.^[43] 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.^[44]

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.^[45] He was the first "global megastar" in the contest's 61-year-history to perform during the interval.^[46] 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 and performed by Zelmerlöw and Mede,^[47] 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 and Perfectly Damaged respectively.^[48]

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.^[49][50][51]

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.^[52] 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.^[53] However, Romania were disqualified from participation on 22 April 2016, subsequently reducing the number of participating countries to 42.^[54]

Four countries returned after absences from recent contests: Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2012, Bulgaria and Croatia since 2013 and Ukraine since 2014. 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 did not enter, largely due to their national broadcaster's insufficient promotion of their music-based media, as well as a poorly structured selection process,^[55] while Romania were disqualified from participation on 22 April 2016 due to repeated non-payment of debts by their national broadcaster to the EBU.^[54]

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".^[56]

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.^[57]

Poli Genova returned after previously representing Bulgaria in 2011, finishing 12th in the second semi-final with the song "Na inat".^[58]

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".^[59]

Ira Losco returned after previously representing Malta in 2002, finishing in second place with the song "7th Wonder".^[60]

Donny Montell returned after previously representing Lithuania in 2012, finishing 14th in the final with the song "Love Is Blind".^[61]

Greta Salóme returned after previously representing Iceland in 2012 with Jónsi, finishing 20th in the final with the song "Never Forget".^[62]

Armenian backing vocalist Monica previously represented Armenia in Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008.

Sahlene, who represented Estonia in Eurovision Song Contest 2002, returned as a backing vocalist for Australia.

Martina Majerle, who represented Slovenia in 2009 and provided backing vocals numerous times for Croatia 2003, Montenegro 2008, 2014 and Slovenia 2007, 2011, 2012, returned as a backing vocalist for Croatia.

Semi-final 1[]

Eighteen countries participated in the first semi-final. France, Spain, and Sweden voted in this semi-final.^[41][63] The highlighted countries qualified for the final.^[64]

Draw[65]	Country	Artist	Song	Language	Place[66]	Points
01	Finland	Sandhja	"Sing It Away"	English	15	51
02	Greece	Argo	"Utopian Land"	English, Greek[d]	16	44
03	Moldova	Lidia Isac	"Falling Stars"	English	17	33
04	Hungary	Freddie	"Pioneer"	English	4[e]	197
05	Croatia	Nina Kraljić	"Lighthouse"	English	10	133
06	Netherlands	Douwe Bob	"Slow Down"	English	5	197
07	Armenia	Iveta Mukuchyan	"LoveWave"	English	2	243
08	San Marino	Serhat	"I Didn't Know"	English	12	68
09	Russia	Sergey Lazarev	"You Are the Only One"	English	1	342
10	Czech Republic	Gabriela Gunčíková	"I Stand"	English	9	161
11	Cyprus	Minus One	"Alter Ego"	English	8	164
12	Austria	Zoë	"Loin d'ici"	French	7	170
13	Estonia	Jüri Pootsmann	"Play"	English	18	24
14	Azerbaijan	Samra	"Miracle"	English	6	185
15	Montenegro	Highway	"The Real Thing"	English	13	60
16	Iceland	Greta Salóme	"Hear Them Calling"	English	14[f]	51
17	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Dalal & Deen feat. Ana Rucner and Jala	"Ljubav je"	Bosnian	11	104
18	Malta	Ira Losco	"Walk on Water"	English	3	209

Semi-final 2[]

Eighteen countries participated in the second semi-final. Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom voted in this semi-final.^[41][63] Romania 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.^[54] The highlighted countries qualified for the final.^[68]

Draw[65]	Country	Artist	Song	Language	Place[69]	Points
01	Latvia	Justs	"Heartbeat"	English	8	132
02	Poland	Michał Szpak	"Color of Your Life"	English	6	151
03	Switzerland	Rykka	"The Last of Our Kind"	English	18	28
04	Israel	Hovi Star	"Made of Stars"	English	7	147
05	Belarus	Ivan	"Help You Fly"	English	12	84
06	Serbia	Sanja Vučić ZAA	"Goodbye (Shelter)"	English	10	105
07	Ireland	Nicky Byrne	"Sunlight"	English	15	46
08	Macedonia	Kaliopi	"Dona" (Дона)	Macedonian	11	88
09	Lithuania	Donny Montell	"I've Been Waiting for This Night"	English	4	222
10	Australia	Dami Im	"Sound of Silence"	English	1	330
11	Slovenia	ManuElla	"Blue and Red"	English	14	57
12	Bulgaria	Poli Genova	"If Love Was a Crime"	English, Bulgarian	5	220
13	Denmark	Lighthouse X	"Soldiers of Love"	English	17	34
14	Ukraine	Jamala	"1944"	English, Crimean Tatar	2	287
15	Norway	Agnete	"Icebreaker"	English	13	63
16	Georgia	Nika Kocharov and Young Georgian Lolitaz	"Midnight Gold"	English	9	123
17	Albania	Eneda Tarifa	"Fairytale"	English	16	45
18	Belgium	Laura Tesoro	"What's the Pressure"	English	3	274

