Eurovision Song Contest 2015
The Eurovision Song Contest 2015 was the 60th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Vienna, Austria, following Conchita Wurst's win at the 2014 contest in Copenhagen, Denmark with the song "Rise Like a Phoenix". It was the second time Austria had hosted the contest, having previously done so in. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union and host broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk, the contest was held at the Wiener Stadthalle and consisted of two semi-finals on 19 and 21 May, and the final on 23 May 2015. The three live shows were hosted by Mirjam Weichselbraun, Alice Tumler and Arabella Kiesbauer, while Conchita Wurst hosted the green room.
Forty countries participated in the contest, with making a guest appearance.
and returned, after their one-year absence, while returned, after their last participation in. Meanwhile, announced their non-participation due to financial and political reasons regarding the Ukrainian crisis.
The winner was with the song "Heroes", performed by Måns Zelmerlöw and written by Anton Malmberg Hård af Segerstad, Joy Deb and Linnea Deb. This was Sweden's sixth victory in the contest, following their wins in,,, and. Sweden became the first country to win the contest twice in the semi-final format, and this was the country's second win in four years. This also marked the shortest gap between two wins for the same country since Ireland’s and victories. Russia, Italy, Belgium and Australia rounded out the top five. The top two countries of this contest - Sweden and Russia - were the same as the top two countries in the contest. This was the first time since the juries were reintroduced alongside the televoting in that the winner did not place first in the televoting; Italy was the televote winner, while Sweden was the jury winner. Further down the table, Montenegro achieved its best result since its independence, finishing thirteenth.
For the first time, the top four of the contest all scored 200 points or better. Russia's entry "A Million Voices" became the first non-winning Eurovision song to score over 300 points. Austria and became the first countries since to score no points in the final. Austria is also the first host country to score nul points.
The EBU reported that over 197 million viewers worldwide watched the contest, beating the 2014 viewing figures by 2 million.
Location
Venue
The event took place in Vienna, Austria, with the venue being the Wiener Stadthalle, after Austria won the right to host this edition of the Eurovision Song Contest for winning its previous 2014 edition with the song "Rise Like a Phoenix" performed by Conchita Wurst. The Wiener Stadthalle hosts the annual Erste Bank Open tennis tournament, along with many concerts and events throughout the year and has a capacity of approximately 16,000 attendees.Bidding phase
After Austria's victory in the Contest, their delegation revealed the possibility of hosting the contest either in the capital city, Vienna, or in Salzburg. Vienna, Klagenfurt, Innsbruck, Lower Austria, Graz, Upper Austria, Burgenland, and Vorarlberg were all reportedly interested in hosting the contest; Salzburg pulled out of the bidding phase as the city was not able to meet the cost of the venue and promotion.Vienna, considered the front-runner, had two venues in the phase: Wiener Stadthalle and the trade fair centre, Messe Wien, with capacities of up to 16,000 and 30,000 attendees respectively. Also in the race were Stadthalle Graz and Schwarzl Freizeit Zentrum, both located in the second largest city of Austria, Graz. With a maximum capacity of 30,000, the Wörthersee Stadium in Klagenfurt also joined the race; however, it would require the construction of a roof for the contest to be hosted there. Innsbruck also joined the race with Olympiahalle, which hosted ice hockey and figure skating at the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympics. A fifth city, Linz, joined the race with Brucknerhaus, although the venue would not be big enough for the contest. Being geographically close to Linz, Wels showed desire to host the event as well. Oberwart, with the Exhibition hall, and Vorarlberg, with the Vorarlberger Landestheater, were the latest cities to declare an interest.
On 29 May 2014, Austrian host public broadcaster ORF and the EBU released some requirements and details about the venue. ORF requested interested parties to respond by 13 June 2014.
- The venue must be available for at least 6 to 7 weeks before the contest and one week after the conclusion of the contest.
- The venue must not be open-air, but an air-conditioned building with a capacity of at least 10,000 and a minimum ceiling height of , insulated for sound and light.
- The Green Room should be located in the arena or as near it as possible, with a capacity of 300.
- An additional room at least in area, to house 2 catering stands, a viewing room, make-up rooms, wardrobe, and booths for approximately 50 commentators.
- Separate offices to house the press centre, open between 11 and 24 May 2015, at least in area, with a capacity of at least 1,500 journalists.
