Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. In the 2015 contest, Australia also competed directly in the final as an invited guest nation. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into five different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot.^[11] On 26 January 2015, 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. Sweden was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 21 May 2015, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.^[12]

Once all the competing songs for the 2015 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Sweden was set to perform in position 13, following the entry from Iceland and before the entry from Switzerland.^[13] All three shows were televised on SVT1, with commentary by Sanna Nielsen and Edward af Sillén as well as broadcast via radio on SR P4 with commentary by Carolina Norén and Ronnie Ritterland.^[14][15] SVT appointed Mariette Hansson as its spokesperson to announce the Swedish votes during the final.^[16]

Zelmerlöw took part in technical rehearsals on 14 and 16 May,^[17][18] followed by dress rehearsals on 20 and 21 May. This included the jury final where professional juries of each country, responsible for 50 percent of each country's vote, watched and voted on the competing entries.^[19]

The stage show featured Zelmerlöw performing in front of a projection board. During the verses, the performance focused on him singing in front of the board, interacting with choreographed graphics such as stick-man figures. During the chorus, the LED displays in the background displayed bursts of light and movement.^[17][18] On stage, Zelmerlöw wore black leather trousers and a grey jumper with nothing underneath. He was joined by five offstage backing vocalists: Britta Bergström, Michael Blomqvist, Linnea Deb, Alexander Holmgren and Jeanette Olsson.^[20]

At the end of the show, Sweden was announced as having finished in the top ten and subsequently qualifying for the grand final.^[21] It was later revealed that Sweden had won the semi-final, receiving a total of 217 points.^[22]

Shortly after the second semi-final, a winner's press conference was held for the ten qualifying countries. As part of this press conference, the qualifying artists took part in a draw to determine which half of the grand final they would subsequently participate in. This draw was done in the order the countries were announced during the semi-final. Sweden was drawn to compete in the first half.^[23] Following this draw, the shows' producers decided upon the running order of the final, as they had done for the semi-finals. Sweden was subsequently placed to perform in position 10, following the entry from Norway and before the entry from Cyprus.^[24] On the day of the grand final, Sweden was the top favourite to win the competition according to the bookmakers.^[25]

Zelmerlöw once again took part in dress rehearsals on 22 and 23 May before the final, including the jury final where the professional juries cast their final votes before the live show.^[26] Zelmerlöw performed a repeat of his semi-final performance during the final on 23 May. Sweden won the competition with 365 points, beating Russia and Italy into second and third places respectively. Sweden received 12 points, the maximum number of points a country can give to another country, from twelve countries.^[27][28] The broadcast was watched by an average 3.282 million people in Sweden with viewership peaking at 4.3 million.^[29]

The Marcel Bezençon Awards, first awarded during the 2002 contest, are awards honouring the best competing songs in the final each year. Named after the creator of the annual contest, Marcel Bezençon, the awards are divided into 3 categories: the Press Award, given to the best entry as voted on by the accredited media and press during the event; the Artistic Award, presented to the best artist as voted on by the shows' commentators; and the Composer Award, given to the best and most original composition as voted by the participating composers. "Heroes" was awarded the Artistic Award, which was accepted at the awards ceremony by Måns Zelmerlöw.^[30]

Voting during the three shows consisted of 50 percent public televoting and 50 percent from a jury deliberation. The jury consisted of five music industry professionals who were citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury was asked to judge each contestant based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury could be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member were released shortly after the grand final.^[31]

Following the release of the full split voting by the EBU after the conclusion of the competition, it was revealed that the public televote and jury results were in disagreement in regards to the winner in the final. Sweden was the winner of the jury vote with 353 points, however, the nation only managed third place with 279 points in the public televote, finishing behind Italy and Russia respectively.^[32] In the second semi-final, Sweden placed first with the public televote receiving 195 points and first with the jury vote with 208 points.^[33]

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Sweden and awarded by Sweden in the second semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows:

The following members comprised the Swedish jury:^[31]

• Filip Adamo (jury chairperson) – independent music professional, production manager
• Lina Hedlund – singer
• Henrik Johnsson [sv] – radio/TV producer, anchor
• Rennie Mirro [sv] – dancer, choreographer, actor
• Isa Tengblad (Isa) – singer, dancer, composer

Detailed voting results from Sweden (Semi-final 2)^[36]

R/O	Country	F. Adamo	L. Hedlund	H. Johnsson	R. Mirro	Isa	Jury Rank	Televote Rank	Combined Rank	Points
01	Lithuania	12	14	15	8	14	14	9	13
02	Ireland	4	4	1	3	4	3	14	8	3
03	San Marino	15	16	16	16	16	16	16	16
04	Montenegro	6	2	5	5	5	4	6	4	7
05	Malta	8	6	9	7	11	7	15	12
06	Norway	2	1	3	2	1	1	1	1	12
07	Portugal	16	10	10	11	12	12	12	15
08	Czech Republic	13	9	6	10	10	9	10	10	1
09	Israel	5	5	4	6	13	6	2	2	10
10	Latvia	1	3	2	1	3	2	7	3	8
11	Azerbaijan	3	8	8	4	2	5	11	7	4
12	Iceland	9	12	14	14	6	11	8	9	2
13	Sweden
14	Switzerland	7	15	12	12	7	10	13	14
15	Cyprus	11	7	7	9	8	8	4	5	6
16	Slovenia	10	11	13	15	15	15	5	11
17	Poland	14	13	11	13	9	13	3	6	5

Detailed voting results from Sweden (Final)^[37]

R/O	Country	F. Adamo	L. Hedlund	H. Johnsson	R. Mirro	Isa	Jury Rank	Televote Rank	Combined Rank	Points
01	Slovenia	13	8	9	14	22	11	13	10	1
02	France	18	19	12	13	10	15	26	22
03	Israel	6	5	4	8	11	7	8	7	4
04	Estonia	14	12	13	12	18	13	5	8	3
05	United Kingdom	23	25	21	25	24	25	20	25
06	Armenia	26	24	25	26	26	26	18	23
07	Lithuania	19	13	14	20	23	18	16	17
08	Serbia	15	15	8	22	19	17	10	12
09	Norway	8	3	3	6	3	4	4	4	7
10	Sweden
11	Cyprus	16	10	15	21	17	16	17	16
12	Australia	3	1	1	3	1	1	1	1	12
13	Belgium	4	2	5	2	8	3	2	2	10
14	Austria	12	22	11	11	12	12	24	20
15	Greece	17	17	20	17	20	19	25	24
16	Montenegro	11	4	16	7	7	9	12	9	2
17	Germany	7	14	19	16	13	14	21	19
18	Poland	22	18	22	18	21	22	9	14
19	Latvia	5	6	2	1	6	2	11	6	5
20	Romania	21	23	18	15	15	20	15	18
21	Spain	10	16	17	10	9	10	14	11
22	Hungary	24	21	24	23	25	23	22	26
23	Georgia	20	20	23	19	14	21	19	21
24	Azerbaijan	9	9	10	5	5	8	23	15
25	Russia	2	7	7	9	4	6	7	5	6
26	Albania	25	26	26	24	16	24	6	13
27	Italy	1	11	6	4	2	5	3	3	8

• SVT Eurovision website