Being Zelmerlöw's third participation in the selection, "Heroes" participated in the fourth semi-final of the 2015 edition of the Melodifestivalen which was held in Örebro's Conventum Arena on 28 February 2015.[8] The song was performed last at the fourth semi-final. It directly qualified to the final as it got one of the first two places.[9][10]
Right after the second chance, the running order of the final was revealed with "Heroes" being performed at the sixth position. "Heroes" won the selection with 122 points from the international jury and 166 points from the public, receiving 288 points in total, a record under the current voting system. The entry also beat the second placed song with a record margin of 149 points.[4][5][11][12]
On 21 May 2015, the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest was held in the Wiener Stadthalle (Hall D) in Vienna hosted by Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF) and broadcast live throughout the continent. Zelmerlöw performed "Heroes" thirteenth on the evening. After the grand final it was revealed that it had received in its semi-final 217 points, placing first and qualifying for the grand final.[14] On 23 May 2015, he performed the song again in the grand final tenth on the evening.[15]
"Heroes" won the contest with a total of 365 points.[16] It is the third-highest-scoring song in the history of the contest from 1975 to 2015 (and fifth-highest if results from 2016 are converted to the older system).[17] It is also the first winning song, since the introduction of the split jury-televoting system in 2009, that has not won the televoting.[citation needed] "Heroes" defeated a record number of twenty-six other songs in the final, as it was the largest Eurovision Song Contest final ever with twenty-seven participating countries. "Heroes" received the highest percentage of possible points compared to any other Eurovision winner of the 2010 to 2019 decade.[18]
Aftermath
As the winning broadcaster, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) gave SVT the responsibility to host the following edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. The contest was co-host by Zelmerlöw himself, who opened the first semi-final on 10 May 2016 performing "Heroes".[19] On 18 May 2019, in the 'Switch Song' interval act during the grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 held in Tel Aviv, Conchita Wurst performed "Heroes".[20] On 22 May 2021, the interval act "Rock the Roof" in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 grand final features "Heroes" performed by Zelmerlöw.[21]
Critical reception
Writing in The Independent, Kiran Moodley compared the song with David Guetta's "Lovers on the Sun", concluding "the resemblance is uncanny."[22] Writing for the same outlet in 2022, Ben Kelly named it 36th best Eurovision-winning song of all time, describing it as "a David Guetta production with slightly underwhelming country-style verses".[23]