Key
Host venue
Shortlisted
| City | Venue | Notes |
| Graz | Stadthalle Graz ‡ | Hosted the 2010 European Men's Handball Championship. |
| Innsbruck | Olympiaworld ‡ | Hosted the figure skating and ice hockey events at both the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympic Games. |
| Klagenfurt | Wörthersee Stadion | Served as host for some matches of UEFA Euro 2008. |
| Oberwart | Messezentrum | |
| Vienna | - | - |
| Vienna | Schönbrunn Palace | |
| Vienna | Wiener Stadthalle, Hall D | Hosts the annual Erste Bank Open tennis tournament and many events throughout the year. |
| Vienna | Vienna International Airport, Parking C | |
| Vienna | Heldenplatz | |
| Vienna | New All-round Concert Hall in Neu Marx | |
| Vienna | Marx hall | |
| Vienna | Trabrennbahn Krieau | |
| Wels | Messe Wels |
Inclusive traffic lights in Vienna
The city of Vienna introduced temporary new traffic signals for pedestrians on some streets, featuring same-sex couples holding hands or hugging. They were introduced as part of events connected to the theme of tolerance and inclusion in the lead-up to the Eurovision Song Contest.Traffic lights of the same – copyrighted – design of the kind "Ampelpärchen" followed before Christopher Street Days in June 2015 in Salzburg and Linz. In Salzburg the initiative SoHo and social democrate mayor Schaden promoted the change of the shape of the LED-lamps. The faceplates in Linz has been financed by sponsors driven by a Facebook-based initiative, but have been removed – without consent – by the new traffic minister of Linz of the party FPÖ in early December 2015.
Format
The competition consisted of two semi-finals and a final, a format which has been in use since. The ten countries with the highest scores in each semi-final qualified to the final where they joined the host nation Austria, the five main sponsoring nations : France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, and Australia which was invited this year to commemorate the Contest's 60th anniversary.Each participating country had their own national jury, which consisted of five professional members of the music industry. 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 juries' 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 one point. In the event of a televoting failure or jury failure, only one of the methods was used by each country. As of 2019, the 2015 contest was the last time that the modern scoring system introduced in was used, before the format was modified the following year.
National host broadcaster
During an initial meeting between the host broadcaster ORF and the EBU in late May 2014, the representatives of the core organising team were selected. Edgar Böhm, who is the Head of Entertainment at ORF, was announced as the executive producer.Semi-final allocation draw
The draw that determined the semi-final allocation was held on 26 January 2015 at the Vienna Rathaus and hosted by Andi Knoll and Kati Bellowitsch. The participating countries, excluding the automatic finalists, were split into five pots, based on voting patterns from the previous ten years. The pots were calculated by the televoting partner Digame and were as follows:| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 | Pot 5 |
Running order
The final running order of the competing performances at the semi-finals and the final were decided by the producers of the show and approved by the EBU Executive Supervisor and the Reference Group, as had been done since the 2013 Contest, in contrast to a draw system for the contest's editions up until 2012. Hosts Austria drew their running order position on 16 March 2015 at the heads of delegations meeting, drawing starting position fourteen. The running order of the semi-finals were revealed on 23 March 2015. It was decided that Moldova would open the first semi-final and Lithuania the second. The running order for the grand final was announced shortly after the winners' press conference of the second semi-final, with Slovenia opening the show and Italy performing last.Graphic design
On 31 July, the EBU released a new and revamped version of the generic logo as a celebration of the Eurovision Song Contest's 60th anniversary. On 11 September 2014, the slogan for the 2015 Contest was revealed to be "Building Bridges". The Director General of ORF, Alexander Wrabetz, commented in reference to the slogan: "With the song contest in Vienna, we want music to build bridges across borders, cultures and languages. In light of the unifying power of this great common European event, we invite all to build bridges and to join hands." One way of realising the slogan was introduced in the beginning of the contest's final, as the competing artists entered the arena via a structure which simulates a "magic bridge" of light. The graphic design of the contest was revealed by the EBU on 25 November 2014. The theme depicts a wave made up of many spheres, meant to symbolise diversity and the bridging of connections and encounters people experience on a constant basis. The colours of the theme intend to highlight individualism whilst simultaneously also representing the building of musical bridges and the diversity and variety of the artists, songs and audience. The theme art was be incorporated in all contest related developments such as crew uniforms, on-air graphics and merchandise.The postcards of this year's contest also witness the slogan "Building Bridges". In the postcards, each of the clips start with a drive by scene of the contestants capital city, it then shows every contestant receiving an invitation to Austria in their home country. More specifically, the invitation is to a region in the host country with all nine Austrian states taking part. The story continues with the contestants making their way to one of the states where they have an individual task to fulfil, using the article or articles received back home with their invitation. The tasks on the journeys vary from culture to sports, from economics to science and tradition to modern. For example, the Austrian postcard features The Makemakes participating in a fun run and in the San Marino postcard, Michele Perniola and Anita Simoncini attend an evening at the Vienna Opera Ball. The postcards end with a picture of their activity turned into a big billboard, placed in different locations of Vienna.