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.^[70]

Draw	Country	Artist	Song	Language	Place[71]	Points
01	Belgium	Laura Tesoro	"What's the Pressure"	English	10	181
02	Czech Republic	Gabriela Gunčíková	"I Stand"	English	25	41
03	Netherlands	Douwe Bob	"Slow Down"	English	11	153
04	Azerbaijan	Samra	"Miracle"	English	17	117
05	Hungary	Freddie	"Pioneer"	English	19	108
06	Italy	Francesca Michielin	"No Degree of Separation"	Italian, English	16	124
07	Israel	Hovi Star	"Made of Stars"	English	14	135
08	Bulgaria	Poli Genova	"If Love Was a Crime"	English, Bulgarian	4	307
09	Sweden	Frans	"If I Were Sorry"	English	5	261
10	Germany	Jamie-Lee	"Ghost"	English	26	11
11	France	Amir	"J'ai cherché"	French, English	6	257
12	Poland	Michał Szpak	"Color of Your Life"	English	8	229
13	Australia	Dami Im	"Sound of Silence"	English	2	511
14	Cyprus	Minus One	"Alter Ego"	English	21	96
15	Serbia	Sanja Vučić ZAA	"Goodbye (Shelter)"	English	18	115
16	Lithuania	Donny Montell	"I've Been Waiting for This Night"	English	9	200
17	Croatia	Nina Kraljić	"Lighthouse"	English	23	73
18	Russia	Sergey Lazarev	"You Are the Only One"	English	3	491
19	Spain	Barei	"Say Yay!"	English	22	77
20	Latvia	Justs	"Heartbeat"	English	15	132
21	Ukraine	Jamala	"1944"	English, Crimean Tatar	1	534
22	Malta	Ira Losco	"Walk on Water"	English	12	153
23	Georgia	Nika Kocharov and Young Georgian Lolitaz	"Midnight Gold"	English	20	104
24	Austria	Zoë	"Loin d'ici"	French	13	151
25	United Kingdom	Joe and Jake	"You're Not Alone"	English	24	62
26	Armenia	Iveta Mukuchyan	"LoveWave"	English	7	249

Scoreboard[]

Semi-final 1[]

Split results (Semi-final 1)
Place	Combined		Jury		Televoting
	Country	Points	Country	Points	Country	Points
1	Russia	342	Malta	155	Russia	194
2	Armenia	243	Russia	148	Austria	133
3	Malta	209	Armenia	127	Hungary	119
4	Hungary	197[g]	Czech Republic	120	Armenia	116
5	Netherlands	197	Netherlands	102	Netherlands	95
6	Azerbaijan	185	Azerbaijan	92	Cyprus	93
7	Austria	170	Croatia	80	Azerbaijan	93
8	Cyprus	164	Hungary	78	Bosnia and Herzegovina	78
9	Czech Republic	161	Cyprus	71	Malta	54
10	Croatia	133	Montenegro	46	Croatia	53
11	Bosnia and Herzegovina	104	Austria	37	San Marino	49
12	San Marino	68	Finland	35	Czech Republic	41
13	Montenegro	60	Iceland	27	Iceland	24
14[h]	Iceland	51	Bosnia and Herzegovina	26	Greece	22
15	Finland	51	Moldova	24	Finland	16
16	Greece	44	Greece	22	Estonia	15
17	Moldova	33	San Marino	19	Montenegro	14
18	Estonia	24	Estonia	9	Moldova	9

Semi-final 1 voting results (Jury vote)^[72]

Voting procedure used:   100% Televoting   100% Jury vote		Total score	Televoting score	Finland	Greece	Moldova	Hungary	Croatia	Netherlands	Armenia	San Marino	Russia	Czech Republic	Cyprus	Austria	Estonia	Azerbaijan	Montenegro	Iceland	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Malta	France	Spain	Sweden
Contestants	Finland	51	16				4		2	8			7		2						5		3	4
	Greece	44	22							3		7		3			6	3
	Moldova	33	9		3					6		6					5				4
	Hungary	197	119		7	3		8	3			4	12	6		5	8	1	2	4		5	10
	Croatia	133	53	5		5	3		12	2	1	1	6	7	7	3		7	7	5		6		3
	Netherlands	197	95	12	1	4	6	2		4	12		10		6	12		2	12	1		8	4	6
	Armenia	243	116	7	10	10	5	5	5			12		10	5	2		12	5	7	12	3	12	5
	San Marino	68	49														3			10	6
	Russia	342	194	6	12	12	10	6	1	7	3			12	8	1	12	8	10	8	10	2	8	12
	Czech Republic	161	41	10		8	8	12	4	5	4	5		5	10	6	2	4	8	12	3	1	6	7
	Cyprus	164	93		8	7	2	10	10		8		1			10			1		8	4	1	1
	Austria	170	133	3	2				6				5	2					4		1	12		2
	Estonia	24	15	1		2						2			1		1				2
	Azerbaijan	185	93	2	5		7	3	7		6	10	3	4	4	7		5	3	6		7	5	8
	Montenegro	60	14		6					10	10	3					7			3	7
	Iceland	51	24	4			1	1			7		4	1	3	4							2
	Bosnia and Herzegovina	104	78			1		4		1	2		2				10	6
	Malta	209	54	8	4	6	12	7	8	12	5	8	8	8	12	8	4	10	6	2		10	7	10

