"Heroes" is a song recorded by Swedish singer

Måns Zelmerlöw Måns Petter Albert Sahlén Zelmerlöw (; born 13 June 1986) is a Swedish singer and television presenter. He took part in ''Idol 2005'', eventually finishing fifth, won the Let's Dance 2006, first season of ''Let's Dance (Swedish TV series), Le ...

written and composed by

Anton Malmberg Hård af Segerstad Anton may refer to: People *Anton (given name), a list of people with the given name *Anton (surname), a list of people with the surname Places *Anton Municipality, Bulgaria **Anton, Sofia Province, a village *Antón District, Panama **Antón, ...

Joy Deb Joy Neil Mitro Deb (born 14 January 1979) is a Swedish songwriter and producer. He has worked with artists such as Fifth Harmony, JoJo, Mic Lowry and Akon. Deb is signed to Northbound Music Publishing in Stockholm, where he is a member of the ...

, and

Linnea Deb Linnéa Mary Hansdotter Deb (; born 23 July 1977), known professionally as Linnea Deb, is a Swedish singer, songwriter, and record producer. She has worked with artists such as Fifth Harmony, JoJo, MiC Lowry and Akon. Deb is signed to Northboun ...

. It was released on 28 February 2015 as a digital download in Sweden. It won the Melodifestivalen 2015 and in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2015 The Eurovision Song Contest 2015 was the 60th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Vienna, Austria, following the country's victory at the with the song "Rise Like a Phoenix" by Conchita Wurst. Organised by the European Broa ...

held in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, which it also won. It is the lead single for Zelmerlöw's sixth studio album '' Perfectly Damaged''.

Background

Conception

"Heroes" written and composed by

, and

. It was recorded by

Melodifestivalen

As Zelmerlöw's third participation in the selection, "Heroes" participated in the fourth semi-final of the 2015 edition of the

Melodifestivalen Melodifestivalen (; ) is an annual song competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR). It determines the country's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest, and has been staged almo ...

which was held in

Örebro Örebro ( ; ) is the seventh-largest city in Sweden, the seat of Örebro Municipality, and capital of Örebro County. It is situated by the Närke Plain, near the lake Hjälmaren, a few kilometers inland along the small river Svartån, and ...

's Conventum Arena on 28 February 2015. 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. 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. As that Melodifestivalen was organised by

Sveriges Television Sveriges Television AB ("Sweden's Television aktiebolag, Stock Company"), shortened to SVT (), is the Sweden, Swedish national public broadcasting, public television broadcaster, funded by a public service tax on personal income set by the Riksd ...

(SVT) to select its song and performer for the of the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

, the song became the , and Zelmerlöw the performer, for Eurovision.

Eurovision

On 21 May 2015, the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest was held in the

Wiener Stadthalle Wiener Stadthalle (; English: ''Viennese City Hall'') is a multi-purpose indoor arena and convention center located in the 15th district of Vienna, Austria. Austrian architect Roland Rainer designed the original halls which were constructed b ...

(Hall D) in

hosted by (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. On 23 May 2015, he performed the song again in the grand final tenth on the evening. "Heroes" won the contest with a total of 365 points. 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). It is also the first winning song, since the introduction of the split jury-televoting system in 2009, that has not won the televoting. "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.

Aftermath

As the winning broadcaster, the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; , UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are member states of the Council of Europe, members of the ...

(EBU) gave SVT the responsibility to host the 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". On 18 May 2019, in the 'Switch Song' interval act during the grand final of the

Eurovision Song Contest 2019 The Eurovision Song Contest 2019 was the 64th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Tel Aviv, Israel, following the country's victory at the with the song "Toy" by Netta. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union ...

held in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

Conchita Wurst Thomas Neuwirth (born 6 November 1988) is an Austrian singer, fashion designer, human rights activist and drag queen who is known for his stage persona Conchita Wurst (or simply Conchita). He came to international attention after winning the Euro ...

performed "Heroes". On 22 May 2021, the interval act "Rock the Roof" in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2021 The Eurovision Song Contest 2021 was the 65th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Rotterdam, Netherlands, following the country's win at the with the song "Arcade (song), Arcade" by Duncan Laurence. The Netherlands was se ...

grand final features "Heroes" performed by Zelmerlöw.

Critical reception

Writing in ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', Kiran Moodley compared the song with

David Guetta Pierre David Guetta (; born 7 November 1967) is a French DJ and record producer. He has sold over 10 million albums and 65 million singles globally, with more than 30 billion streams on Spotify. Guetta was voted the number one DJ in the DJ Mag ...

's " Lovers on the Sun", concluding "the resemblance is uncanny." 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 A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...

-style verses".

Track listings

Chart history

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Heroes (Mans Zelmerlow song) Melodifestivalen songs of 2015 Swedish pop songs English-language Swedish songs Måns Zelmerlöw songs Songs written by Anton Hård af Segerstad Eurovision songs of 2015 Eurovision songs of Sweden Eurovision Song Contest-winning songs 2015 singles 2015 songs Songs written by Joy Deb Songs written by Linnea Deb Number-one singles in Austria Number-one singles in Greece Number-one singles in Iceland Number-one singles in Sweden Number-one singles in Switzerland Warner Music Group singles