The champagne was flowing in Stockholm last night when it was announced that Swedish broadcaster SVT’s broadcast of the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 had won Sweden’s prestigious Kristallen television award for Entertainment Programme of the Year.
The show was SVT’s nomination in the Entertainment Programme category, facing stiff competition from the celebrity dancing show Let’s Dance and the popular music show Så mycket bättre, among others. But in the end, it was Eurovision 2016 that took the award, with show producer and co-writer Edward af Sillén accepting the crystal shard in honour of the Eurovision team’s huge achievement.
Tonight we won a Swedish Emmy Award (Kristallen) for Best Tv Show Entertainment, for Eurovision 2016! Proud & happy! pic.twitter.com/GWzRgbfp1A
— Edward af Sillén (@EdwardafSillen) September 4, 2016
But there’d been a worrying start to the evening when the nominees opened the official programme and discovered they’d been left off the list.
Edward af Sillén posted a pic to social media of Christer Björkman posing with the hilarious omission. Edward joked, “Good start, Kristallen – we arrive at the gala, look in the program, and see that you simply deleted us from our category! Now we feel extra welcome!”
However, SVT’s two other Eurovision nominees didn’t fare so well. Måns Zelmerlöw had been nominated for Male Presenter of the Year for his role hosting Eurovision, and Gina Dirawi had been nominated for Female Presenter of the Year for her work hosting Melodifestivalen 2016 and Studio Eurovision.
Those two awards were determined by audience vote, and neither Måns nor Gina gained enough votes to win. But the overall win of Eurovision 2016 no doubts reflects well on both of them.
SVT’s Eurovision hosting had also been nominated for Kristallen in 2013, where it lost out to Så mycket bättre.
Eurovision 2016 has also been nominated for the international Rose d’Or award, due to be announced in Germany next Tuesday.
Interesting article by the way. One thing I wonder about, has ESC been awarded any prize / been nominated for a prize for music TV program this year? That would be even better, than obtaining a prize for the best entertainment show. Still very good though. Not that I want to sound negative. But sometimes I think the camerawork didn’t do some of the songs the right favour. A bit too messy, all over the place. It’s nice to see the beautiful stage design too. But I think the focus should be more on the singers and the the muscians.… Read more »
The debate around the intended “gay jokes” is interesting. And probably needed. I can only echo what the critical voices said. Banter or not. Let me add, humour is a very individual thing. What might be considered funny for Swedes, might not be as fun in Moldova or Switzerland. Humour is a great thing, but needs to transcend well. Moreover, personally I felt they lost the intention. They tried to be inclusive. Not a bad thought as such. But inclusive for everyone? Hardly so! In the eagerness of trying to be inclusive, they ended up as un-inclusive for many people.… Read more »
And I feel for all the fans – and casual viewers – which can’t relate to those attempts of jokes at all. Too bad, as some of the other Petra / Edward-jokes are really funny
And I feel for all the fans – and casual viewers – which can’t relate to those attempts of jokes at all. Too bad, as some of the other Petra / Edward-jokes are really funny
I’m not really a fan of the gay jokes myself. They are subtle, but I really feel for all the 13 year olds on the couch with their parents blushing awkwardly.
@Robyn Gallagher
Thank you very much, dear. 🙂
@Robyn. It’s first of all a music contest. The visuals are only extras. Like some extra sauce over the meat for dinner 🙂 Some of the Petta jokes were funny, agreed. But those “gay jokes” are so stupid. Satire or not, it gives an indication any male esc fan is gay. Nothing wrong with being gay, and especially many male fans who go to see ESC live are gay. Yet – such stereotypes just underestimate the fact that ESC is a contest for all kinds of people, having all kinds of fans. The key to the success of ESC from… Read more »
Congratulation to Edward af Sillen and his team for winning the Crystal Award for ESC 2016. Unfortunately it wasn’t possible to vote for Måns Zelmerlöw outside Sweden yesterday as it was to get him nominated earlier. Otherwise he would have certaily won a (well deserved) Crystal Award as well yesterday evening!
Well deserved? Well, if you say so 😉
Of course – speaking from an ESC-fan perspective, it is desverved. Personally, I’m not a fan of Petra Mede nor the scripts by Edward af Sillien. And I think the Swedish productions are way OTT.
An ESC-final never gets any better than the actual songs takling part anyway.
Well deserved, Grattis SVT 🙂
The competition was really strong this year, I felt any of the nominees could have won and be a worthy winner.
But it was worth it. And more! It was a spectacle from start to finish with every single second being enjoyable.
Wiwibloggs, some commenters have a picture instead of a “little monster” (or whatever those are) which appears along with their posts. How do I get one too?
Please, answer 🙂
(Sorry for being off topic)
Petra wasn’t as bad this year, as in 2013. She seemed more “friendly”, less diva-ish. The presenters had some stereostypical comments (about ESC-fans) they should have left out though. Aside from that, I liked most of the humour. I think the final was very well produced. Nice stage, presentation and pause interval. At least in the final itself. The level of songs were good, with some original songs standing out. But sometimes it was almost as much about visuals as music. Which often is a problem when it comes to Sweden in ESC. Pors and cons added – congrats with… Read more »