"Be original"
| Universong 60 | |
|---|---|
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Date |
18 December 2013 - 5 January 2014 |
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Host city |
Orebro, |
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Participants |
44 |
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Debuting countries |
None |
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Returning countries |
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Withdrawing countries |
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Winner |
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Timeline |
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Universong 60 was the 60th staging of the Universong Contest. It was held in Orebro, Sweden, from December 18th, 2013 to January 5th, 2014. This is the fourth time Sweden hosts the contest, this time after the winning of Laleh with the song "Colours", the previous edition in Nokia, Finland.
As every ten editions, the Universong Contest is engaged in a special edition. In this ocassion, and after a brainstorm made by all the members of the Facebook group, the administrators internally decided the special theme according to the ideas exposed during the brainstorm period. The chosen theme was '90s songs.
As in every special edition, some special rules were released. In this case, all the participating songs must have been released from January 1st, 1990 to December 31st, 1999. The rest of the rules (no worldwide superhits, no covers, no remixes) were still inforced.
Big artists were sent in this special edition, for instance Spanish acts Monica Naranjo (representing Spain) and Mecano (representing Andorra), Latin divas Shakira for Colombia and Thalia for Mexico, German band Rammstein, Greek diva Despina Vandi, Iceland's Björk and Italy's Umberto Tozzi, amongst others. Even though, the winner of this 60th edition was. for the very first time, the United States, after an exciting voting Blondie won the first American USC title ever with her 1999 song "Maria", scoring 180 points in total. The English representative was the band The Verve, who scored 4 points less than Blondie and scored runner-up position with its 1997 hit "Bittersweet symphony". Australian duo Savage Garden got third place with its 1997 song "Truly madly deeply", scoring 5 points less than the winner, and 1 point less than the runner-up. San Marino (represented by Italian singer Laura Pausini with her 1998 song "In assenza di te") and Norway (represented by Lene Marlin, with her 1999 song "Unforgivable sinner") completed the top 5. Uruguay got its best placement ever, a 6th place, with its most known artist Natalia Oreiro, who sang her 1998 hit "Cambio dolor"
Semifinal 1
| Draw | Country | Artist | Song | Place | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 |  Spain
|
Monica Naranjo | "Empiezo a recordarte" | 7 | 78 |
| 02 |  Vatican City
|
Annalisa Minetti | "Senza te o con te" | 19 | 34 |
| 03 |  Cyprus
|
Alexia Vassiliou | "Ksipnaei o allos mou eautos" | 9 | 52 |
| 04 |  Andorra
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Mecano | "El 7 de septiembre" | 11 | 47 |
| 05 |  Bulgaria
|
Stefka Sabotinova | "Prituri se Planinata" | 10 | 50 |
| 06 |  Malta
|
Mike Spiteri | "Fejn Tħobb Il-Qalb" | 20 | 24 |
| 07 |  Uruguay
|
Natalia Oreiro | "Cambio dolor" | 1 | 153 |
| 08 |  Greece
|
Despina Vandi | "Apapa" | 6 | 90 |
| 09 |  Austria
|
Falco | "Titanic" | 14 | 44 |
| 10 |  Belgium
|
Milk Inc | "In my eyes" | 12 | 47 |
| 11 |  Vietnam
|
Bang Kieu | "Lang nghe mua xuan ve " | 16 | 42 |
| 12 |  Belarus
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Alyona Sviridova | "Budet tak Vsegda" | 17 | 38 |
| 13 |  Mexico
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Thalia | "Amor a la mexicana" | 5 | 103 |
| 14 |  Armenia
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Nune Yesayan | "Mi bala" | 21 | 0 |
| 15 |  United States
|
Blondie | "Maria" | 2 | 153 |
| 16 |  Lithuania
|
Stasys Povilaitis | "Švieski man vėl" | 18 | 37 |
| 17 |  Colombia
|
Shakira | "Estoy aquí" | 4 | 116 |
| 18 |  Germany
|
Rammstein | "Du hast" | 8 | 65 |
| 19 |  Israel
|
Sarit Hadad | "Zeh haSod sheli" | 15 | 44 |
| 20 |  Venezuela
|
Carlos Baute | "Mi medicina" | 13 | 44 |
| 21 |  San Marino
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Laura Pausini | "In assenza di te" | 3 |
131 |
Semifinal 2
| Draw | Country | Artist | Song | Place | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 |  Croatia
|
Severina | "Daj da biram" | 16 | 24 |
| 02 |  Slovenia
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Siddharta | "Pot v X" | 12 | 57 |
| 03 |  North Macedonia
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Maja Grozdanovska Panceva | "Macka so devet zivoti" | 19 | 3 |
| 04 |  Australia
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Savage Garden | "Truly madly deeply" | 3 | 118 |
| 05 |  Portugal
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Diana Bastos | "Grita, sente" | 4 | 95 |
| 06 |  Italy
|
Umberto Tozzi | "Gli altri siamo noi" | 6 | 73 |
