The Sound Of Europe 6 was the 6th edition of the Sound Of Europe. It took place in Groupama Arena, Budapest, Hungary, following Hungary's victory with Gigi Radics and her song "Over You". This was the first time that Hungary hosted the contest. The 6th edition consisted of two semi-finals, which took place on 3 December 2015, and a final, held on 10 December 2015. The shows were presented by Wolf Kati and Viktor Kiraly while Oroszlan Szonja was hosting the green room. Forty-four countries participated in the 6th edition.
Once all the votes had been announced, based on 50% jury and 50% televoting, Israel won the contest, with Ishtar Alabina's song "Last Kiss".
Location[]
Budapest is the capital and most populous city of Hungary, one of the largest cities in the European Union and sometimes described as the primate city of Hungary. It has an area of 525 square kilometres (203 square miles) and a population of about 1.8 million within the administrative limits in 2016. It is both a city and county, and forms the centre of the Budapest Metropolitan Area, which has an area of 7,626 square kilometres (2,944 square miles) and a population of 3.3 million, comprising 33 percent of the population of Hungary. Budapest became a single city occupying both banks of the Danube river with the unification of Buda and Óbuda on the west bank, with Pest on the east bank on November 17, 1873.
Venue[]
The contest took place in Groupama Arena in Budapest, following Hungary's victory at the 5th edition of the contest in Paris with the song "Over You", performed by Gigi Radics. The Groupama Arena has a capacity of approximately 23,698 attendees. Groupama Arena is the second largest stadium in Hungary after Ferenc Puskás Stadium and it is the home venue of one of the most famous sports club in Hungary, Ferencvárosi TC. The stadium lies on the ground of Albert Flórián Stadium, the club's former stadium, which was demolished in 2013.
Format[]
The edition consisted of two semi-finals and a final. The ten countries with the highest scores in all semi-finals qualified to the final.
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 jury's 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 1 point.
Running order[]
The final running order of the competing performances at the semi-finals and the final were decided by the producer of the show and approved by the Executive Producer, the Executive Supervisor, the CBU and the Reference Group.
Presenters[]
On 20 September 2015, MTV announced that Wolf Kati and Viktor Kiraly were the hosts of the 6th edition. Oroszlan Szonja was also chosen as host of the green room.
National host broadcaster[]
During an initial meeting between the host broadcaster MTV and CBU (Contest Broadcasting Union) in 24 November 2015, the representatives of the core organising team were selected. Merfi Amadeus was announced as the executive producer and Kostas Bouris as the executive supervisor.
Participants[]
45 countries will participate in the edition. The edition consisted of two semi-finals with 20 countries, from which the 10 with the highest scores qualified, and a final. Two countries returned to the contest; San Marino and Sweden, who last took part in the 4th edition, returned to the contest after a one-edition break.However, one country withdrew from the edition; Cyprus, due to the big cost of the participation.
Big 5[]
| Country | Artist | Song | Language |
|---|---|---|---|
 Hungary
|
Antal Timi | Elég | Hungarian |
 United Kingdom
|
Fleur East | Sax | English |
 Sweden
|
Mariette | If Only I Can | English |
 Romania
|
Inna | Yalla | English, Arabic |
 Portugal
|
Rosa Negra | Fado Ladino | Portuguese |
Results[]
Semi-final 1[]
20 countries took part in the first semi-final. The ten songs in places 1 to 10 qualified for the final and are marked in orange. Hungary, United Kingdom and Romania voted from the Big 5.
| Draw | Country | Artist | Song | Place | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 |  Austria
|
GuGabriel | Salvation | 3 | 90 |
| 02 |  Russia
|
Alex Sparrow | Sumasshedshaya | 8 | 71 |
| 03 |  Poland
|
Honey | Sabotaz | 12 | 53 |
| 04 |  San Marino
|
Giorgia | Quando Una Stella Muore | 11 | 57 |
| 05 |  Bulgaria
|
Anelia | Iskam Te Poludyavam | 16 | 30 |
| 06 |  Monaco
|
Louane | Nos Secrets | 9 | 66 |
| 07 |  Slovakia
|
Celeste Buckingham | I'm Not Sorry | 7 | 71 |
| 08 |  Belgium
|
Elisa Tovati ft. Tom Dice | Il Nous Faut | 4 | 85 |
| 09 |  Latvia
|
Aminata Savadogo | Leave My Love Bleeding | 14 | 53 |
| 10 |  Azerbaijan
|
Emin ft. Olivia Culpo | Amor | 6 | 79 |
| 11 |  Turkey
|
Hadise | Biz Burdayiz | 15 | 50 |
| 12 |  Iceland
|
Hera Björk | Because You Can | 5 | 85 |
| 13 |  Malta
|
Ira Losco | The Way It's Meant To Be | 2 | 105 |
| 14 |  Finland
|
Jenni Vartiainen | Ihmisten Edessä | 13 | 53 |
| 15 |  Armenia
|
Tess Bell | Stress | 10 | 65 |
| 16 |  Norway
|
Fender Heist ft. Frôder | Fighter | 1 | 140 |
| 17 |  Bosnia-Herzegovina
|
Damir Imamović ft. Sevdah | Hajrija | 17 | 22 |
| 18 |  FYR Macedonia
|
Darko Ilievski ft. Magdalena | Pepel | 19 | 15 |
| 19 |  Georgia
|
Debi Gogochurebi | Mountain Song | 18 | 21 |
Semi-final 2[]
20 countries took part in the second semi-final. The ten songs in places 1 to 10 qualified for the final and are marked in orange. Hungary, Sweden and Portugal voted from the Big 5.
