Eurovision Song Contest 2013

The Eurovision Song Contest 2013 was the 58th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It consisted of two semi-finals on 14 and 16 May and a final on 18 May 2013, held at the Malmö Arena in Malmö, Sweden, and presented by Petra Mede. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT), which staged the event after winning the 2012 contest for Sweden with the song "Euphoria" by Loreen. It was the first time that only one host had presented the show since the 1995 contest. Eric Saade, who had previously represented Sweden in 2011, acted as the green room host in the final.

Broadcasters from thirty-nine countries participated in the contest, with Armenia returning after a one-year absence. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Portugal, Slovakia, and Turkey all ceased their participation for various reasons. Slovakia and Turkey have yet to return to the contest since.

The winner was Denmark with the song "Only Teardrops", performed by Emmelie de Forest and written by Lise Cabble, Julia Fabrin Jakobsen and Thomas Stengaard. The song had the highest average score in both the televote and jury vote. Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Norway, and Russia rounded out the top five.

This year marked the reintroduction of the "Parade of Nations", a concept which was first used in the contest from 1959 to 1963 (with the exception of 1962) before making a one-off return in 1983. The concept had also been used, on-and-off, in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest since 2004. It sees all countries performing in the final presenting themselves with their national flags before the contest begins. This year, the contestants entered the main stage by walking across a bridge over the audience. This idea has subsequently continued in every edition of the contest onwards.

The EBU reported that 170 million viewers watched the semi-finals and final of the 2013 edition.

Location

On 8 July 2012, the Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT) announced that the Malmö Arena in Malmö would be the host venue for the 2013 contest. This was the fifth time after 1975, 1985, 1992 and 2000 that the competition was held in Sweden, and the second time that it was held in Malmö, after 1992. SVT had expressed the desire to host the contest at a slightly smaller venue than previous years, as well as smaller environment which is easier to dedicate and decorate for other celebrations and festivities of the event within the host city. These were factors in the choice of the Malmö Arena as the host venue, and Malmö as Sweden's third-largest city by population after Stockholm and Gothenburg, the two other initial location-bidders.

The city's proximity to the borders with Denmark and Norway also spilled over into some of the producers' actions. Denmark was eventually allocated to compete in one semi-final and Norway in the other, taking into consideration the number of Danish and Norwegian fans who were likely to travel for the contest, with the arena being relatively small and thus not suitable for accommodating both countries' fans in one semi-final. The Øresund Bridge was also used as the main artistic medium for the theme of the contest, as an expression of binding cultures.

Bidding phase

On the night of the final for the 2012 contest, the chief executive of SVT, Eva Hamilton, stated to the Swedish media that various venues in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö were being considered for hosting the 2013 contest. One alternative put forward in the Expressen was to hold the competition at three venues – the semi-finals in Gothenburg and Malmö, and the final in Stockholm. This proposal was dismissed as unfeasible by SVT, which declared that the contest would be hosted in only one city.

On 20 June 2012, it was announced that Gothenburg had withdrawn from the bidding process due to the city being the host of the Göteborg Horse Show in late April 2013. There were also concerns about the availability of hotel rooms due to a variety of other events taking place in the same time frame as the Eurovision Song Contest. On 9 July, the executive producer for the 2013 contest, Martin Österdahl, told the Swedish press "that he felt uncomfortable with the decisions and choices made by the countries that had previously hosted the contest", stating that he and SVT wanted the 2013 contest to be "smaller, closer and personal". SVT also claimed that the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) also disclosed that the EBU had asked potential future host broadcasters that "there were demands about reducing the scale of the event, given the increased costs of recent editions".

The following candidate cities had provisionally reserved venues and hotel rooms, as part of their bids to host the 2013 contest. On 8 July 2012, the Malmö Arena was confirmed as the host venue for the contest. Malmö Arena is Sweden's fourth-largest indoor arena, after Friends Arena, Tele2 Arena and Globe Arena, all located in Stockholm.

