60th Eurovision Song Contest From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Eurovision Song Contest 2015 was the 60th edition of the contest and took place in Vienna, Austria, after Conchita Wurst won the previous year. 40 countries took part this year, with Sweden's song "Heroes" by Måns Zelmerlöw winning.
Australia took part for the first time ever and was invited to the Grand Final as a special guest. Ukraine did not participate due to financial problems related to Russia's invasion of Crimea.
According to the rules of Eurovision 2015, there would be 27 countries in the Grand Final. These included host country Austria, the Big 5 (France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom), Australia and the twenty countries which qualified from the semi-finals.
First semi-final
The first semi-final took place on Tuesday, the 19th May 2015. 16 countries participated in this semi-final. Those 16 countries plus Austria, France and Spain voted in this semi-final. The rankings from each country's jury vote and public vote were combined and the ten best ranked countries qualified for the final.
The second semi-final took place on Thursday, the 21th May 2015. 17 countries participated in this semi-final. Those countries plus Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom voted in this semi-final. The rankings from each country's jury vote and public vote were combined and the ten best ranked countries qualified for the final.
The Grand Final took place on Saturday, the 23th May 2015. The 27 finalists were Austria, the Big Five, the twenty qualifiers from the semi-finals and Australia, who was invited as a special guest. The winner was Sweden, with the song "Heroes" by Måns Zelmerlöw.
Each country used a jury vote and a public vote to rank the songs. The rankings were combined and the ten songs that ranked highest in both votes were awarded points on a scale of 12, 10 and 8 to 1 (with 12 going to the highest ranked, 10 to the second and 8 to 1 from the third to tenth). Once each country had awarded their points, the winner was declared.