In this year's contest, all the hashtags for participating countries incorporated the IOC country codes for them which were displayed on the television screen, preceded by the names of the performing countries. For example, the first country in semi-final 1, Moldova, which would normally have been displayed as "01 Moldova"; became "01 Moldova #MDA" under the new changes. When the hashtags were used on Twitter, they became "hashflags", and appeared by the accompanying of a heart symbol with the flag of the country of the hashtag.
Presenters
On 19 December 2014, ORF announced that Mirjam Weichselbraun, Alice Tumler and Arabella Kiesbauer were the hosts of the 60th contest; the all-female trio was the first in history to host the contest. The winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2014, Conchita Wurst was also chosen as host of the green room.Weichselbraun is an actress and presenter known for hosting such productions as the annual Life Ball charity event, the Vienna Opera Ball and the TV show Dancing Stars since 2005, which has earned her the Austrian Romy television award in 2006 and 2008. Tumler is of Austrian-French descent and speaks five languages fluently: German, English, French, Italian and Spanish. She began her television career in 2004 with French music channel TraceTV, later working for Arte and France 3, and has hosted The KORA All Africa Music Awards in South Africa. Since 2013, she has hosted the talent show Die große Chance alongside Andi Knoll. Kiesbauer is a presenter, writer and actress who started her career at the Austrian public broadcaster in 1989, but is probably most known for presenting her own talk show in Germany from 1994 to 2004 on ProSieben. Since 2008 she has been an ambassador for integration in the team of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Integration. In 2013, she received the Golden Medal of the Republic of Austria for her commitment to tolerance and the fight against racism.
Opening and interval acts
As the opening of the final, the Te Deum was performed by the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra from the gardens of Schönbrunn Palace, and included a video taking viewers on a journey through Austria's cities and landscapes to the host venue. The overture featured violinist Lidia Baich, winner of the Eurovision Young Musicians 1998, who performed live on stage an excerpt of Austria's winning song "Merci, Chérie" in tribute to Udo Jürgens.Immediately afterwards The ESC Vienna All-Stars, consisting of Conchita, the Vienna Boys' Choir, multinational Suparar Children's Choir, rapper Left Boy, and the contest’s presenters, jointly performed the official anthem of the 2015 contest, "Building Bridges" accompanied by the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Peter Pejtsik. In total, more than 200 artists were part of the opening act. The song was released as a single in the host country, Germany and Switzerland. The performance notably featured Conchita "flying" from a raised podium over the audience to the main stage. After the presenters welcomed the viewers of the show, representatives of the twenty-seven participating countries also took to the stage during the flag parade using a "magical bridge" created through the audience from the greenroom.
The EBU released details regarding the interval act for the grand final on 18 March. The interval act was provided by percussionist Martin Grubinger and his band The Percussive Planet Ensemble. The nine-minute performance, based on classical themes of major Austrian composers, included forty instrumentalists as well as the Grammy Award winning Arnold Schoenberg Choir. Conchita later performed "You Are Unstoppable" and "Firestorm", both from her self-titled debut studio album.
