
Stockholm Revisited Part Six: The Voting
08 July 2016 at 19:00 CESTFor several years, the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest has been known well before the end of the voting as technically no other act could catch up. Previously the winner was even announced by the presenters before the voting had finished. Under the new system introduced in Stockholm in 2016, the winner was only known in the final minutes of the show.
After close jury voting, Australia took the lead before the public votes were announced in reverse order. Australia, which finished 4th in the televote with 191 points, took second place leaving Russia and Ukraine to battle for the victory in one of the most thrilling voting sequences in over a decade. You can relive the exciting moment the winner was announced in our video below.
The change in the voting format was the outcome of a long process that started in the Reference Group, the governing body of the contest on behalf of the Participating Broadcasters, and was an initiative of the EBU and Swedish broadcaster SVT. The change was accepted by the Reference Group in 2015 and consequently approved by the EBU Television Committee. You can find out more about the voting system in our detailed explanation published earlier this year.