International song competition
The Eurovision Song Contest 2013 was the 58th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Malmö, Sweden, following the country's victory at the 2012 contest with the song "Euphoria" by Loreen. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (SVT), the contest was held at the Malmö Arena, and consisted of two semi-finals on 14 and 16 May, and a final on 18 May 2013. The three live shows were presented by Swedish comedian and television presenter Petra Mede, being the first time only one host had presented the show since the 1995 contest. Former Swedish entrant Eric Saade acted as the green room host in the final.
Thirty-nine countries participated in the contest, with Armenia returning after its 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 (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
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Participating countries.
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 represented San Marino for the second year in a row. She would also return for the 2014 and 2017 contests.
Elitsa Todorova and Stoyan Yankoulov returned, having previously represented Bulgaria in 2007.
Nevena Božović represented Serbia as part of Moje 3 and became the first contestant to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest after competing in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, where she came third in 2007. She later represented Serbia in 2019.
Bledar Sejko, who represented Albania, was the on-stage guitarist for the Albanian entry in 2011.
Gor Sujyan, who represented Armenia, was a backing vocalist for the Armenian entry in 2010.
Aliona Moon, who represented Moldova, was a backing vocalist for the Moldovan entry in 2012. In addition, Pasha Parfeny, the Moldovan representative of 2012, was the composer of the Moldovan entry and accompanied her on stage on the piano.
Estonian backing vocalists Lauri Pihlap and Kaido Põldma were part of the group 2XL, which won the contest 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 1 FL TV 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&amp;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