Participating countries
On 23 December 2014, it was announced that initially thirty-nine countries would participate in the 2015 Contest. and returned after, the returned after a, while did not enter. Australia made its debut as a guest participant. The deadline to apply for participation was 15 September 2014. Countries that applied had until 10 October 2014 to withdraw from participation without financial consequences.Invitation of Australia
On 10 February 2015, the EBU announced that in honour of the 60th anniversary of Eurovision, it had invited to participate in the finals of the contest, represented by Special Broadcasting Service. SBS had been a long-time broadcaster of the event, which has had a large following in Australia. The Australian entry was placed directly in the grand final. Although it was considered a one-off event, if Australia were to win, SBS would have co-hosted the 2016 contest in a European host city of its choice. The EBU considered the possibility of similarly inviting countries to participate in future editions of the contest. Australia's participation brought the number of the finalists up to 27, the highest number of entries in a final in the contest's history.Returning artists
, who was part of Genealogy in 2015, represented Armenia in, collaborating with her sister as part of Inga and Anush. Michele Perniola and Anita Simoncini both previously represented at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest: Perniola took part in, and Simoncini took part in as part of The Peppermints. Amber, who represented, was a backing vocalist for the Maltese entry in 2012. Uzari, who represented, was a backing vocalist for the Belarusian entry in 2011.Elnur Hüseynov, who was 's debut representative at the Eurovision Song Contest 2008, as part of the duo Elnur and Samir, was internally selected to represent the nation for a second time. Raay, who is a part of the Slovene duo Maraaya, was a backing musical performer for the 2014 entry of. Hera Björk, who previously represented Iceland in, returned as a backing singer for Iceland's entry. Nicolas Dorian, part of Witloof Bay, Belgium representatives in 2011, was part of the backing vocalists of Loic Nottet.Semi-final 1
16 countries took part in the first semi-final.,, and voted in this semi-final. The ten songs in places 1 to 10 qualified for the final and are marked in orange.| Draw | Country | Artist | Song | Language | Place | Points |
| 01 | Eduard Romanyuta | "I Want Your Love" | English | 11 | 41 | |
| 02 | Genealogy | "Face the Shadow" | English | 7 | 77 | |
| 03 | Loïc Nottet | "Rhythm Inside" | English | 2 | 149 | |
| 04 | Trijntje Oosterhuis | "Walk Along" | English | 14 | 33 | |
| 05 | Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät | "Aina mun pitää" | Finnish | 16 | 13 | |
| 06 | Maria Elena Kyriakou | "One Last Breath" | English | 6 | 81 | |
| 07 | Elina Born & Stig Rästa | "Goodbye to Yesterday" | English | 3 | 105 | |
| 08 | Daniel Kajmakoski | "Autumn Leaves" | English | 15 | 28 | |
| 09 | Bojana Stamenov | "Beauty Never Lies" | English | 9 | 63 | |
| 10 | Boggie | "Wars for Nothing" | English | 8 | 67 | |
| 11 | Uzari & Maimuna | "Time" | English | 12 | 39 | |
| 12 | Polina Gagarina | "A Million Voices" | English | 1 | 182 | |
| 13 | Anti Social Media | "The Way You Are" | English | 13 | 33 | |
| 14 | Elhaida Dani | "I'm Alive" | English | 10 | 62 | |
| 15 | Voltaj | "De la capăt" | Romanian, English | 5 | 89 | |
| 16 | Nina Sublatti | "Warrior" | English | 4 | 98 |
Semi-final 2
17 countries took part in this semi-final.,, and the voted in this semi-final. The ten songs in places 1 to 10 qualified for the final and are marked in orange.| Draw | Country | Artist | Song | Language | Place | Points |
| 01 | Monika Linkytė & Vaidas Baumila | "This Time" | English | 7 | 67 | |
| 02 | Molly Sterling | "Playing with Numbers" | English | 12 | 35 | |
| 03 | Anita Simoncini & Michele Perniola | "Chain of Lights" | English | 16 | 11 | |
| 04 | Knez | "Adio" | Montenegrin | 9 | 57 | |
| 05 | Amber | "Warrior" | English | 11 | 43 | |
| 06 | Mørland & Debrah Scarlett | "A Monster Like Me" | English | 4 | 123 | |
| 07 | Leonor Andrade | "Há um mar que nos separa" | Portuguese | 14 | 19 | |
| 08 | Marta Jandová & Václav Noid Bárta | "Hope Never Dies" | English | 13 | 33 | |
| 09 | Nadav Guedj | "Golden Boy" | English | 3 | 151 | |
| 10 | Aminata | "Love Injected" | English | 2 | 155 | |
| 11 | Elnur Huseynov | "Hour of the Wolf" | English | 10 | 53 | |
| 12 | Maria Olafs | "Unbroken" | English | 15 | 14 | |
| 13 | Måns Zelmerlöw | "Heroes" | English | 1 | 217 | |
