Shortly before the Grand Final of the 61st Eurovision Song Contest took place at Stockholm’s Globe Arena last Saturday, the 3 winners of the 2016 Marcel Bezençon Awards were revealed in a special ceremony.

Since 2002, an annual Marcel Bezençon Awards ceremony, named after the creator of the Eurovision Song Contest, has taken place before the Grand Final of the competition in which all of the year’s competing artist are nominated in each of the 3 award categories. Currently, the awards are divided into the following 3 categories;

• Press Award: The entry receiving the highest amount of votes from accredited press during the event.
• Composer Award: The entry receiving the highest amount of votes from participating composers.
• Artistic Award: The entry receiving the highest amount of votes from television commentators.

Before the Grand Final of the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest took place on Saturday, a special presentation ceremony took place in which the winners of the 3 awards from this year were revealed and presented their individual awards.

As voted for by the accredited press, it was Russia’s Sergey Lazarev who was voted as the winner of the Press Award this year for his entry You are the only one. Lazarev went on to receive a total of 491 points at the Grand Final, finishing in a respectable 3rd place.

Receiving the Composer Award for producing the best and most original composition of the 2016 competition was David Musumeci and Anthony Egizi, the songwriters behind Australia’s successful entry Sound of silence, performed by Dami Im.

However, it was the winner of the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest who went on to win the Artistic Award as voted for by the commentators; Jamala with her entry 1944.

All of the winning artists at this year’s Marcel Bezençon Awards went on to place in the top 3 of the 61st Eurovision Song Contest; Russia in third, Australia in second and Ukraine in first.

Although members of the public are no longer able to have their vote in the Marcel Bezençon Awards, another award is currently being decided for the worst dressed contestant from the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest; the Barbara Dex Award. Everyone is invited to vote in the 20th annual Barbara Dex Award up until the 21 May at 12:00 CEST, before the winner is revealed the following day.