Semi-final 1 voting results (Televoting)^[72]

Voting procedure used:   100% Televoting   100% Jury vote		Total score	Jury score	Finland	Greece	Moldova	Hungary	Croatia	Netherlands	Armenia	San Marino	Russia	Czech Republic	Cyprus	Austria	Estonia	Azerbaijan	Montenegro	Iceland	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Malta	France	Spain	Sweden
Contestants	Finland	51	35				1									7			2					6
	Greece	44	22							7		3		12
	Moldova	33	24									5		2								2
	Hungary	197	78	4	7	6		8	6	6	7	6	6	6	8	5	7	6	6	1	8	7	5	4
	Croatia	133	80	2	4	2			5	3		4	2	1	6			8		12		1	2	1
	Netherlands	197	102	6	2		6	5		4	6		3	4	10	8	4		10		7	4	6	10
	Armenia	243	127	1	8	8	2	3	12		8	12	12	7	4	1		3	3	3	4	12	10	3
	San Marino	68	19	3	6	4	5		4						5	4	10	2	1		5
	Russia	342	148	8	10	10	10	10	8	12	12		8	10	7	12	12	10	12	7	12	8	8	8
	Czech Republic	161	120		3	3	3	4	2	2	2	1			1		3	1		4	2	3	7
	Cyprus	164	71	7	12		7	2	3	8	5	8	4		2	6	1	5	5	2	6	5	3	2
	Austria	170	37	10	5	7	8	7	10	5	3	10	5	3		10	6		8	6	1	10	12	7
	Estonia	24	9	12		1											2
	Azerbaijan	185	92			12	12				10	7	10	8				7	7	10	10
	Montenegro	60	46					6												8
	Iceland	51	27	5							1				3	3					3		4	5
	Bosnia and Herzegovina	104	26					12	7	1	4		7		12		5	12				6		12
	Malta	209	155		1	5	4	1	1	10		2	1	5		2	8	4	4	5			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.

12 points awarded by juries

N.	Contestant	Nation(s) giving 12 points
5	Russia	Azerbaijan,  Cyprus,  Greece,  Moldova,  Sweden
4	Armenia	Malta,  Montenegro,  Russia,  Spain
	Netherlands	Estonia,  Finland,  Iceland,  San Marino
3	Malta	Armenia,  Austria,  Hungary
2	Czech Republic	Bosnia and Herzegovina,  Croatia
1	Austria	France
	Croatia	Netherlands
	Hungary	Czech Republic

12 points awarded by televoting

N.	Contestant	Nation(s) giving 12 points
6	Russia	Armenia,  Azerbaijan,  Estonia,  Iceland,  Malta,  San Marino
4	Armenia	Czech Republic,  France,  Netherlands,  Russia
	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Austria,  Croatia,  Montenegro,  Sweden
2	Azerbaijan	Hungary,  Moldova
1	Austria	Spain
	Croatia	Bosnia and Herzegovina
	Cyprus	Greece
	Estonia	Finland
	Greece	Cyprus

Semi-final 2[]

Split results (Semi-final 2)
Place	Combined		Jury		Televoting
	Country	Points	Country	Points	Country	Points
1	Australia	330	Australia	188	Ukraine	152
2	Ukraine	287	Belgium	139	Australia	142
3	Belgium	274	Ukraine	135	Belgium	135
4	Lithuania	222	Israel	127	Poland	131
5	Bulgaria	220	Lithuania	104	Bulgaria	122
6	Poland	151	Bulgaria	98	Lithuania	118
7	Israel	147	Georgia	84	Latvia	68
8	Latvia	132	Latvia	64	Macedonia	54
9	Georgia	123	Serbia	55	Belarus	52
10	Serbia	105	Slovenia	49	Serbia	50
11	Macedonia	88	Macedonia	34	Georgia	39
12	Belarus	84	Belarus	32	Albania	35
13	Norway	63	Norway	29	Norway	34
14	Slovenia	57	Switzerland	25	Ireland	31
15	Ireland	46	Poland	20	Denmark	24
16	Albania	45	Ireland	15	Israel	20
17	Denmark	34	Denmark	10	Slovenia	8
18	Switzerland	28	Albania	10	Switzerland	3

Semi-final 2 voting results (Jury vote)^[73]