| 07 |  Azerbaijan
|
Samir Bagirov | "Sevdanin sonu" | 20 | 0 |
| 08 |  Finland
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Nightwish | "Sleeping sun" | 1 | 142 |
| 09 |  Poland
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Edyta Gorniak | "Jestem kobieta" | 11 | 60 |
| 10 |  India
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Kumar Sanu | "Ek ladki ko dekha" | 18 | 10 |
| 11 |  Iceland
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Björk | "Joga" | 10 | 60 |
| 12 |  Liechtenstein
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Sash! | "Ecuador" | 7 | 73 |
| 13 |  Romania
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Laurentiu Cazan | "Say something" | 8 | 66 |
| 14 |  Serbia
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Ceca | "Drugarice" | 15 | 41 |
| 15 |  Wales
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Charlotte Church | "Just wave hello" | DSQ | - |
| 16 |  New Zealand
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Deep Obsession | "One & only" | 9 | 65 |
| 17 |  Norway
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Lene Marlin | "Unforgivable sinner" | 2 | 125 |
| 18 |  Netherlands
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Total Touch | "Somebody else's lover" | 5 | 94 |
| 19 |  Indonesia
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Chrisye | "Zamrud khatulistiwa" | 17 | 18 |
| 20 |  Turkey
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Pınar Aylin ft. Michael Damian | "Don't make me wait" | 14 | 43 |
| 21 |  France
|
Helene Segara | "Il y a trop gens qui t'aime" | 13 | 51 |
Grand Final
| Draw | Country | Artist | Song | Place | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Andorra
|
Mecano | "El 7 de septiembre" | 26 | 37 |
| 02 | Mexico
|
Thalia | "Amor a la mexicana" | 10 | 103 |
| 03 |  England
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The Verve | "Bittersweet symphony" | 2 | 176 |
| 04 | United States
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Blondie | "Maria" | 1 | 180 |
| 05 | Colombia
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Shakira | "Estoy aquí" | 7 | 126 |
| 06 | Liechtenstein
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Sash! | "Ecuador" | 13 | 84 |
| 07 | Poland
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Edyta Gorniak | "Jestem kobieta" | 21 | 54 |
| 08 | Australia
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Savage Garden | "Truly madly deeply" | 3 | 175 |
| 09 | Belgium
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Milk Inc | "In my eyes" | 23 | 51 |
| 10 |  Sweden
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Rednex | "Cotton Eye Joe" | 11 | 102 |
| 11 | New Zealand
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Deep Obsession | "One & only" | 27 | 36 |
| 12 | Norway
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Lene Marlin | "Unforgivable sinner" | 5 | 148 |
| 13 | Portugal
|
Diana Bastos | "Grita, sente" | 19 | 64 |
| 14 | Cyprus
|
Alexia Vassiliou | "Ksipnaei o allos mou eautos" | 25 | 42 |
| 15 | Uruguay
|
Natalia Oreiro | "Cambio dolor" | 6 | 146 |
| 16 | France
|
Helene Segara | "Il y a trop gens qui t'aime" | 12 | 91 |
| 17 | Iceland
|
Björk | "Joga" | 18 | 73 |
| 18 | Bulgaria
|
Stefka Sabotinova | "Prituri se planinata" | 20 | 63 |
| 19 | Slovenia
|
Siddharta | "Pot ve X" | 24 | 49 |
| 20 | Finland
|
Nightwish | "Sleeping sun" | 8 | 114 |
| 21 | San Marino
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Laura Pausini | "In assenza di te" | 4 | 155 |
| 22 | Netherlands
|
Total Touch | "Somebody else's lover" | 15 | 80 |
| 23 | Romania
|
Laurentiu Cazar | "Say something" | 22 | 53 |
| 24 | Italy
|
Umberto Tozzi | "Gli altri samo noi" | 17 | 75 |
| 25 | Greece
|
Despina Vandi | "Apapa" | 9 | 114 |
| 26 | Germany
|
Rammstein | "Du hast" | 16 | 80 |
| 27 | Spain
|
Monica Naranjo | "Empiezo a recordarte" | 14 | 81 |
Returning artists
| Artist | Country | Previous participation |
|---|---|---|
Champions Edition 51-60
As every ten editions, the Universong Contest chooses the Champion of Champions of the previous 10 editions. The difference with previous editions, is that the vote is free: All the members of the USC group are free to vote if desired. The Champion of Champions, after 23 valid votes, was "Silhouette" by Lisa Lois, who won for The Netherlands in USC 54 held in Turku, Finland.
| Edition | Country | Artist | Song | Place | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 USC 51
|
 Hungary
|
Gigi Radics | "Ugy faj" | 9 | 116 |
 USC 52
|
Lithuania
|
GJan | "Not afraid" | 8 | 122 |
 USC 53
|
Finland
|
Jippu | "Eva" | 10 | 105 |
 USC 54
|
Netherlands
|
Lisa Lois | "Silhouette" | 1 | 175 |
 USC 55
|
Norway
|
Tone Damli | "Winner of a losing game" | 2 | 160 |
 USC 56
|
Finland
|
Jenni Vartiainen | "Junat ja naiset" | 3 | 138 |
| USC 57
|
England
|
Ellie Goulding | "Burn" | 4 | 136 |
 USC 58
|
Finland
|
Krista Siegfrids | "Can you see me?" | 6 | 126 |
| USC 59
|
Sweden
|
Laleh | "Colours" | 5 | 134 |
| USC 60
|
United States
|
Blondie | "Maria" | 7 | 122 |
