The 61st edition of the Eurovision Song Contest was held at the Ericsson Globennote in Stockholm, Sweden from 10 May 2016 to 14 May 2016, after Måns Zelmerlöw's win with "Heroes" in Vienna the previous year. This was Sweden's sixth time hosting the contest, Stockholm's third, and the Globen's second.
The three live shows were hosted by presenter Petra Mede (who previously hosted the 2013 contest in Malmö) and reigning winner Zelmerlöw. The branding for this edition, "Come Together,"
is based around the imagery of a dandelion, with each seed representing the various nations of Europe coming together for the contest.
Forty-two countries competed in this edition, with Portugal opting out for a brief hiatus while Romania's planned entry, "Moment of Silence" by Ovidiu Anton, was disqualified due to their outstanding unpaid EBU dues. Picking up the slack, however, were four returning countries —the largest gain in a single year since 2011— including Bosnia and Herzegovina (last seen in 2012), Bulgaria (last seen in 2013), Croatia (also last seen in 2013), and Ukraine (last seen in 2014).
This edition was won by Ukraine's Jamala with the haunting ethnotronica power ballad "1944." Despite winning the contest with a then-record high of 534 points, Jamala's win was seen as fairly contentious on multiple fronts. Putting aside the politically charged lyrics of the song, written about her great-grandparents' forced removal from Crimea (which had just been annexed by Russia two years prior and led to their 2015 withdrawal), "1944" was the first winner of the contest that failed to top neither the jury tally (which went to Australia) nor the televote (which, as it happened, went to Russia), thanks in part to the revised 50-50 voting system that went into effect this year. "1944" was also the first winner of the contest to contain non-English lyrics since Serbia's "Molitva" in 2007, specifically marking the first instance of Crimean Tatar at Eurovision. Jamala also became the first known Muslim winner of the contest with her victory.
Fans often regard this edition as being one of the strongest overall productions in Eurovision history, largely down to Mede and Zelmerlöw's hosting skills and chemistry as a duo. Their interval act performance, the winking Faux-To Guide "Love Love Peace Peace", has especially taken on a life of its own within the fandom, with many considering it the best interval act since 1994's Riverdance and something of a "Eurovision 101" lesson for newbies.
Tropes seen during this year's contest include:
- Affectionate Parody: The Grand Final's other headline interval act (besides Justin Timberlake) is "Love Love Peace Peace", a pastiche of various gimmicks featured throughout the contest's history, sung by the presenters, Petra Mede and outgoing 2015 winner Mans Zelmerlow.
- Bizarre Instrument: One piece of advice in "Love, Love, Peace, Peace" is to show off your culture by bringing obscure folk "instruments".Måns: This instrument is a Swedish kvinnaböske - a small roundish piece from the horn family, inherited from the Vikings. Just make something up, no-one will know!
- The Bus Came Back: This year in particular features lots of returning acts from previous editions.
- Macedonia's Kaliopi returns after previously representing the country in Baku 2012.
- Bulgaria's Poli Genova returns after previously representing the country in Düsseldorf 2011; unlike the aforementioned event, where she was eliminated from the final, this time she scores fourth in the final, Bulgaria's highest placing at the time.
- Malta's Ira Losco returns after her second place finish in Tallinn 2002.
- Lithuania's Donny Montell returns after previously representing the country in Baku 2012.
- Iceland's Greta Salóme returns after previously representing the country (with Jónsi) in Baku 2012.
- Bosnia and Herzegovina's Deen returns after previously representing the country in Istanbul 2004.
- Montenegro's Bojan Jovović returns (as a member of Highway) after previously representing the country (as a member of No Name) in Kiev 2005.
- Downplayed by Latvia's Aminata (Vienna 2015), who returns not as a performer but as the writer and co-producer of Justs' "Heartbeat".
- Returning countries include Ukraine (skipped Vienna 2015), Bosnia and Herzegovina (last participated in Baku 2012), Bulgaria and Croatia (both last participated in Malmö 2013).