Key † Host venue

Participants

The EBU announced on 21 December 2012 that 39 countries would compete in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013. Armenia, which was last represented in 2011, confirmed that it would be returning to the contest following a one-year break. Bosnia and Herzegovina and Portugal both decided not to enter the 2013 contest due to financial difficulties, while Slovakia and Turkey did not participate for different reasons.

Returning artists

Valentina Monetta who had represented San Marino in 2012, returned to the contest for the second year in a row. She would also return in 2014 and in 2017. Elitsa Todorova and Stoyan Yankoulov had represented Bulgaria in 2007. Nevena Božović, representing Serbia as part of Moje 3, was the first contestant to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest after competing in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, where she came third for Serbia in 2007. She would also represent Serbia in 2019.

Bledar Sejko, representing Albania, was the on-stage guitarist for Albania in 2011. Gor Sujyan, representing Armenia, was a backing vocalist for Armenia in 2010. Aliona Moon, representing Moldova, was a backing vocalist for Moldova in 2012. In addition, Pasha Parfeny, who represented Moldova in 2012, was the composer of the 2013 Moldovan entry and accompanied Aliona Moon on stage on the piano.

Lauri Pihlap and Kaido Põldma, who were backing vocalists for Estonia, had won Eurovision as part of the group 2XL for Estonia in 2001, together with Dave Benton and Tanel Padar.

Other countries

Active EBU members

Active EBU member broadcasters in Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Monaco, Morocco, Poland, Portugal and Slovakia confirmed non-participation prior to the announcement of the participants list by the EBU. Turkish broadcaster TRT did the same, citing dissatisfaction with the 2009 introduction of a mixed jury/televote voting system and the status of the "Big Five" rule.

Non-EBU member

Liechtensteiner broadcaster 1FLTV had been trying to join the EBU since 2010. Director Peter Kölbel had said that due to a lack of financial subsidies from the government, EBU membership participation to participate in the contest would be impossible to obtain until 2013 at the earliest; however, it was later announced that the country would not take part in 2013.

Format

The combination of televoting and jury voting results underwent changes that were detailed in the official rules for the 2013 contest. Each member of a respective nation's jury was required to rank every song, except that of their own country. The voting results from each member of a particular nation's jury were combined to produce an overall ranking from first to last place. Likewise, the televoting results were also interpreted as a full ranking, taking into account the full televoting result rather than just the top ten. The combination of the jury's full ranking and the televote's full ranking produced an overall ranking of all competing entries. The song which scored the highest overall rank received 12 points, while the tenth-best ranked song received 1-point. It was announced in the official Media Handbook that an official app would also be available for voters to vote via during the contest.

Official sponsors of the broadcast were the main Swedish-Finnish telecommunication company TeliaSonera, and the German cosmetics company Schwarzkopf. The competition sponsors were the makeup company IsaDora cosmetics, the supermarket ICA and Tetra Pak.

The Stockholm based singer and actress Sarah Dawn Finer also appeared in both semi-finals and the final in sketches as the comic character Lynda Woodruff. "Lynda" presented the votes for Sweden at the previous contest in Baku. Finer also appeared in the final as herself, performing the ABBA song "The Winner Takes It All" before the results were announced. The ex-Swedish football captain Zlatan Ibrahimović was revealed on 28 April to be part of the opening segment of the Eurovision final, in a pre-recorded message welcoming viewers to Malmö, his home city. The 2011 Swedish entrant Eric Saade was the host of the green room during the final.

Semi-final allocation draw

The draw that determined the semi-final allocation was held on 17 January 2013 at the Malmö City Hall. A draw at the EBU headquarters determined that, due to their geographical proximity with Malmö, Denmark would perform in the first semi-final, while Norway would perform in the second semi-final. This provided a maximum availability of tickets for visitors from both countries. The EBU also allocated Israel to the second semi-final after a request from the delegation in order to avoid complications with a national holiday coinciding with the date of the first semi-final. The remaining participating countries, excluding the automatic finalists (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom), were split into five pots, based on voting patterns from the previous nine years. From these pots, 15 (in addition to Denmark) were allocated to compete in the first semi-final on 14 May 2013 and 15 (in addition to Norway and Israel) were allocated to compete in the second semi-final on 16 May 2013.

