The Netherlands won the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 with the song "Arcade", performed by Dutch singer Duncan Laurence. The Netherlands received a total of 498 points, with 261 points from the public and 237 points from the professional juries. After the complete line-up of songs was announced, "Arcade" was the odds' on favourite to win the contest, and remained so until the contest ended. An acoustic version of the song was released on 19 July 2019.
The song was chosen to represent the Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019, after Duncan Laurence was internally selected by the Dutch broadcaster. On 28 January 2019, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. The Netherlands were placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 16 May 2019, and were scheduled to perform in the second half of the show. Once all the competing songs for the 2019 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the show's producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Netherlands performed in position 16 and qualified for the final, which it won with 498 points.
In an interview, Laurence said, "During my studies at the Rock Academy in Tilburg, I learned to address a big audience, without losing your own story. I went looking for stories that moved me and meant something to me or someone else. I found this inspiration in a story from a loved one that passed away at an early age. The words and chords just came to me, from the heart. With the help of Joel Sjöö and Wouter Hardy, we created a shared story: Arcade. Arcade is a story about the search for the love of your life. It's about the hope to reach something that seems unreachable. I wrote many other songs after I wrote Arcade, but Arcade felt like the heart and also like the start of the search of how I can reach other people with my songs.
Prior to the 2019 contest, the Netherlands had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty-nine times since their début as one of seven countries to take part in the inaugural contest in 1956. Since then, the country has won the contest four times: in 1957 with the song "Net als toen" performed by Corry Brokken; in 1959 with the song "'n Beetje" performed by Teddy Scholten; in 1969 as one of four countries to tie for first place with "De troubadour" performed by Lenny Kuhr; and finally in 1975 with "Ding-a-Dong" performed by the group Teach-In. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004 contest, the Netherlands had featured in five finals. The Dutch least successful result has been last place, which they have achieved on five occasions, most recently in the second semi-final of the 2011 contest. The Netherlands has also received nul points on two occasions; in 1962 and 1963. In 2018 Waylon ended 18th with the song "Outlaw in 'Em".
Israel won the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 with the song "Toy", performed by Netta. The track was written by Doron Medalie and Stav Beger, and produced by the latter. The song was released on 11 March 2018 along with its official music video clip, which was directed by Keren Hochma. The song was leaked online a day before the official release.
The song won the Eurovision Song Contest 2018, with 529 points. It marks Israel's fourth Eurovision win along with 1978, 1979 and 1998. According to official singles sales charts, the song reached the top in Israel.
"Toy" was first drawn to compete at the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2018, in which it was performed seventh in a field of nineteen songs, and achieved first place, based on a combination of fourth placing from televote and first from jury. It thus qualified for the final, under a format progressing the top ten most-voted songs from each semi-final. In the final the song was performed 22nd in a field of 26, and won, based on third placing with 212 points from the jury and winning the televote with 317 points, achieving overall first place with a combined score of 529 points.
This was Israel's fourth victory in the contest, following their wins in 1978, 1979, and 1998, and their first top five placing in more than a decade. Portugal finished in the last place, making this the third time that the host country ranked in the bottom five since 2015.
Portugal won the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with the song "Amar Pelos Dois" (Loving For The Both of Us), performed by Salvador Sobral. This was Portugal's first win – and first top five placing – in 53 years of participation, the longest winless run by a country in Eurovision history. It was also the first winning song entirely performed in a country's native language since Serbia's "Molitva" in 2007, and the first winner written in triple meter since Ireland's "The Voice" in 1996. The top three countries – Portugal, Bulgaria and Moldova – all achieved the highest position ever in their Eurovision history.
Forty-two countries participated in the contest. Portugal and Romania returned to the contest after a year's absence, while Bosnia and Herzegovina withdrew on financial grounds. Russia had originally planned to participate, but announced their withdrawal on 13 April 2017, after their representative, Yulia Samoylova, was banned from entering Ukraine by virtue of having travelled directly from Russia to Crimea in 2015, a region that was annexed by Russia in 2014, to give a performance, which is illegal under Ukrainian law.