- Nationally-renowned Swedish comedian Petra Mede reprises her role as presenter from Malmö 2013, albeit this time joined by Mans Zelmerlow.
- Eliminated from the Race: Estonia, Moldova, Greece (in their first-ever non-qualification), Finland, Iceland, Montenegro, San Marino, and Bosnia and Herzegovina fail to proceed to the final in the first semi, while Macedonia, Belarus, Norway, Slovenia, Ireland, Albania, Denmark, and Switzerland fail to qualify in the second. It is worth noting that all the Nordic countries except host country Sweden were eliminated in the semifinals, leaving it as the sole representative of its region in that edition.
- Fake-Out Fade-Out: Spain's "Say Yay!" by Barei incorporates a fake fall during the performance and dims the stage lights to black immediately after, only for them to turn back on and continue with the song.
- Gratuitous English: As is usually the case with contemporary Eurovision entries, most of the songs this year are sung in English regardless of whether or not it's a recognized language in their country, while some feature English lyrics alongside their native tongue:
- France's "J'ai cherché" incorporates an English chorus into the song, while the verses are in French.
- Greece's "Utopian Land" incorporates an English chorus into the song, while the verses are in Greek.
- Played with by Italy's "No Degree of Separation", which was originally sung entirely in Italian, but later had its final chorus translated into English. It also uses the English translation of its original title, "Nessun grado di separazione", despite the song itself being mostly Italian.
- Averted by Bosnia and Herezgovina's "Ljubav Je", which is sung entirely in Bosnian.
- Also averted by Macedonia's "Dona," which is entirely in Macedonian.
- Gratuitous Foreign Language:
- Ukraine's "1944", which is mostly sung in English but contains a chorus sung in Crimean Tatar, a first for Eurovision.
- Bulgaria's "If Love Was a Crime" is primarily in English with the repeated first line of the chorus being in Bulgarian.
- Gratuitous French: Austria's "Loin d'ici" is entirely this, since French isn't even that country's official language.
- Non-Gameplay Elimination: Romania is forced to withdraw due to outstanding debts with the EBU, despite having already selected their act and being included on the official 2016 album.
- Put on a Bus: Portugal skips this edition after two consecutive non-qualifiers in 2014 and 2015.
- The Runner-Up Takes It All: Italy's Francesca Michielin came in second behind the band Stadio at Sanremo, but was chosen for Eurovision after Stadio declined the invitation to represent their country.
- Shocking Elimination:
- For the first time in its 35-year participation in the contest, Greece misses out on a finals appearance.
- Almost all entries from Nordic Europe failed to enter the final, leaving host Sweden's Frans to become the region's first sole representative since Denmark's Birthe Wilke and Gustav Winckler from all the way back in Frankfurt 1957 (when they also became the first entrants from the region). For added sting, Sweden, automatically-qualified for the final as hosts (and thus has less exposure than the semifinalists), even scored a decent fifth-place, its best finish as hosts since third in Gothenburg 1985.
- [Trope Name]: The lyrics of "Love Love Peace Peace" mock typical Eurovision performances, almost sounding like a Literal Music Video.
- What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: Ukraine's "1944" becomes something of a powder keg of controversy. The song was written about the plight of Crimean Tatars (including singer Jamala's great-grandmother) torn from their homeland under the Soviet Union decades earlier, but it proved uncomfortably relevant after the then-recent annexation of Crimea by Russia mere years earlier. Despite the controversy, it ends up winning by a pretty safe margin, which many interpreted as a Take That! to Russia (whose singer, Sergey Lazarev, was then considered a high favourite), which was growing increasingly unpopular with Europeans over the aforementioned Crimean crisis, but especially the contest's influential LGBT base protesting its laws restricting perceived "LGBT propaganda", culminating in their Copenhagen 2014 representatives Tolmachevy Twins being booed loudly when they qualified from the semifinal or whenever they received very high scores (this was also the year the contest was won by bearded drag queen Conchita Wurst of Austria).