The pots were calculated by the televoting partner Digame and were as follows:

Running order

Unlike previous years, the running order was not decided by the drawing of lots, but instead by the producers, with the aim of making the shows more exciting and ensuring that all contestants had a chance to stand out, preventing entries that are too similar cancelling each other out. The decision elicited mixed reactions from both fans of the contest and participating broadcasters.

The running order for the semi-finals was released on 28 March 2013. The running order for the final was determined on 17 May 2013. An additional allocation draw occurred for the final with each finalist nation drawing to perform either in the first or second half of the final. The allocation draw for qualifying countries from the semi-finals occurred during the semi-final winners' press conferences following each semi-final, while the allocation draw for the Big Five countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) occurred during their first individual press conferences on 15 May 2013. As the host country, the running order position for Sweden in the final was exclusively determined by a draw during the heads of delegation meeting on 18 March 2013. Sweden was drawn to perform 16th in the final.

Graphic design

As aforesaid, SVT wanted to make a good use of Malmö Arena's space to highlight the performances and increase the audience's visibility compared to previous years. SVT created a main stage and a smaller stage with higher-lower shifted floors, connected by a trail closely surrounded by a standing crowd from both sides of it and around the small stage. The main stage mobility was expressed as a main artistic medium at the opening act of the second semi-final and with highlighting Moldova's performance towards its finish, as a movable part beneath the singer's dress making her look gradually taller. The small stage mobility highlighted United Kingdom's performance towards its finish, lifted above the close-standing audience.

On 17 January 2013, at the semi-final allocation draw, the EBU revealed the graphic design, created by the Gothenburg-based branding agency Happy F&B for the 2013 contest, featuring a butterfly and the slogan "We Are One". The butterfly featured an array of colours and textures, while also representing the butterfly effect idea. Meanwhile, the slogan "We Are One" highlighted equality and unity of all the participating countries alongside the cultural diversity and influence of each participant.

SVT confirmed on 19 February 2013 that the postcard films, used to introduce each song in the contest, would feature each artist in their respective country, to give the viewer a personal insight of each competing participant. This broke with recent tradition of the postcards often containing short segments of life within either the host city or country of the contest. The postcards were produced by Camp David, the on-air graphics by Broken Doll, and the animation of the butterflies by visual effects studio Swiss International. In addition to the graphic design, there was a theme music for the contest, titled "Wolverine" and composed by Adam Kafe, which was used in the intros and in-between commercial breaks.

National host broadcaster

On 11 July 2012, show producer Christer Björkman advised the public not to buy tickets for the 2013 contest that are currently in circulation and instead to wait for tickets to be released through official channels. Björkman said that official tickets had not yet been released, as necessary decisions over the stage and seating plans had not yet been made. Björkman also gave reassurance that accommodation would be available, as while the organisers had booked a large quantity of hotel rooms, some may be made available to the general public. On 21 November 2012, SVT officially announced the launch of ticket sales.

On 17 October 2012, executive producer Martin Österdahl told Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter that SVT plans for the 2013 contest to have only one presenter for the entire event, unlike in previous years when there were up to three presenters per show. The last time only one presenter hosted the entire contest was in 1995, when the solo host was Mary Kennedy. Petra Mede was announced as the host of the 2013 contest on 28 January 2013.

Contest overview

Semi-final 1

The first semi-final took place on 14 May 2013 at 21:00 CEST. All the countries competing in this semi-final were eligible to vote, plus Italy, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The highlighted countries qualified for the final.

