The Marcel Bezençon Awards were first handed out during the
Eurovision Song Contest 2002
The Eurovision Song Contest 2002 was the 47th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Tallinn, Estonia, following the country's victory at the with the song Everybody (Tanel Padar and Dave Benton song), "Everybody" by Tanel Pada ...
in
Tallinn, Estonia
Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...
honouring
the best competing songs in the final. Founded by
Christer Björkman (
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
's representative in the
Eurovision Song Contest 1992 and Head of Delegation for Sweden until 2021) and Richard Herrey (member of
Herreys
Herreys (), sometimes Herrey's or Herrey, is a Swedish pop group, consisting of the three brothers Per Herrey (born 9 August 1958), Richard Herrey (born 19 August 1964), and Louis Herrey (born 3 November 1966). They won the Eurovision Song C ...
, winner of the
Eurovision Song Contest 1984 for Sweden), the awards are named after the creator of the annual competition,
Marcel Bezençon.
Although sanctioned by 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), the awards are not presented during the Eurovision final, but rather are handed out during the official afterparty. Beginning with the
2009
2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...
contest, the trophies are handed out prior to the final.
Sweden's
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 ...
and Hungary's
A Dal also present the awards during their own competition proper.
Categories
The awards are divided into 3 categories:
* – Given to the best entry as voted on by the accredited media and press during the event.
* – Presented to the best artist as voted on by the commentators since 2010. Until 2009, the category was voted on by previous winners of the contest.
* – A jury consisting of the participating composers vote for the best and most original composition.
In , a special one-off award was presented, the Poplight Fan Award, as voted by fans on the Swedish website ''Poplight.se'' and presented to their favourite debuting artist under the age of 25.
Winners
Press Award
Artistic Award
Voted by previous winners
Voted by commentators
Since 2010, the show commentators have replaced the previous winners as the selection jury for the winners.
Composer Award winners
This award was first presented in , replacing the Fan Award.
Winners by country
Melodifestivalen winners
Between 2005 and 2015,
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) awarded Marcel Bezençon Awards during its national selection
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 ...
. These awards followed the same format as that for the Eurovision awards, with awards given to songs that competed in the final of the contest.
Press Award
Artistic Award
Composer Award
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marcel Bezencon Awards
European music awards
Awards established in 2002
Eurovision Song Contest
Song contests
European Broadcasting Union