The Eurovision Song Contest 2016 was the 61st edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Stockholm, Sweden, following Måns Zelmerlöw’s win at the 2015 contest in Vienna, Austria with the song “Heroes”.
This was the third time the contest had taken place in Stockholm, after 1975 and 2000. The contest was held at the Ericsson Globe and consisted of two semi-finals on 10 and 12 May and the final on 14 May 2016, with all three live shows hosted by Zelmerlöw and Petra Mede.
The winner of the contest was Ukraine with the song “1944”, written and performed by Jamala. This was Ukraine’s second win and its first since 2004, and 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.
Twenty-six countries competed in the final, which was the first to be broadcast on live television in the United States.
A record-breaking 204 million viewers worldwide watched the contest, beating the 2015 viewing figures by over 5 million.