| 14 | Mélanie René | "Time to Shine" | English | 17 | 4 | |
| 15 | John Karayiannis | "One Thing I Should Have Done" | English | 6 | 87 | |
| 16 | Maraaya | "Here for You" | English | 5 | 92 | |
| 17 | Monika Kuszyńska | "In the Name of Love" | English | 8 | 57 |
Final
As in the 2014 contest, the winner was announced as soon as it was mathematically impossible to catch up. In this case, the winner had been determined by the 36th vote, which came from Cyprus.| Draw | Country | Artist | Song | Language | Place | Points |
| 01 | Maraaya | "Here for You" | English | 14 | 39 | |
| 02 | Lisa Angell | "N'oubliez pas" | French | 25 | 4 | |
| 03 | Nadav Guedj | "Golden Boy" | English | 9 | 97 | |
| 04 | Elina Born & Stig Rästa | "Goodbye to Yesterday" | English | 7 | 106 | |
| 05 | Electro Velvet | "Still in Love with You" | English | 24 | 5 | |
| 06 | Genealogy | "Face the Shadow" | English | 16 | 34 | |
| 07 | Monika Linkytė & Vaidas Baumila | "This Time" | English | 18 | 30 | |
| 08 | Bojana Stamenov | "Beauty Never Lies" | English | 10 | 53 | |
| 09 | Mørland & Debrah Scarlett | "A Monster Like Me" | English | 8 | 102 | |
| 10 | Måns Zelmerlöw | "Heroes" | English | 1 | 365 | |
| 11 | John Karayiannis | "One Thing I Should Have Done" | English | 22 | 11 | |
| 12 | Guy Sebastian | "Tonight Again" | English | 5 | 196 | |
| 13 | Loïc Nottet | "Rhythm Inside" | English | 4 | 217 | |
| 14 | The Makemakes | "I Am Yours" | English | 26 | 0 | |
| 15 | Maria Elena Kyriakou | "One Last Breath" | English | 19 | 23 | |
| 16 | Knez | "Adio" | Montenegrin | 13 | 44 | |
| 17 | Ann Sophie | "Black Smoke" | English | 27 | 0 | |
| 18 | Monika Kuszyńska | "In the Name of Love" | English | 23 | 10 | |
| 19 | Aminata | "Love Injected" | English | 6 | 186 | |
| 20 | Voltaj | "De la capăt" | Romanian, English | 15 | 35 | |
| 21 | Edurne | "Amanecer" | Spanish | 21 | 15 | |
| 22 | Boggie | "Wars for Nothing" | English | 20 | 19 | |
| 23 | Nina Sublatti | "Warrior" | English | 11 | 51 | |
| 24 | Elnur Huseynov | "Hour of the Wolf" | English | 12 | 49 | |
| 25 | Polina Gagarina | "A Million Voices" | English | 2 | 303 | |
| 26 | Elhaida Dani | "I'm Alive" | English | 17 | 34 | |
| 27 | Il Volo | "Grande amore" | Italian | 3 | 292 |
;NOTES:
Scoreboard
Semi-final 1
12 points
Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points each country awarded to another in the first semi-final:| N. | Contestant | Nation giving 12 points |
| 5 | Austria, Belarus, Greece, Hungary, Romania | |
| 4 | Denmark, Finland, France, Netherlands | |
| 2 | Belgium, Russia | |
| 2 | Australia, Macedonia | |
| 1 | Georgia | |
| 1 | Spain | |
| 1 | Armenia | |
| 1 | Albania | |
| 1 | Estonia | |
| 1 | Serbia | |
| 1 | Moldova |
Semi-final 2
12 points
Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points each country awarded to another in the second semi-final:| N. | Contestant | Nation giving 12 points |
| 14 | Australia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Germany, Iceland, Israel, Latvia, Malta, Norway, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Slovenia, Switzerland | |
| 2 | Italy, United Kingdom | |
| 2 | Ireland, Lithuania | |
| 2 | Azerbaijan, Montenegro | |
| 1 | Sweden |
Final
This is the first time since the juries were reintroduced alongside the televoting in that the winner was not placed first in the televoting.12 points
Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points each country awarded to another in the final:| N. | Contestant | Nation giving 12 points |
| 12 | Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, Switzerland, United Kingdom | |
| 9 | Albania, Cyprus, Greece, Israel, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain | |
| 5 | Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Germany | |
| 3 | France, Hungary, Netherlands | |
| 3 | Ireland, Lithuania, San Marino | |
| 2 | Austria, Sweden | |
| 1 | Macedonia | |
| 1 | Georgia | |
| 1 | Czech Republic | |
| 1 | Serbia | |
| 1 | Moldova | |
| 1 | Montenegro |
Other countries
For a country to be eligible for potential participation in the Eurovision Song Contest, it needs to be an active member of the European Broadcasting Union. The EBU issued an invitation of participation for the 2015 Contest to all 56 active members. Thirty-nine countries confirmed their participation, whilst the following list of countries declined stating their reasons as shown below.Active EBU members
- – On 17 June 2014, Andorran broadcaster Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra confirmed that Andorra would not return to the contest in 2015.
