European Music Festival 2016

The European Music Festival 2016 was the first edition of the annual European Music Festival, organised by BBC and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). It was held on 16 October 2016, at the O2 Arena in London, United Kingdom. It was the first time United Kingdom had hosted the contest. Eighteen countries participated in the contest, while all the countries were debuting.

Poland's Margaret with the song “Cool Me Down” was the winner of the contest. This was Poland’s first victory in the contest, as well as the first country to win in the history of the contest. Sweden and Denmarkfinished in second and third place. Ukraine and Israel completed the top five, with the former finishing fourth and fifth. Lithuania finished last.

Bidding phase and host city selection
United Kingdom was chosen to host the first edition. The country was confirmed as the host country on 2 January 2016. Few days later London was announced as the host city of the contest and that the broadcaster will host the contest at the 20,000 capacity O2 Arena venue. On 20 February 2016 EBU and host broadcaster BBC announced that the contest will be held on 16 October 2016.

Hosts
On 1 July 2016, it was announced that Amanda Holden, Graham Norton and Nigella Lawson would host the contest.

Voting
The results will be determined by 50% online voting and 50% jury voting. The online voting is taking place during the live show and starts after the last performance and is open for 15 minutes. International viewers could vote for one country three Times from one phone number. The other half of the points was determined by a national jury from every participating country. These points are then announced live during the programme by a spokesperson representing the participating country. The spokespersons give out the points from each of the participating country.

Running order
The draw for the running order of the contest was held on 10 October in London after the Opening Ceremony, with Ukraine drawn to open the contest and Spain drawn to close.

Participating countries
On 10 March 2016, the EBU released the official list of participants with 18 competing countries.