The Eurovision Song Contest 2013 was the 58th annual Eurovision Song Contest. The contest took place in Malmö, Sweden, following Loreen's win the previous year with the song "Euphoria".
No country made its debut while Armenia, which last participated in 2011 in Düsseldorf, made its return. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Portugal, Slovakia and Turkey all withdrew from competing.
The winner was Emmelie de Forest of Denmark with the song "Only Teardrops". This was the country's third win.
Location[]
Bidding Phase[]
City | Venue | Capacity | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Gothenburg | Scandivanium | 14,000 | The venue hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 1985 |
Swedish Exhibition Centre | 8,000 | Withdrew on 20 June 2012 | |
Malmö | Malmö Arena | 12,600-15,500 | The venue has served as the host of the Melodifestivalen semi-finals for the past four years. |
Stockholm | Friends Arena | 54,00-65,000 | Opened in October 2012; hosted the final of Melodifestivalen in March 2013 |
Venue[]
The Contest took place in the Malmö Arena in Malmö, following Sweden's victory at the 2012 Contest in Baku with the song "Euphoria", performed by Loreen, who gave the country its fifth win.
The arena opened on 6 November 2008 has a capacity of approximately 15,500 attendees.
Participants[]
Returning artists[]
Artist | Note |
---|---|
Valentina Monetta | Represented her country the previous year |
Elitsa & Stoyan | Previously represented their home country at the 2007 Contest |
Nevena Božović | Represented her home country in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, where she came third in 2007 |
Bledar Sejko | He was the on-stage guitarist for the country's entry at the 2011 Contest |
Gor Suyjan | He was a backing vocalist for the country's entry at the 2010 Contest |
Aliona Moon | She was a backing vocalist for her country's entry in 2012. In addition, Pasha Parfeny, the Moldovan representative from that year, was the composer of her entry and he actually accompanied her on the piano. |
Lauri Pihlap & Kaido Põldma | They were part of the group 2XL, which won the Contest in 2001 together with Dave Benton and Tanel Padar |
Semi Final 1[]
Italy, Sweden and the United Kingdom voted in this semi-final. The ten songs that are highlighted qualified to the final.
Draw | Country | Performer(s) | Song | Language | Translation | Place | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
01 | Austria | Natália Kelly | "Shine" | English | — | 14 | 27 |
02 | Estonia | Birgit | "Et uus saaks alguse" | Estonian | So there can be a new beginning | 10 | 52 |
03 | Slovenia | Hannah | "Straight Into Love" | English | — | 16 | 08 |
04 | Croatia | Klapa s Mora | "Mižerja" | Croatian | Misery | 13 | 38 |
05 | Denmark | Emmelie de Forest | "Only Teardrops" | English | — | 1 | 167 |
06 | Russia | Dina Garipova | "What If" | English | — | 2 | 156 |
07 | Ukraine | Zlata Ognevich | "Gravity" | English | — | 3 | 140 |
08 | The Netherlands | Anouk | "Birds" | English | — | 6 | 75 |
09 | Montenegro | Who See | "Igranka" | Montenegrin | The party | 12 | 41 |
10 | Lithuania | Andrius Pojavis | "Something" | English | — | 9 | 53 |
11 | Belarus | Alyona Lanskaya | "Solayoh" | English | — | 7 | 64 |
12 | Moldova | Aliona Moon | "O mie" | Romanian | A thousand | 4 | 95 |
13 | Ireland | Ryan Dolan | "Only Love Survives" | English | — | 8 | 54 |
14 | Cyprus | Despina Olympiou | "An me thimasai" | Greek | If you remember me | 15 | 11 |
15 | Belgium | Roberto Bellarosa | "Love Kills" | English | — | 5 | 75 |
16 | Serbia | Moje 3 | "Ljubav je svuda" | Serbian | Love is all around | 11 | 46 |
Semi Final 2[]
Germany, France and Spain voted in this semi-final. The ten songs that are highlighted qualified to the final.