Voting procedure used:   100% Televoting   100% Jury vote		Total score	Televoting score	Latvia	Poland	Switzerland	Israel	Belarus	Serbia	Ireland	Macedonia	Lithuania	Australia	Slovenia	Bulgaria	Denmark	Ukraine	Norway	Georgia	Albania	Belgium	Germany	Italy	United Kingdom
Contestants	Latvia	132	68		6	6	7			4	2	7		10		3	6	2	5	1		5
	Poland	151	131						1			3		3			1	4	3	2			3
	Switzerland	28	3				1			5			1	7		2			7		1	1
	Israel	147	20	2	8	10		1	7	7	6	6	10	4	5	5	7	5	6	4	10	12	8	4
	Belarus	84	52	1	4	1				2			6	2	6		5					2		3
	Serbia	105	50	5	1	3		5			12		3		8		3			8	2		5
	Ireland	46	31				2									4	2	3					2	2
	Macedonia	88	54				8		12				2							12
	Lithuania	222	118	12	3	8	4	10	5	3	5		7	1	3	10	8	8	2		3	3	1	8
	Australia	330	142	8	10	12	12	8	4	6	4	12		5	12	12	12	12	8	10	12	7	12	10
	Slovenia	57	8	3					6	8	7	1	4		1					6	7		6
	Bulgaria	220	122	7	5	4	3	4	2	10	8	2	8	6		7		10		7	6	4		5
	Denmark	34	24					3											4	3
	Ukraine	287	152	10	12	5	10	7	10		10	8		8	4	1		6	12	5	5	6	10	6
	Norway	63	34			2		6				4	5			6			1		4			1
	Georgia	123	39	6	7		5	2	3	1	1	10			7		4	1			8	10	7	12
	Albania	45	35						8						2
	Belgium	274	135	4	2	7	6	12		12	3	5	12	12	10	8	10	7	10			8	4	7

Semi-final 2 voting results (Televoting)^[73]

Voting procedure used:   100% Televoting   100% Jury vote		Total score	Jury score	Latvia	Poland	Switzerland	Israel	Belarus	Serbia	Ireland	Macedonia	Lithuania	Australia	Slovenia	Bulgaria	Denmark	Ukraine	Norway	Georgia	Albania	Belgium	Germany	Italy	United Kingdom
Contestants	Latvia	132	64		5			5		7	7	12	5			2	3	3	8		3	3		5
	Poland	151	20	4		7	6	6	1	10	1	7		4	6	6	12	10	7		12	12	10	10
	Switzerland	28	25																	3
	Israel	147	127					1		2			6		2		2	1	1		1	2		2
	Belarus	84	32	7	8		3		5	1		6			4	1	10		6				1
	Serbia	105	55			12					10		2	12	5				2			1	6
	Ireland	46	15	1	2	2	1					1	7			4		2			4			7
	Macedonia	88	34			4	2		12				4	10	8					12			2
	Lithuania	222	104	10	3		5	10		12			8		3	7	6	12	10	4	8	4	4	12
	Australia	330	188	8	10	6	12	7	7	8	4	5		6	7	8	7	8	4	6	10	10	3	6
	Slovenia	57	49						4		3									1
	Bulgaria	220	98	3	4	3	10	8	8	5	8	3	10	5		3	5	6	5	7	7	7	7	8
	Denmark	34	10	2	1	1	4			3			1					5		2	5
	Ukraine	287	135	12	12	5	7	12	6	4	6	10	3	8	12	5		4	12	5	6	8	12	3
	Norway	63	29					3	3		2	2		2	1	10	1			10
	Georgia	123	84	5	7			2	2			8		1			8					5		1
	Albania	45	10			10					12			3							2		8
	Belgium	274	139	6	6	8	8	4	10	6	5	4	12	7	10	12	4	7	3	8		6	5	4

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.

12 points awarded by juries

N.	Contestant	Nation(s) giving 12 points
9	Australia	Belgium,  Bulgaria,  Denmark,  Israel,  Italy,  Lithuania,  Norway,   Switzerland,  Ukraine
4	Belgium	Australia,  Belarus,  Ireland,  Slovenia
2	Macedonia	Albania,  Serbia
	Ukraine	Georgia,  Poland
1	Georgia	United Kingdom
	Israel	Germany
	Lithuania	Latvia
	Serbia	Macedonia

12 points awarded by televoting

N.	Contestant	Nation(s) giving 12 points
6	Ukraine	Belarus,  Bulgaria,  Georgia,  Italy,  Latvia,  Poland
3	Poland	Belgium,  Germany,  Ukraine
	Lithuania	Ireland,  Norway,  United Kingdom
2	Belgium	Australia,  Denmark
	Macedonia	Albania,  Serbia
	Serbia	Slovenia,   Switzerland
1	Albania	Macedonia
	Australia	Israel
	Latvia	Lithuania

Final[]