Semi-final 2

The second semi-final took place on 16 May 2013 at 21:00 CEST. All the countries competing in this semi-final were eligible to vote, plus France, Germany and Spain. The highlighted countries qualified for the final.

Final

The final took place on 18 May 2013 at 21:00 CEST and was won by Denmark. The "Big Five" and the host country, Sweden, qualified directly for the final. From the two semi-finals on 14 and 16 May 2013, twenty countries qualified for the final. A total of 26 countries competed in the final and all 39 participants voted.

For the first time since the 1985 contest, which was, coincidentally, held in Sweden as well, no country of the former Yugoslavia participated in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest.

This year, for the first time ever, the winner was announced as soon as it was mathematically impossible to catch up. In this case, the winner had been determined by the 35th vote out of the 39, which came from Macedonia. This practice would continue for the next two years as well.

Denmark won with 281 points. Azerbaijan came second with 234 points, with Ukraine, Norway, Russia, Greece, Italy, Malta, Netherlands and Hungary completing the top ten. Lithuania, France, Finland, Spain and Ireland occupied the bottom five positions.

Spokespersons

Each participating broadcaster appointed a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing, in English or French, the votes for its respective country. The order in which each country announced their votes was determined in a draw following the jury results from final dress rehearsal. Similar to the 2012 contest an algorithm was used to generate as much suspense as possible. The spokespersons are shown alongside each country.

1. San Marino – John Kennedy O'Connor
2. Sweden – Yohio
3. Albania – Andri Xhahu
4. Netherlands – Cornald Maas
5. Austria – Kati Bellowitsch
6. United Kingdom – Scott Mills
7. Israel – Ofer Nachshon
8. Serbia – Maja Nikolić[sr]
9. Ukraine – Matias
10. Hungary – Éva Novodomszky
11. Romania – Sonia Argint
12. Moldova – Olivia Furtună
13. Azerbaijan – Tamilla Shirinova[az]
14. Norway – Tooji
15. Armenia – André
16. Italy – Federica Gentile[it]
17. Finland – Kristiina Wheeler
18. Spain – Inés Paz
19. Belarus – Darya Domracheva
20. Latvia – Anmary
21. Bulgaria – Joanna Dragneva[bg]
22. Belgium – Barbara Louys[fr]
23. Russia – Alsou
24. Malta – Emma Hickey
25. Estonia – Rolf Roosalu
26. Germany – Lena
27. Iceland – María Sigrún Hilmarsdóttir
28. France – Marine Vignes[fr]
29. Greece – Adriana Magania
30. Ireland – Nicky Byrne
31. Denmark – Sofie Lassen-Kahlke[da]
32. Montenegro – Ivana Sebek
33. Slovenia – Andrea F
34. Georgia – Liza Tsiklauri
35. Macedonia – Dimitar Atanasovski
36. Cyprus – Loukas Hamatsos
37. Croatia – Uršula Tolj
38. Switzerland – Mélanie Freymond[fr]
39. Lithuania – Ignas Krupavičius

Detailed voting results

The EBU published the split results of the semi-finals and final on 29 May 2013. Unlike in previous years, a full points breakdown of the jury and public voting was not revealed. Instead, an average ranking was provided for each country based on the votes of the juries and televote in isolation.

Semi-final 1

12 points

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points each country awarded to another in the first semi-final:

Semi-final 2

12 points

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points each country awarded to another in the second semi-final:

Final

12 points

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points each country awarded to another in the final:

Broadcasts

Most countries sent commentators to Malmö or commentated from their own country, in order to add insight to the participants and, if necessary, the provision of voting information.

It was reported by the EBU that the 2013 contest was viewed by a worldwide television audience of 170 million viewers.

