The just concluded Eurovision Song Contest 2016 which is in her 61st edition has come and gone with a new winner emerging. The event which took place in the Ericsson Globe in Stockholm, Sweden, following Sweden’s victory at the 2015 contest in Vienna with the song “Heroes”, performed by Måns Zelmerlöw. Last year’s winner Mans Zelmerlow and Swedish TV personality Petra Mede presented the this year’s show. The winner of the 2016 contest was Ukraine, which won with her representative Jamala’s song “1944”, the second time Ukraine had won since 2004 with Ruslana’s “Wild Dances”. Jamala received 511 points to emerge the winner for her country.

The contest which consisted of two semi-finals on 10 and 12 May and the final on 14 May 2016. Forty-two countries participated in the contest with Twenty-six countries competing in the final while some countries like Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia and Ukraine returned after absences from recent contests. Portugal withdrew, largely due to their national broadcaster’s insufficient promotion of their music-based media, while Romania had originally planned to participate, but was forced to withdraw due to repeated non-payment of debts by their national broadcaster to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Australia also returned after debuting as a special guest in 2015. The contest was also the first to implement a new voting system since 1975, with each country now awarding two sets of points: one from their professional jury and another from televoting. Poland’s Michal Szpak was one beneficiary of the new voting system despite being in second to last place with the juries. Russian singer Sergey Lazarev had been the favourite to win, but finished in third place instead. During the event Famous singer Justin Timberlake performed his new single Can’t Stop The Feeling during the interval.

http://dambela.com/2016/05/15/eurovision-song-contest-2016/