Split results (Final)
Place	Combined		Jury		Televoting
	Country	Points	Country	Points	Country	Points
1	Ukraine	534	Australia	320	Russia	361
2	Australia	511	Ukraine	211	Ukraine	323
3	Russia	491	France	148	Poland	222
4	Bulgaria	307	Malta	137	Australia	191
5	Sweden	261	Russia	130	Bulgaria	180
6	France	257	Belgium	130	Sweden	139
7	Armenia	249	Bulgaria	127	Armenia	134
8	Poland	229	Israel	124	Austria	120
9	Lithuania	200	Sweden	122	France	109
10	Belgium	181	Armenia	115	Lithuania	96
11	Netherlands	153[i]	Netherlands	114	Serbia	80
12	Malta	153	Lithuania	104	Azerbaijan	73
13	Austria	151	Italy	90	Latvia	63
14	Israel	135	Georgia	80	Hungary	56
15	Latvia	132	Latvia	69	Cyprus	53
16	Italy	124	Spain	67	Belgium	51
17	Azerbaijan	117	United Kingdom	54	Netherlands	39
18	Serbia	115	Hungary	52	Italy	34
19	Hungary	108	Azerbaijan	44	Croatia	33
20	Georgia	104	Cyprus	43	Georgia	24
21	Cyprus	96	Czech Republic	41	Malta	16
22	Spain	77	Croatia	40	Israel	11
23	Croatia	73	Serbia	35	Spain	10
24	United Kingdom	62	Austria	31	Germany	10
25	Czech Republic	41	Poland	7	United Kingdom	8
26	Germany	11	Germany	1	Czech Republic	0

Final voting results (Jury vote)^[74]

Voting procedure used:   100% Televoting   100% Jury vote		Total score	Televoting score	Austria	Iceland	Azerbaijan	San Marino	Czech Republic	Ireland	Georgia	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Malta	Spain	Finland	Switzerland	Denmark	France	Moldova	Armenia	Cyprus	Bulgaria	Netherlands	Latvia	Israel	Belarus	Germany	Russia	Norway	Australia	Belgium	United Kingdom	Croatia	Greece	Lithuania	Serbia	Macedonia	Albania	Estonia	Ukraine	Italy	Poland	Slovenia	Hungary	Montenegro	Sweden
Contestants	Belgium	181	51	5	3			2	12	10					10	8			4		10	4		6	4	5		5	12					5		4			10			8		3
	Czech Republic	41	0	4	5				2		6			3					1											1		10									4		2		3
	Netherlands	153	39		12		4	7	8				3	10	5	7	7				2		3			4		6	3	4					5	2		6		4		1	6		5
	Azerbaijan	117	73								1		2							2		1			2		10						1			1			7				7		10
	Hungary	108	56			4	2	10					10							4							1					5	3				1		2			3		7
	Italy	124	34				10		6			8	5	2	2		12			3		6				3		12		10		3					8
	Israel	135	11			3			4	3		1	1	7	8	2				5		7	2			12		3	10	2	3	7		6	7	5	3		6	8	7	2
	Bulgaria	307	180			8			10		3	10			1	6	10		7				1	7	1			8	8	6	5			2	4	10	4		1		3	10		2
	Sweden	261	139	8	6			12	5	6				12		4	5	6				10	8		8	10												12	4	2			4
	Germany	11	10							1
	France	257	109	7	2			5	3	4	7	6	7	1					12	7		5		8			7		6	8	6	8	6	1			10	1		7	1			5	8
	Poland	229	222			2																						1						3										1
	Australia	511	191	12	10	7				8	10	3	8	8	12	10	6	10	5	10	8	12	5	10	6	6	2	10		12	8	12	7	12	6	8	12	10	5	6	10	6	12	4	12
	Cyprus	96	53				5					5						2	6								4				7	1	8					4		1
	Serbia	115	80								8										5										2	2				7						5		6
	Lithuania	200	96	1		5		3		5				6	7	5		4			1		10	1	10	1		2	7		4				8			5	12		2		3		2
	Croatia	73	33	6	7			8		2	4							1		1				3					1		1					6
	Russia	491	361	3	8	12	7				5	4	4				1	7	2	12	6		7		12							6	12		1		7							8	6
	Spain	77	10			1						2				1	3	8	3		4			4				7	5								6			12	5		5		1
	Latvia	132	63					1	1	7					3									5		2	3							7		3		8	8		6	7	8
	Ukraine	534	323			10	12			12	12				6	12		12				3	12	12	7	7		4	2	3	10		2	8	12	12		7		10	12	12
	Malta	153	16	10	4	6	3	6					6	5			4	3	8	6	7		4		5		8						4		10		2	2		5			10	12	7
	Georgia	104	24				6												10		3					8	5			7	12		5	10					3	3	8
	Austria	151	120		1		1							4	4		8					8								5
	United Kingdom	62	8				8	4	7			12				3											6		4						2		5	3
	Armenia	249	134	2							2	7	12				2	5		8	12	2	6	2	3		12					4	10	4	3							4	1	10	4

Final voting results (Televoting)^[74]