- – The Bosnian broadcaster, Radio and Television of Bosnia and Herzegovina, had submitted a provisional application to participate in the 2015 Contest, whilst they determined how to fund the participation fees. This application was subject to change and participation could subsequently be withdrawn. On 17 November 2014, the broadcaster announced that they had withdrawn their application to participate at the forthcoming contest because of financial reasons.
- – Despite sending a preliminary application to participate, on 10 October 2014 the Bulgarian broadcaster Bulgarian National Television announced that it would not return to the contest because of financial reasons. On 31 October 2014, BNT confirmed that they had not yet taken a final decision on participation at the 2015 contest, and that the EBU had given them extra time to resolve outstanding budget issues. However, on 18 December 2014, BNT confirmed via their official Eurovision Twitter account that they would not take part in the 2015 Contest.
- – On 26 September 2014, Croatian national broadcaster Croatian Radiotelevision confirmed that Croatia would not participate in the 2015 contest.
- – Télé Liban confirmed on 15 September 2014 that Lebanon would not be making their debut in Vienna. Lebanon were initially going to make their debut at the 2005 contest, but they pulled out prior to the contest due to financial reasons.
- – On 31 July 2014, RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg confirmed that Luxembourg would not be returning to the contest in 2015. However, it was reported on 26 October 2014 that the country's Minister of Culture, Maggy Nagel, expressed her desire for the country to return to the contest. This was later confirmed by Nagel to be a "misunderstanding" and that the country would not be returning. A collaboration with San Marino had been proposed by the broadcaster SMRTV and singer Thierry Mersch, but later SMRTV clarified that there have only been talks between the two countries and the broadcaster is evaluating other proposals. However, on 24 November 2014, it was announced that Mersch had failed to raise the necessary funds in time for the project to move forward.
- – Monegasque broadcaster Télé Monte Carlo confirmed on 20 June 2014 that Monaco would not return to the contest in 2015.
- – Moroccan broadcaster Société Nationale de Radiodiffusion et de Télévision confirmed on 31 October 2014 that Morocco would not return to the contest in 2015.
- – On 26 August 2014, Radio and Television Slovakia announced that Slovakia would not return to the contest in 2015 because of financial restrictions and an incompatibility between the contest format and the programming goals of the broadcaster.
- – Though the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation announced that Turkey would not be participating in the for the second year in a row, it was later reported that a return in the 2015 Contest could be possible with Eurovision event supervisor Sietse Bakker tweeting about the possibility of the country's return. In late August 2014, it was reported that international public relations officer for TRT, Yağmur Tüzün, stated that Turkey would not be returning to the contest in 2015 and that TRT currently has no plans to return to the competition. The non-participation was further confirmed on 5 September 2014.
- – On 19 September 2014, Ukrainian broadcaster National Television Company of Ukraine announced that Ukraine would not be participating in the contest because of financial reasons and the ongoing armed conflict in the country. On 16 September 2015, it was announced that Ukraine would return to the contest in 2016.
Require active EBU membership
- – The Liechtenstein broadcaster 1FLTV suspended its plans to join the EBU because of lack of funding.
