The Eurovision Song Contest 2016 was the 61st edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It consisted of two semi-finals on 10 and 12 May and a final on 14 May 2016, held at the Ericsson Globe in Stockholm, Sweden, and presented by Petra Mede and Måns Zelmerlöw. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT), which staged the event after winning the 2015 contest for Sweden with the song "Heroes" by Zelmerlöw himself.

Broadcasters from forty-two countries participated in the contest. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, and Ukraine returned after absences from recent contests, while Australia also continued participating after debuting as a special guest in 2015. Portugal did not enter, largely due to Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP)'s insufficient promotion of its music-based media, while Televiziunea Română (TVR) had planned to participate for Romania, but it was disqualified due to repeated non-payment of debts to the EBU.

The winner was Ukraine with the song "1944", performed and written by Jamala. Australia, Russia, Bulgaria, and host country Sweden rounded out the top five. This was the first time since the introduction of professional jury voting in 2009 that the overall winner won neither the jury vote, which was won by Australia, nor the televote, which was won by Russia, with Ukraine placing second in both. "1944" is the first song containing lyrics in Crimean Tatar to win the contest. The Czech Republic managed to qualify for the final for the first time in five attempts since its debut in 2007, while both Bosnia and Herzegovina and Greece failed to qualify from the semi-finals for the first time, the latter being absent from the final for the first time since 2000. In the final, Australia's second-place finish was an improvement on its fifth-place finish in 2015, while Bulgaria finished fourth, its best result since its debut and first participation in a final since 2007.

The contest was the first to implement a voting system change since 1975: each country's professional jury points were announced largely as before, while the results of each national televote were combined and announced in reverse order. It was also the first contest to be broadcast on live television in the United States, and the EBU recorded a record-breaking 204 million viewers for the contest, beating the 2015 viewing figures by over 5 million.

The contest took place in the Ericsson Globe in Stockholm, following Sweden's victory at the 2015 contest. The Ericsson Globe has a capacity of approximately 16,000 attendees, and this was the second time the contest has been staged at the venue, after the Eurovision Song Contest 2000.

Host broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT) announced on 24 May, the day after winning the 2015 contest, that the Tele2 Arena in Stockholm was their first choice venue. However, other cities and arenas were invited to apply, and those making a bid had approximately three weeks to submit their offer to SVT.

SVT announced on 1 June the conditions under which cities and venues could announce their interest in hosting the contest:

An announcement regarding the venue was expected from SVT by midsummer, with the Ericsson Globe announced as the venue on 8 July.