Incidents and controversies

Azerbaijan's vote rigging

Prior to the finals, the Lithuanian media outlet 15min released an undercover video suggesting that representatives from Azerbaijan were trying to bribe Lithuanians for votes in the televoting. The video detailed the plan, which involved recruiting groups of 10 people each, and supplying them with SIM cards so they could vote multiple times during the voting window. It was also suggested that similar activity was taking place in a total of 15 countries including Latvia, Estonia, Belarus, Ukraine, Croatia and Switzerland. In response to the allegations, Executive Supervisor Jon Ola Sand reaffirmed the contest's commitment to a "fair and transparent result". He stated that while Eurovision organisers were looking into the case, they "[emphasised] 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".

The EBU later confirmed an attempt of cheating in the contest, which was unsuccessful according to EBU as the EBU's system prevents fraud. According to the EBU, there is no evidence that any broadcaster has been involved in cheating. The rules were changed the next year to ensure that all broadcasters would be responsible for preventing fraud to their advantage or face a three-year suspension if fraud is revealed. However, in May 2015, a member of the contest's Reference Group confirmed that Azerbaijan had cheated, and that it was organized and very expensive.

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 that "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.

Plagiarism allegations

Cascada's entry for Germany, "Glorious", was the subject of investigation by NDR following allegations that it was too similar to the 2012 winner, "Euphoria" by Loreen. NDR spokeswoman Iris Bents played down the allegations, stating that "Every year there are attempts to create scandals around the Eurovision Song Contest and the participants." Following an independent audit, "Glorious" was found not to have plagiarized "Euphoria".

Allegations of plagiarism against the winning Danish entry "Only Teardrops" 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, 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 some countries broadcasting the contest. The act featured Krista Siegfrids and one of her female backing singers kissing each other at the end, widely labelled in media as Eurovision's first "lesbian kiss". Siegfrids stated to the media that the act was done to encourage Finland to legalise same-sex marriage. It was reported that Turkish and Greek media reacted negatively to Siegfrids' act. According to Gay Star News, the Turkish broadcaster TRT, which had previously decided not to participate itself, initially indicated that it would still broadcast the contest, but made a late decision not to do so.

Eric Saade's green room incident

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". When the broadcaster for the United Kingdom, BBC aired this, the sound was lost. It remains unknown whether this was just an accident, or if the BBC did it purposely. While the statement was supposedly scripted and SVT were aware of Saade's plan, some on social media were confused and offended by the comment.

Other awards

In addition to the main winner's trophy, the Marcel Bezençon Awards and the Barbara Dex Award were contested during the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest. The OGAE, "General Organisation of Eurovision Fans" voting poll also took place before the contest.

Marcel Bezençon Awards

The Marcel Bezençon Awards, organised since 2002 by Sweden's then-Head of Delegation and 1992 representative Christer Björkman, and 1984 winner Richard Herrey, honours songs in the contest's final. The awards are divided into three categories: Artistic Award, Composers Award, and Press Award.

OGAE

OGAE, an organisation of over forty Eurovision Song Contest fan clubs across Europe and beyond, conducts an annual voting poll first held in 2002 as the Marcel Bezençon Fan Award. After all votes were cast, the top-ranked entry in the 2013 poll was also the winner of the contest, "Only Teardrops" performed by Emmelie de Forest; the top five results are shown below.

Barbara Dex Award

The Barbara Dex Award is a humorous fan award given to the worst dressed artist each year. Named after Belgium's representative who came last in the 1993 contest, wearing her self-designed dress, the award was handed by the fansite House of Eurovision from 1997 to 2016 and is being carried out by the fansite songfestival.be since 2017.

Official album

Eurovision Song Contest: Malmö 2013 was a compilation album put together by the European Broadcasting Union, and released by CMC International and Universal Music Group on 29 April 2013. The album featured all 39 songs that entered in the 2013 contest including the semi-finalists that failed to qualify into the grand final. The digital version featured a bonus track, "We Write the Story", composed by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson of ABBA, and DJ and music producer Avicii.

Charts

See also

• ABU TV Song Festival 2013
• Eurovision Young Dancers 2013
• Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2013
• Türkvizyon Song Contest 2013

Notes

External links

• at IMDb
• on YouTube