Incidents
Anti-booing technology
During the results, loud boos could be heard whenever Russia was mentioned or the country received one of the top three high points. The Russian entrant Polina Gagarina could be seen crying in the green room during the voting procedure, and this was reported by various media to have occurred as a result of the booing. During a break in the countries' reporting of their votes, when the running total showed Russia leading, Eurovision 2014 winner Conchita Wurst announced to Gagarina, "You gave an amazing performance, and you deserve to be in the lead." The Executive Supervisor of ESC, Jon Ola Sand, urged that Eurovision should be a "friendly battlefield....not a political battleground", and presenter Alice Tumler reminded the audience that "Our motto is 'Building Bridges', and music should stand over politics tonight...". The organisers had anticipated such reactions, and had prepared and installed 'anti-booing technology' which was deployed for the first time in Eurovision broadcasting history.Smoke machine malfunction
During the performance of Georgia in the grand final, a smoke machine malfunctioned, causing the Georgian entrant Nina Sublatti to disappear temporarily on the stage in a cloud of grey smoke.Macedonia and Montenegro jury results excluded
The jury votes from Macedonia and Montenegro in the final were not included, in accordance to the rulebook of the ESC. The rules for voting indicate that votes must be 50% jurors, 50% televoting, but Macedonia's and Montenegro's voting was 100% televoting. The final result of the contest was not affected.Other awards
The Marcel Bezençon Awards, the OGAE voting poll and the Barbara Dex Awards are awards that were contested by the entries competing at the Eurovision Song Contest 2015, in addition to the main winner's trophy.Marcel Bezençon Awards
The Marcel Bezençon Awards were first handed out during the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 in Tallinn, Estonia, honouring the best competing songs in the final. Founded by Christer Björkman and Richard Herrey, the awards are named after the creator of the annual competition, Marcel Bezençon. The awards were divided into three categories: Press Award, Artistic Award, and Composer Award. The winners were revealed shortly before the final on 23 May.| Category | Country | Song | Performer | Composer |
| Artistic Award | "Heroes" | Måns Zelmerlöw | Anton Malmberg Hård af Segerstad, Joy Deb, Linnea Deb | |
| Composer Award | "A Monster Like Me" | Mørland & Debrah Scarlett | Kjetil Mørland | |
| Press Award | "Grande amore" | Il Volo | Francesco Boccia, Ciro Esposito |
OGAE
Organisation Générale des Amateurs de l'Eurovision is an international organisation that was founded in 1984 in Savonlinna, Finland by Jari-Pekka Koikkalainen. The organisation consists of a network of over 40 Eurovision Song Contest fan clubs across Europe and beyond, and is a non-governmental, non-political, and non-profit company. In what has become an annual tradition for the OGAE fan clubs, a voting poll ran from 1 May 2015 and ended on 10 May 2015, allowing members from forty clubs to vote for their favourite songs of the 2015 contest. The table below shows the top five overall results, after votes from forty-one OGAE clubs had been cast.| Country | Performer | Song | OGAE result |
| Il Volo | "Grande amore" | 367 | |
| Måns Zelmerlöw | "Heroes" | 338 | |
| Elina Born & Stig Rästa | "Goodbye to Yesterday" | 274 | |
| Mørland & Debrah Scarlett | "A Monster Like Me" | 243 | |
| Maraaya | "Here for You" | 228 |
Barbara Dex Award
The Barbara Dex Award, annually awarded by the fan website House of Eurovision, is a humorous award given to the worst dressed artist each year in the contest. It is named after the Belgian artist, Barbara Dex, who came last in the 1993 contest, in which she wore a dress she designed herself.| Place | Country | Performer | Votes |
| 1 | Trijntje Oosterhuis | 1,324 | |
| 2 | Bojana Stamenov | 605 | |
| 3 | Electro Velvet | 397 | |
| 4 | Elhaida Dani | 263 | |
| 5 | Voltaj | 237 |
International broadcasts and voting
It was reported by the EBU that the 2015 Contest was viewed by a worldwide television audience of a record breaking 197 million viewers, beating the 2014 record which was viewed by 195 million.Voting and spokespersons
The voting order was revealed the morning of the final, and for the only time in Eurovision history to date, the names of all the spokespersons were displayed onscreen. However, because of technical problems in some countries the final voting order was the following:- – Andrea Demirović
- – Julie Zahra
- – Krista Siegfrids
- – Helena Paparizou
- – Sonia Argint Ionescu
- – Teo
- – Andri Xhahu
- – Olivia Furtună
- – Tural Asadov
- – Markus Riva
- – Maja Nikolić
- – Basim
- – Laetitia Guarino
- – Walid
- – Virginie Guilhaume
- – Lilit Muradyan
- – Nicky Byrne
- – Mariette Hansson
- – Barbara Schöneberger
- – Lee Lin Chin
- – Daniela Písařovicová
- – Lara Siscar
- – Kati Bellowitsch
- – Marko Mark
- – Tinkara Kovač
- – Csilla Tatár
- – Nigella Lawson
- – Ugnė Galadauskaitė
- – Edsilia Rombley
- – Ola Ciupa
- – Ofer Nachshon
- – Dmitry Shepelev
- – Valentina Monetta
- – Federico Russo
- – Sigríður Halldórsdóttir
- – Loukas Hamatsos
- – Margrethe Røed
- – Suzy
- – Tanja
- – Natia Bunturi
1. Portugal, Estonia and Georgia were originally scheduled to announce their votes as the 5th, 13th and 30th countries, respectively, but instead voted 38th, 39th and 40th, respectively, after all the other countries announced their votes. The reason for this was technical difficulties in the minutes running up to the voting presentation.