Voting procedure used:   100% Televoting   100% Jury vote		Total score	Jury score	Austria	Iceland	Azerbaijan	San Marino	Czech Republic	Ireland	Georgia	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Malta	Spain	Finland	Switzerland	Denmark	France	Moldova	Armenia	Cyprus	Bulgaria	Netherlands	Latvia	Israel	Belarus	Germany	Russia	Norway	Australia	Belgium	United Kingdom	Croatia	Greece	Lithuania	Serbia	Macedonia	Albania	Estonia	Ukraine	Italy	Poland	Slovenia	Hungary	Montenegro	Sweden
Contestants	Belgium	181	130		3											8	4					12		1				2	12						5	4
	Czech Republic	41	41
	Netherlands	153	114	6	6							3				7										3				10													2		2
	Azerbaijan	117	44		1			6		7	8	6						8			1		3	2	8		6												10					7
	Hungary	108	52			7	1	3		2	1	5							3	4					3							3	2	2	10		1				6			3
	Italy	124	90									7	3		7											1										1	10					1		4
	Israel	135	124			6											3				2
	Bulgaria	307	127	5		8	3	5	5	3	2	8	12	4			5	2		12		1	1	7	4	4		5	10	5	8	1	7		8	10	8		2	7	3	2	4	5	4
	Sweden	261	122	7	12		4	2	2				1	10		12	2		2	1	3	2	7		2	8	2	7		1	1	7		7	1		3	10	1		10	5	7
	Germany	11	1	2											8
	France	257	148	1	5	4					4	2	10	3	3	2		6	7	6		4		12			3	1	7	8		2	4	3				2		5			1	1	3
	Poland	229	7	12	10	3	7	7	10	4			5	5	5	5	7		1	2	6	10	5	4	6	10	5	10		12	10	4	3	6		2	5	1	8	10		4	8		10
	Australia	511	320	3	8	2	5	1	6	1	3	12	4	7	1	10		5		5	5	5	6	5	1	5	4	8		4	6	5	5	5	6	3	12	4	4		7	3	3		12
	Cyprus	96	43											1					6		7						7				2		12		3			3		6	1		5
	Serbia	115	35	4							12				12																	12				12				4		12		12
	Lithuania	200	104		4		8		12	5						6		3		3			8					12	1		12						4	5	3	2				2	6
	Croatia	73	40								10																								4	5						8		6
	Russia	491	130	8	7	12	10	10	8	8	6	10	8	8	6	4	6	12	12	10	12	3	12	10	12	12		6	5	6	7	8	10	8	12	8	7	12	12	8	8	10	10	10	8
	Spain	77	67												2		1												2		4														1
	Latvia	132	69				6		7	6				2				1							5		1	3			3			12				7	5		5
	Ukraine	534	211	10		10	12	12	4	10	7	4	7	12	4	3	10	10	10	7	10	7	10	8	10	6	10	4	8	2	5	10	6	10	7	6	6	8		12	12	7	12	8	7
	Malta	153	137			5													5										6
	Georgia	104	80			1													8				2											4					6	3
	Austria	151	31		2			4	1		5		2	6	10	1	8	4	4		4	6	4	3		7	8		3	3		6	1	1				6			4	6	6		5
	United Kingdom	62	54						3			1																	4
	Armenia	249	115				2	8		12			6				12	7		8	8	8		6	7	2	12			7			8		2	7	2		7	1	2

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.

12 points awarded by juries

N.	Contestant	Nation(s) giving 12 points
11	Ukraine	Bosnia and Herzegovina,  Denmark,  Georgia,  Israel,  Latvia,  Macedonia,  Moldova,  Poland,  San Marino,  Serbia,  Slovenia
9	Australia	Albania,  Austria,  Belgium,  Croatia,  Hungary,  Lithuania,  Netherlands,  Sweden,   Switzerland
4	Russia	Azerbaijan,  Belarus,  Cyprus,  Greece
3	Armenia	Bulgaria,  Russia,  Spain
	Sweden	Czech Republic,  Estonia,  Finland
2	Belgium	Australia,  Ireland
	Italy	France,  Norway
1	France	Armenia
	Georgia	United Kingdom
	Israel	Germany
	Lithuania	Ukraine
	Malta	Montenegro
	Netherlands	Iceland
	Spain	Italy
	United Kingdom	Malta

12 points awarded by televoting

N.	Contestant	Nation(s) giving 12 points
10	Russia	Armenia,  Azerbaijan,  Belarus,  Bulgaria,  Estonia,  Germany,  Latvia,  Moldova,  Serbia,  Ukraine
6	Serbia	Bosnia and Herzegovina,  Croatia,  Macedonia,  Montenegro,  Slovenia,   Switzerland
	Ukraine	Czech Republic,  Finland,  Hungary,  Italy,  Poland,  San Marino
3	Armenia	France,  Georgia,  Russia
	Australia	Albania,  Malta,  Sweden
	Lithuania	Ireland,  Norway,  United Kingdom
2	Belgium	Australia,  Netherlands
	Bulgaria	Cyprus,  Spain
	Poland	Austria,  Belgium
	Sweden	Denmark,  Iceland
1	Cyprus	Greece
	France	Israel
	Latvia	Lithuania

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.^[75] 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.^[53] 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[]

