The Netherlands wins Eurovision Song Contest 2019
18 May 2019Dutch EBU Member AVROTROS has won the 64th Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Arcade” performed by Duncan Laurence. It's the 5th win for the Netherlands who last triumphed in 1975.
26 countries took part in the Grand Final of the world’s largest live music event, hosted by Israeli EBU Member KAN on Saturday 18 May in Tel Aviv.
Duncan Laurence, Joel Sjöö and Wouter Hardy wrote the winning song which finished the night with 498 points, 26 points ahead of 2nd placed Italy represented by Mahmood singing "Soldi". Russia's Sergey Lazarev with "Scream” finished in third place.
Following the performances of the 26 Grand Finalists, the results of the juries in the 41 participating nations who voted on Friday’s dress rehearsal were given out leaving Sweden in the lead.
This was followed by an exciting, tense sequence where viewers’ televotes for each competing country were combined and added to the scoreboard resulting in a thrilling finale that saw The Netherlands leap to the top.
An estimated audience of nearly 200 million will have seen this year's Contest which was broadcast live in the 41 participating countries and online on YouTube.
The 26 finalists performed live in front of an audience of over 7,000 inside the Expo Tel Aviv. In total, 41 EBU Members competed in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. 15 nations were knocked out in two Semi-Finals held on 14 and 16 May.
Jon Ola Sand, the EBU's Head of Live Events and Executive Supervisor of the ESC, said: "I have been so delighted with this year’s competition and we have all been very impressed with the wonderful talented artists who have taken part this year, and I would like to thank them for the hard work and dedication they have given us.
“Each artist has brought something unique to the Contest and embodied what this contest is about. Our host broadcaster KAN has put on a spectacular show this year, using state of the art technology. We thank them for their enthusiasm and creativity in making the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 the best yet!
“Now we start planning for 2020 with next year’s host broadcasters NOS, NPO and AVROTROS as we look forward to what I am sure will be another incredible contest next year.”
The Grand Final also saw a plethora of past winners and performers join together to sing each other’s songs as well as a performance by Madonna of her latest track “Future” and classic hit “Like A Prayer”.
Nearly 5,000 people worked on producing this year's Contest. 23 cameras, 232 microphones and 2,100 lighting fixtures were used on the production.
Around 1,250 journalists were also in the host city Tel Aviv to cover the event.
The Grand Final of the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest was broadcast live in all 41 participating nations by EBU Members RTSH (Albania), ORF (Austria), PTV (Armenia), ICTIMAI (Azerbaijan), BTRC (Belarus), VRT (Belgium), RTBF (Belgium), HRT (Croatia), CyBC (Cyprus), ČT (Czech Republic), DR (Denmark), ERR (Estonia), YLE (Finland), France Télévisions (France), GPB (Georgia), ARD (Germany), ERT (Greece), MTV (Hungary), RÚV (Iceland), RTÉ (Ireland), KAN (Israel), RAI (Italy), LTV (Latvia), LRT (Lithuania), MRT (North Macedonia), PBS (Malta), TRM (Moldova), RTCG (Montenegro), AVROTROS (The Netherlands), NRK (Norway), TVP (Poland), RTP (Portugal), TVR (Romania), RTR (Russia), SMRTV (San Marino), RTS (Serbia), RTVSLO (Slovenia), RTVE (Spain), SVT (Sweden), SRG SSR (Switzerland), BBC (United Kingdom) and Associate Member SBS (Australia).
13 EBU Radio Members broadcast the Grand Final live: ORF (Austria), NDR, SWR (Germany), RTÉ (Ireland), RAI (Italy), LR (Lithuania), RS (Serbia), RTVS (Slovakia), RTVSLO (Slovenia), RTVE (Spain), SR (Sweden), UA:PBC (Ukraine), and the BBC (United Kingdom).
The 2019 Eurovision Song Contest was a co-production between the EBU and KAN.
The full list and profiles of participants for the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest, with high resolution photos, can be found on the official website, Eurovision.tv.
Relevant links and documents
Contact
Dave Goodman
Digital and Communications Manager - Eurovision Song Contest and Junior Eurovision Song Contest