Draw | Country | Performer(s) | Song | Language | Translation | Place | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
01 | Latvia | PeR | "Here We Go" | English | — | 17 | 13 |
02 | San Marino | Valentina Monetta | "Crisalide (Vola)" | Italian | Chrysalis (Fly) | 11 | 47 |
03 | F.Y.R. Macedonia | Esma & Lozano | "Pred da se razdeni" | Macedonian, Romani | Before the sunrise | 16 | 28 |
04 | Azerbaijan | Farid Mammadov | "Hold Me" | English | — | 1 | 139 |
05 | Finland | Krista Siegfrids | "Marry Me" | English | — | 9 | 64 |
06 | Malta | Gianluca | "Tomorrow" | English | — | 4 | 118 |
07 | Bulgaria | Elitsa & Stoyan | "Samo shampioni" | Bulgarian | Only champions | 12 | 45 |
08 | Iceland | Eythor Ingi | "Ég á líf" | Icelandic | I am alive | 6 | 75 |
09 | Greece | Koza Mostra feat. Agathonas Iakovidis | "Alcohol Is Free" | Greek | — | 2 | 121 |
10 | Israel | Moran Mazor | "Rak bishvilo" | Hebrew | Only for him | 14 | 40 |
11 | Armenia | Dorians | "Lonely Planet" | English | — | 7 | 69 |
12 | Hungary | ByeAlex | "Kedvesem" | Hungarian | My darling | 8 | 66 |
13 | Norway | Margaret Berger | "I Feed You My Love" | English | — | 3 | 120 |
14 | Albania | Adrian Lulgjuraj & Bledar Sejko | "Identitet" | Albanian | Identity | 15 | 31 |
15 | Georgia | Nodi Tatishvili & Sophie Gelovani | "Waterfall" | English | — | 10 | 63 |
16 | Switzerland | Takasa | "You and Me" | English | — | 13 | 41 |
17 | Romania | Cezar | "It's My Life" | English | — | 5 | 83 |
Final[]
Scoreboard[]
Incidents[]
Azerbaijan[]
Before the Contest finals, it was reported in Lithuanian media that an undercover video recording published on YouTube seemed to suggest that Azerbaijan was paying bribes for phone votes from Lithuania. Lithuania ended up voting the maximum 12 points to Azerbaijan. Students said they were approached by men who offered them €20 each to vote multiple times for a contestant. Their goal was to recruit groups of 10 people to vote for Azerbaijan. Those recruited were given SIM cards, which would allow them to vote as many times as possible within 15 minutes. Dialogue in the video suggested that similar activity was taking place in a total of 15 countries including Latvia, Estonia, Belarus, Ukraine, Croatia and Switzerland.
In response, the European Broadcasting Union's official contest website eurovision.tv published a news article, quoting the Executive Supervisor Jon Ola Sand reaffirming the contest organisers' commitment to a "fair and transparent result". He stated: "We are looking into this case, but would emphasise that the intention of these individuals have not yet been clarified, and nor has a link been established between the individuals in the video and the Azeri delegation, the Azeri act or the Azeri EBU member Ictimai TV." He added that, since 1998, when he was first involved with the contest, "every year there are rumors about irregularities in the voting".
Azerbaijan, Russia and Belarus[]
When Azerbaijan officially awarded no points to Dina Garipova of Russia, despite Garipova having reportedly come second in the country's phone poll, the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev ordered an inquiry. The Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed that the result had been falsified, and stated: "This outrageous action will not remain without a response". He promised a co-ordinated response with his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov. Simultaneously, the Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko claimed that his own country having received no points from Russia showed that the result must have been falsified.
Accusations of plagiarism[]
Allegations of plagiarism against the winning Danish entry surfaced after Eric van Tijn, a notable Dutch music producer, mentioned the opening flute solo's similarity to "I Surrender", a 2002 song by the Dutch band K-Otic. However Eric van Tijn also stated that the flute solo was the only similarity between the two songs, thus calling it "a storm in a teacup".
Finland's same-sex kiss[]
The performance of the Finnish entry, "Marry Me", caused controversy in more socially conservative countries broadcasting the contest. The act featured the female singer Krista Siegfrids kissing one of her female backing singers at the end, widely labelled in media as Eurovision's first "lesbian kiss". It was reported that Turkish and Greek media reacted negatively to Siegfrid's act. The Turkish Eurovision broadcaster TRT, who had earlier withdrawn from competing in the contest for 2013, initially indicated that they would still broadcast the contest, but apparently made a late decision not to do so. A number of media reports directly linked this decision to the kiss in the Finnish performance, although TRT stated the reason was low viewing figures for the contest.
Jury in the Netherlands[]
After the first semi final, Dutch commentator Daniël Dekker prematurely revealed Cornald Maas and Eric van Tijn as two members of the Dutch jury. Maas and Van Tijn were replaced for the final by Jeroen Nieuwenhuize and André de Raaff.
Eric Saade[]
Green Room host Eric Saade referred to Petra Mede as a "MILF" on air during the break between the first and second halves of the voting, saying "Back to you, Petra. #MILF." While the statement was supposedly scripted, with the SVT aware of Saade's plan, some on social media were confused and offended by the comment.