was launched in 2004.

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Building Bridges

The slogan for the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest was Building Bridges. The theme artwork featured spheres and wave-shapes, symbolising unity as well as diversity. The colours reflected individualism and at the same time building musical bridges, the diversity of the artists, variety of songs and the diverse audience. Australia made its debut whilst Ukraine withdrew from the contest due to the on-going conflict in the country.

The Grand Final

27 countries competed in the Grand Final of the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest, the largest number ever. 10 qualifiers from each of the Semi-Finals, the so-called Big Five as well as hosts Austria and special guest Australia all took to the stage. The voting was tense with the three big favourites, Russia, Sweden and Italy battlingit out for victory. Sweden's Måns Zermelöw took the trophy with his song Heroes meaning that the Eurovision Song Contest would be hosted by Sweden for the second time in three years.

Facts and figures

There was considerable interest in hosting the Eurovision Song Contest in Austria and three cities were short-listed; Vienna, Innsbruck and Graz.

Over 200 million watched the live shows in 2015

Both Germany and Austria scored zero points - Austria became the first host country ever to do so

The top two countries were the exact same as the top two in 2012; Sweden and Russia

Results from FYR Macedonia and Montenegro were based on full televoting - this did not affect the results

This is the sixth time that Sweden has won the Eurovision Song Contest, only Ireland has won