•  Andorra – Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra (RTVA) announced on 2 September 2015 that Andorra would not participate in the contest.^[76]
•  Lebanon – Télé Liban (TL) had not ruled out participation as of 15 October 2015, stating in an email: "We are not sure yet, however we are working on it and will keep you updated".^[77] However, Lebanon was not on the final list of participating countries announced by the EBU on 26 November.
•  Luxembourg – RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg (RTL) announced on 4 September 2015 that Luxembourg would not participate in the contest, due to the financial and organisational strain of a potential participation on the channel, especially with a small financial budget.^[78]
•  Monaco – Télé Monte Carlo (TMC) announced on 21 July 2015 that Monaco would not participate in the contest.^[79]
•  Portugal – 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 has failed to qualify for the final since 2010, which the majority of the Portuguese public believe is because of RTP's current selection format, Festival da Canção.^[55] Kátia Aveiro, sister of Cristiano Ronaldo, had launched a campaign on Twitter asking fans to back her bid to represent Portugal.^[80] 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.^[81] 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 rather insufficient promotion of music-related content.^[82]
•  Romania – Romania had originally confirmed their participation in the contest with the song "Moment of Silence", performed by Ovidiu Anton. However, the EBU announced on 22 April 2016 that Televiziunea Română (TVR) had repeatedly failed to pay debts totalling CHF 16 million (€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.^[83] This has led to strong reactions against the decision.^[84]
•  Slovakia – Rozhlas a televízia Slovenska (RTVS) returned to the Eurovision Young Dancers in 2015, with RTVS explaining that the return of Slovakia to EYD supported domestic production and promoted national culture at a European level. RTVS announced on 28 September 2015 that Slovakia would not participate in the contest.^[85] RTVS' PR manager, Juraj Kadáš, explained on 12 April 2016 that Slovakia's absence from the contest since 2012 was not due to poor results, but rather the cost associated with participation.^[86]
•  Turkey – The EBU announced on 2 October 2015 that despite speculation surrounding their participation, Türkiye Radyo ve Televizyon Kurumu (TRT) had yet to make a final decision.^[87] However, TRT announced on 3 November that Turkey would not participate in the contest, adding their discontent at the introduction of a mixed voting system to the contest and the pre-qualification of the Big Five for the final. It was later revealed that singer Atiye would have gone to Eurovision 2016.^[88][89][90]

Associate EBU members[]

•  Kazakhstan – The EBU announced on 18 December 2015 that Khabar Agency would have associate EBU membership from 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.^[91]

EBU non-members[]

•  China – Hunan Television announced its interest in participating in the contest on 22 May 2015, with the EBU responding, saying that "we are open and are always looking for new elements in each Eurovision Song Contest".^[92] However, on 3 June, the EBU denied that China would debut at the contest as a guest or full participant.^[93]
•  Faroe Islands – Faroese publication Portal reported on 9 June 2015 that Kringvarp Føroya (KVF) had applied for active EBU membership, a requisite for participation in the contest. However, it was rejected due to the islands' membership of the Danish Realm. Faroese Education Minister Bjørn Kalsø supported participation, saying "the justification so far has been that the countries have to be acknowledged by the United Nations as independent in order to participate. But there is no doubt that we could easily overstep those barriers, if we’re absolutely determined to reach this goal … it is completely up to Kringvarpið … to renew the application regularly, and show the EBU that the Faroe Islands are an equal match to other countries when it comes to participation in the Eurovision Song Contest."^[94][95]
•  Kosovo – Kosovan Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Petrit Selimi tweeted on 23 May 2015 that Kosovo, which is not recognised by 15 states in Europe and does not have a national broadcaster with active EBU membership, would debut at the contest. Selimi tweeted that he knew that Kosovo would participate, but did not elaborate on how it would come about.^[96] However, on 3 June, the EBU denied that Kosovo would debut at the contest, as Radio Televizioni i Kosovës (RTK) has neither active nor associate EBU membership.^[93]
•  Liechtenstein – 1 Fürstentum Liechtenstein Television (1FLTV) announced on 16 September 2015 that Liechtenstein would be unable to debut at the contest due to insufficient funding for EBU membership.^[97]

Broadcasters, commentators and spokespersons[]

It was reported by the EBU that the contest was viewed by a worldwide television audience of over 200 million viewers,^[98][99] beating the 2015 record which was viewed by 197 million.^[100]

Spokespersons[]

The spokespersons announced the 12-point score from their respective country's national jury in the following order:^[101]

Broadcasters and commentators[]

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.