| Draw | Country | Artist | Song | Place | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 |  Montenegro
|
Edita | I've Come To Life | 11 | 61 |
| 02 |  Denmark
|
Amaranthe | Drop Dead Cynical | 8 | 70 |
| 03 |  Ukraine
|
Sasha Ray | Bol Ljubov | 10 | 66 |
| 04 |  Germany
|
Cascada | Everytime We Touch | 4 | 81 |
| 05 |  Spain
|
Natalia Jiménez | Creo En Mi | 3 | 82 |
| 06 |  Israel
|
Ishtar Alabina | Last Kiss | 5 | 76 |
| 07 |  Slovenia
|
Eva Boto | Na Kožo Pisana | 13 | 56 |
| 08 |  Moldova
|
Dan Balan | Funny Love | 20 | 39 |
| 09 |  Serbia
|
Petra Kovacevic | Buka Galama | 2 | 92 |
| 10 |  Greece
|
Carte Postale | Rio | 9 | 69 |
| 11 |  Estonia
|
Kerli | Army Of Love | 12 | 56 |
| 12 |  Czech Republic
|
Verona | Ztracená Bloudím | 18 | 42 |
| 13 |  Belarus
|
Alyona Lanskaya | Speak | 14 | 51 |
| 14 |  Italy
|
Chiara | Straordinario | 1 | 104 |
| 15 |  Netherlands
|
Sharon Doorson | Electrify | 7 | 74 |
| 16 |  Ireland
|
Markus Feehily | Butterfly | 16 | 46 |
| 17 |  France
|
Mylène Farmer | Bleu Noir | 15 | 51 |
| 18 |  Lithuania
|
Evelina Anusauskaitė | Alone | 6 | 75 |
| 19 |  Croatia
|
Jelena Rozga | Tsunami | 19 | 40 |
| 20 |  Albania
|
Rona Nishliu & Zana Jaha | Zonja Vdekje | 17 | 45 |
Final[]
| Draw | Country | Artist | Song | Place | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | United Kingdom
|
Fleur East | Sax | 9 | 110 |
| 02 | Italy
|
Chiara | Straordinario | 4 | 129 |
| 03 | Ukraine
|
Sasha Ray | Bol Ljubi | 20 | 80 |
| 04 | Belgium
|
Elisa Tovati ft. Tom Dice | Il Nous Faut | 17 | 91 |
| 05 | Norway
|
Fender Heist feat. Frôder | Fighter | 5 | 125 |
| 06 | Germany
|
Cascada | Everytime We Touch | 3 | 153 |
| 07 | Malta
|
Ira Losco | The Way It's Meant To Be | 10 | 108 |
| 08 | Russia
|
Alex Sparrow | Sumasshedshaya | 11 | 103 |
| 09 | Spain
|
Natalia Jiménez | Creo En Mi | 2 | 156 |
| 10 | Lithuania
|
Evelina Anusauskaitė | Alone | 22 | 78 |
| 11 | Israel
|
Ishtar Alabina | Last Kiss | 1 | 166 |
| 12 | Greece
|
Carte Postale | Rio | 6 | 124 |
| 13 | Austria
|
GuGabriel | Salvation | 8 | 111 |
| 14 | Armenia
|
Tess Bell | Stress | 16 | 92 |
| 15 | Hungary
|
Antal Timi | Elég | 24 | 55 |
| 16 | Denmark
|
Amaranthe | Drop Dead Cynical | 19 | 82 |
| 17 | Monaco
|
Louane | Nos Secrets | 12 | 101 |
| 18 | Serbia
|
Petra Kovacevic | Buka Galama | 14 | 95 |
| 19 | Romania
|
Inna | Yalla | 7 | 122 |
| 20 | Azerbaijan
|
Emin ft. Olivia Culpo | Amor | 25 | 51 |
| 21 | Iceland
|
Hera Björk | Because You Can | 15 | 95 |
| 22 | Portugal
|
Rosa Negra | Fado Latino | 21 | 79 |
| 23 | Sweden
|
Mariette | If Only I Can | 23 | 62 |
| 24 | Slovakia
|
Celeste Buckingham | I'm Not Sorry | 13 | 100 |
| 25 | Netherlands
|
Sharon Doorson | Electrify | 18 | 84 |
Other countries[]
Andorra - Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra (RTVA) announced that the country would not participate in the 6th edition of the Sound Of Europe.
Cyprus - CyBC announced the country's withdrawal from the contest because of the big cost associated with the participation.
Incidents[]
Swiss disqualification[]
Switzerland with "Together Forever" by Eliane was DSQ, because the song was released prior the submission deadline set by CBU. This lead to Switzerland's disqualification. Switzerland was placed in the 1st semi-final.