Commentators
Most countries sent commentators to Vienna or commentated from their own country, in order to add insight to the participants and, if necessary, the provision of voting information.- Albania – Andri Xhahu
- Armenia – Aram Mp3 and Erik Antaranyan ; Vahe Khanamiryan and Hermine Stepanyan ; Avet Barseghyan and Arevik Udumyan
- Australia – Julia Zemiro and Sam Pang
- Austria – Andi Knoll
- Azerbaijan – Kamran Guliyev
- Belarus – Evgeny Perlin
- Belgium – Dutch: Peter Van de Veire and Eva Daeleman ; French: Jean-Louis Lahaye and Maureen Louys ; Olivier Gilain
- Cyprus – Melina Karageorgiou
- Czech Republic – Aleš Háma
- Denmark – Ole Tøpholm ; Sign language performers
- Estonia – Marko Reikop ; Mart Juur and Andrus Kivirähk
- Finland – Finnish: Aino Töllinen and Cristal Snow, Swedish: Eva Frantz and Johan Lindroos
- France – Mareva Galanter and Jérémy Parayre ; Stéphane Bern and Marianne James
- Georgia – Lado Tatishvili and Tamuna Museridze
- Germany – Peter Urban ; Sign language performers
- Greece – Maria Kozakou and Giorgos Kapoutzidis
- Hungary – Gábor Gundel Takács
- Iceland – Felix Bergsson
- Ireland – Marty Whelan ; Shay Byrne and Zbyszek Zalinski
- Israel – Hebrew/Arabic subtitles ; Kobi Menora ; Yuval Caspin ; Tal Argaman
- Italy – Marco Ardemagni and Filippo Solibello and second semi-final ; Federico Russo and Valentina Correani
- Latvia – Valters Frīdenbergs ; Toms Grēviņš
- Lithuania – Darius Užkuraitis
- Macedonia – Macedonian: Karolina Petkovska ; Albanian: TBC
- Malta – Corazon Mizzi
- Moldova – Daniela Babici
- Montenegro – Dražen Bauković and Tijana Mišković
- Netherlands – Cornald Maas and Jan Smit
- Norway – Olav Viksmo-Slettan ; Ronny Brede Aase, Silje Reiten Nordnes and Markus Ekrem Neby ; Per Sundnes ; Sign language performers
- Poland – Artur Orzech, TVP Rozrywka and TVP HD
- Portugal – Hélder Reis and Ramon Galarza, second semi-final and final )
- Romania – Bogdan Stănescu
- Russia – Yana Churikova and Yuriy Aksyuta
- San Marino – Lia Fiorio and Gigi Restivo
- Serbia – Duška Vučinić ; Silvana Grujić
- Slovenia – Andrej Hofer
- Spain – José María Íñigo and Julia Varela and Clan
- Sweden – Sanna Nielsen and Edward af Sillén ; Carolina Norén and Ronnie Ritterland
- Switzerland – German: Sven Epiney ; Peter Schneider and Gabriel Vetter ; French: Jean-Marc Richard and Nicolas Tanner ; Italian: Clarissa Tami and Paolo Meneguzzi
- United Kingdom – Scott Mills and Mel Giedroyc ; Ana Matronic, second semi-final ); Graham Norton ; Ken Bruce
Non-participating countries
- Bulgaria – Elena Rosberg and Georgi Kushvaliev
- Canada – Tommy D. and Adam Rollins
- China – Kubert Leung and Wu Zhoutong
- New Zealand – No commentary
- Slovakia – Daniel Baláž, Pavol Hubinák and Juraj Malíček
- Ukraine – Timur Miroshnychenko and Tetiana Terekhova
Official album