Ukraine won the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with the song "1944" written and performed by Jamala. Ukraine returned to the Eurovision Song Contest after the nation withdrew from the 2015 competition due to financial and political reasons related to the Ukrainian crisis.
The Ukrainian broadcaster National Television Company of Ukraine (NTU) organised a national final in collaboration with commercial broadcaster STB in order to select the Ukrainian entry for the 2016 contest in Stockholm, Sweden. The national selection consisted of two semi-finals, held on 6 and 13 February 2016, and a final, held on 21 February 2016; nine entries competed in each semi-final with the top three from each semi-final advancing to the final. In the final, "1944" performed by Jamala was selected as the winner after tying for first place following the combination of votes from three-member jury panel and a public televote—the tie was decided in Jamala's favour after "1944" scored the highest with the public. "1944" is the first Eurovision Song Contest song to feature lyrics in the Crimean Tatar language. The Ukrainian entry caused controversy and garnered international media interest both for Jamala, a Ukrainian singer of Crimean Tatar descent, and the song "1944", which was inspired by the story of her great-grandmother during the 1944 deportation of the Crimean Tatars in the Soviet Union under the rule of Joseph Stalin. Despite media reports that the song could be disqualified due to its alleged political overtones, the Eurovision Song Contest Reference Group cleared the song for the competition and stated that neither the title nor the lyrics of the song contained political speech.
Ukraine was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 12 May 2016. Performing during the show in position 14, "1944" was announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 14 May. It was later revealed that Ukraine placed second out of the 18 participating countries in the semi-final with 287 points. In the final, Ukraine performed in position 21 and placed first out of the 26 participating countries, winning the contest with 534 points. This was Ukraine's second win in the Eurovision Song Contest; their first victory was in 2004.
"Heroes" by Swedish singer Måns Zelmerlöw won the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden in 2015. "Heroes" won with a total of 365 points. It is the third-highest-scoring song in the history of the contest. It is also the first winning song since the introduction of the split jury-televoting system in 2009 that has not won the televoting.
The song was released in Sweden on 28 February 2015 as a digital download. It was written and composed by Anton Malmberg Hård af Segerstad, Joy Deb and Linnea Deb. On 14 March, the song won the Melodifestivalen 2015 to represent Sweden at the contest in Vienna, Austria.
"Rise Like a Phoenix" is the winning song of the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 by Austrian singer Conchita Wurst. The song was internally selected to represent Austria at the Eurovision Song Contest in Denmark. The song was officially revealed on 18 March 2014 to be followed by the first live presentation of the song 21 March 2014 on ORF's popular show Dancing Stars. This was Austria's first victorious song in the competition since the Eurovision 1966.
Composer Zuckowski had originally composed the song for another project. Every major record label in Austria had refused to produce "Rise Like a Phoenix". A request came from the Austrian Eurovision team about possible contributions, and he immediately thought of this song, reasoning "I knew that with this song still something great was going to happen". The song was entered into the ORF internal selection process and was ultimately chosen to represent the country.
Emmelie de Forest was the 2013 Eurovision Winner with the song "Only Teardrops", representing Denmark. De Forest was one of ten acts that performed in the 2013 Dansk Melodi Grand Prix for a chance to represent Denmark at the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö, Sweden. On 26 January 2013, she performed the song "Only Teardrops" (written by Lise Cabble, Julia Fabrin Jakobsen and Thomas Stengaard) and won the national selection.
Her debut album, Only Teardrops, was released on 6 May, a week before her performance in the Eurovision contest. The album has twelve tracks, including the original and symphonic versions of "Only Teardrops."