Non-participating countries[]

International sign broadcast[]

SVT announced on 22 April 2016 that they would offer International Sign broadcasts of all three live shows for the hearing impaired. All three broadcasts were produced by Julia Kankkonen.^[188] The performances of competing entries were interpreted by ten sign language performers and the dialogue of hosts were interpreted by three sign language performers:^{[189][190][191]}

The international sign broadcasts was streamed online alongside the three live shows,^[189] with the following countries also televising the broadcasts:

Incidents[]

Romanian disqualification[]

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.^[196][197] 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.^[198][199] 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".^[200]

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.^[54] The song had been written following the Colectiv nightclub fire in October 2015.^[201]

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.^{[202][203][204][205]}

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."^[203][206]

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.^[207] 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.^[208]

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".^[209]

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.^[210][211] Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE) also expressed their concern to the EBU and requested a rectification,^[212] 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 Europe and the rainbow flag were permitted.^[213][214]

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.^[212]

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.^{[215][216][217]}

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.^[218]

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,^[219] 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.^[220][221] 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.^[222] Responding to a question on the incident from a journalist from Aftonbladet, Mukuchyan stated: "My thoughts are with my Motherland. I want peace everywhere."^[223] Commenting on the situation, Azerbaijani artist Samra Rahimli stated that "Eurovision is a song contest and it's all about music."^[224]

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.^[225] 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".^[226]

Russian protests on Crimean Tatars flag[]

The winning song is about the deportation of the Crimean Tatars in 1944 and particularly about the singer's great-grandmother, who lost her daughter while being deported to Central Asia.^{[227][228][229]} Jamala's song was considered by Russian media and lawmakers to be critical of the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the "ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine" in Donbass.^[230][231]

Danish jury result[]

BT revealed on 15 May 2016 that Danish professional jury member Hilda Heick, wife of Keld Heick who co-wrote eight Danish entries, had submitted her ranking for the final and the semifinal 2 the wrong way round,^[232] ranking her favourite entry 26th while ranking her least-favourite entry first, in direct opposition to what she had intended to do.^[233] As a result of Heick's mistake, the points of the Danish jury would have been different:^[234]

• 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 not receiving points at all, 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 nine.^[235]

Petition[]

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.^[236] The EBU responded that Ukraine "is, and will remain, the winner" of the contest, and that the result was "valid in accordance with the rules".^[237]

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.^[238]

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 (French: Organisation Générale des Amateurs de l'Eurovision, English: General Organisation of Eurovision Fans) voting poll also took place before the contest.

Marcel Bezençon Awards[]

The Marcel Bezençon Awards honour the best competing songs in the final. Named after the founder of the contest, the awards were created and first handed at the 2002 contest by Christer Björkman (Sweden's representative in the 1992 contest and the country's current Head of Delegation), and Richard Herrey (a member of the Herreys who won the 1984 contest for Sweden).^[239] The awards were divided into three categories: Artistic Award, Composers Award, and Press Award.^[240] The winners were revealed shortly before the final on 14 May.^[241]

Category	Country	Song	Performer(s)	Composer(s)
Artistic Award	Ukraine	"1944"	Jamala	Jamala
Composers Award	Australia	"Sound of Silence"	Dami Im	Anthony Egizii, David Musumeci
Press Award	Russia	"You Are the Only One"	Sergey Lazarev	Philipp Kirkorov, Dimitris Kontopoulos, John Ballard, Ralph Charlie

OGAE[]

OGAE is an international organisation which conducts a voting poll for the favourite songs among its members before the annual contest. It consists of a network of over 40 Eurovision Song Contest fan clubs across Europe and beyond.^[242][243] The poll began on 4 April 2016 and finished on 2 May 2016. The table below shows the top 5 results based on 45 member clubs, with the clubs of Bulgaria and Moldova abstaining from voting this year.^[244][245]

Country	Performer(s)	Song	OGAE result
France	Amir	"J'ai cherché"	425
Russia	Sergey Lazarev	"You Are the Only One"	392
Australia	Dami Im	"Sound of Silence"	280
Bulgaria	Poli Genova	"If Love Was a Crime"	175
Italy	Francesca Michielin	"No Degree of Separation"	170

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 twenty editions, this ended up being the final poll organised by the fansite House of Eurovision,^[246] as they handed the reins to the fansite songfestival.be not long after the 2016 contest.^[247]

Place	Country	Performer(s)	Votes
1	Croatia	Nina Kraljić	770
2	Germany	Jamie Lee	335
3	Switzerland	Rykka	201
4	Bulgaria	Poli Genova	140
5	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Dalal & Deen feat. Ana Rucner and Jala	127

Official album[]

Eurovision Song Contest: Stockholm 2016
Compilation album by Eurovision Song Contest
Released	15 April 2016
Genre	Pop
Length	65:26 (CD 1) 62:56 (CD 2)
Label	Universal
Eurovision Song Contest chronology
Eurovision Song Contest: Vienna 2015 (2015) Eurovision Song Contest: Stockholm 2016 (2016) Eurovision Song Contest: Kyiv 2017 (2017)

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.^[248] The album features all 42 participating entries, including the semi-finalists that fail to qualify for the final.^[249] The album also features the disqualified Romanian entry, meaning that the tracks on the CD are actually 43.^[54]

Charts[]

Chart (2016)	Peak position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[250]	9
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[251]	3
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[252]	10
French Albums (SNEP)[253]	81
German Compilation Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[254]	2
Greek Albums (IFPI)[255]	14
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[256]	30
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[257]	2
UK Compilation Albums (OCC)[258]	9

See also[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Eurovision Song Contest 2016.

Notes and references[]

Notes[]

References[]

External links[]

• Official website