On 14 May, de Forest reached the final of the Eurovision, being one of the ten finalists that qualified from the first semi-final. According to British bookmakers, de Forest became the odds on favourite to win the contest. De Forest won the 2013 Eurovision final on 18 May with a total of 281 points, 47 points more than second place finisher Farid Mammadov of Azerbaijan.
She performed her Eurovision winning entry at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Kiev, Ukraine on 30 November. In December it was revealed that Emmelie de Forest had been awarded the Årets Europæer Award (The European of the year Award) by the Danish European Movement
"Euphoria", performed by Swedish artist and songwriter Loreen was the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest Winner. It was released as the third single from her debut studio album Heal (2012). The song was written by Thomas G:son, Peter Boström and produced by Boström and SeventyEight. It is best known as Sweden's winning entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 held in Baku, Azerbaijan. The song won the competition with a total of 372 points, the second-highest point total in the contest's history. The song received the highest number of maximum (12) points of any entry in the contest's history with eighteen countries giving the song their top marks.
"Euphoria" received critical acclaim from most music critics, who enjoyed the style of music. Commercially, the song was an instant success, not in just Sweden, but all over Europe and also in continents like Oceania. It debuted at number twelve in Loreen's home country Sweden, until reaching number one, staying there for six weeks. The song has been certified 9 times Platinum, selling 180,000 copies there.
The Eurovision Song Contest 2011 was won by Ell & Nikki for Azerbaijan with "Running Scared". The Azerbaijani pop duo consists of singers Eldar Gasimov and Nigar Jamal. It was the country's first ever win at the contest. Although Nigar Jamal represented Azerbaijan, she lives in Enfield, North London.
Gasimov and Jamal separately took part in the Azerbaijani national selection, Milli Seçim Turu 2011. They qualified from the semi-finals along with three other artists to the final on 11 February 2011, where they won the right to represent Azerbaijan at the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in Düsseldorf, Germany in May 2011. Although it was originally planned to send an individual as Azerbaijan, when the winner was announced, İTV had decided that both Eldar and Nigar would be going to Germany as a duo. As the contest was taking place in a Western European country, the name change was made to prevent confusion of Jamal's first name being interpreted as a racial slur. Their entry, named "Running Scared", was written by Stefan Örn and Sandra Bjurman from Sweden and Iain Farguhanson from the UK. The duo were aided significantly by the four Swedish backing singers, including Jessica Marberger and Vera Prada who had earlier in the year attempted to represent Sweden as part of Shirley's Angels.
They were the overall winners of the Eurovision final on 14 May which meant that Azerbaijan has the right to host the Eurovision Song Contest 2012.
"Satellite" was Germany's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. By representing a "big four" country, it was automatically qualified for the final. Germany received a wild card during the running order draw, which allowed the German representatives to pick the country's position for the final. They chose position 22 out of the 25 spots. Meyer-Landrut arrived one week before the show in Oslo, Norway, where she completed five rehearsals of "Satellite". Prior to the final, the song was considered as one of the favourites. Bookmakers regarded it second favourite behind Azerbaijan's "Drip Drop", while Google projected it would win based on search volume in the participating countries. According to Norway's Aftenposten, Meyer-Landrut received the most attention of all participants.
The final was held on 29 May 2010 at Oslo's Telenor Arena. Appearing fourth from last, Meyer-Landrut wore a simple black dress and performed on a bare stage with four backing singers. Her pared-back presentation reflected a trend that has had success at recent Eurovisions, as it did not feature any form of choreography, dancers or elaborate stage show. "Satellite" received a total of 246 points, giving Germany its first victory since 1982, and the first win as a unified country. It also became the first winning-song from a Big-Four country since Katrina and the Waves' victory for United Kingdom in 1997. The song won over Turkey's entry "We Could Be the Same" with a margin of 76 points, the second-biggest in Eurovision history, second only to Alexander Rybak's margin of 169 points in the 2009 contest. "Satellite" received the maximum 12 points nine times and received points from all but five countries.
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