The winner was Denmark with the song "Only Teardrops", performed by Emmelie de Forest and written by Lise Cabble, Julia Fabrin Jakobsen and Thomas Stengaard.

[4] One alternative put forward in the Expressen was to hold the competition at three venues – the semi-finals in Gothenburg and Malmö, and the final in Stockholm.

[6] On 20 June 2012, it was announced that Gothenburg had withdrawn from the bidding process due to the city being the host of the Göteborg Horse Show in late April 2013.

There were also concerns about the availability of hotel rooms due to a variety of other events taking place in the same time frame as the Eurovision Song Contest.

Key †  Host venue The EBU announced on 21 December 2012 that 39 countries would compete in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013.

[11][12] Bosnia and Herzegovina and Portugal both decided not to enter the 2013 contest due to financial difficulties,[13][14] while Slovakia and Turkey did not participate for different reasons.

In addition, Pasha Parfeny, who represented Moldova in 2012, was the composer of the 2013 Moldovan entry and accompanied Aliona Moon on stage on the piano.

[22][23][13][24][25][26][27][28][29][15] Turkish broadcaster TRT did the same, citing dissatisfaction with the 2009 introduction of a mixed jury/televote voting system and the status of the "Big Five" rule.

[38][39] The Stockholm based singer and actress Sarah Dawn Finer also appeared in both semi-finals and the final in sketches as the comic character Lynda Woodruff.

[41] The ex-Swedish football captain Zlatan Ibrahimović was revealed on 28 April to be part of the opening segment of the Eurovision final, in a pre-recorded message welcoming viewers to Malmö, his home city.

[46] The remaining participating countries, excluding the automatic finalists (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom), were split into five pots, based on voting patterns from the previous nine years.

[47] The pots were calculated by the televoting partner Digame and were as follows:[46] Unlike previous years, the running order was not decided by the drawing of lots, but instead by the producers, with the aim of making the shows more exciting and ensuring that all contestants had a chance to stand out, preventing entries that are too similar cancelling each other out.

[53][55] As the host country, the running order position for Sweden in the final was exclusively determined by a draw during the heads of delegation meeting on 18 March 2013.

[53] As aforesaid, SVT wanted to make a good use of Malmö Arena's space to highlight the performances and increase the audience's visibility compared to previous years.

On 17 January 2013, at the semi-final allocation draw, the EBU revealed the graphic design, created by the Gothenburg-based branding agency Happy F&B for the 2013 contest, featuring a butterfly and the slogan "We Are One".

SVT confirmed on 19 February 2013 that the postcard films, used to introduce each song in the contest, would feature each artist in their respective country, to give the viewer a personal insight of each competing participant.

[58] The postcards were produced by Camp David,[59] the on-air graphics by Broken Doll, and the animation of the butterflies by visual effects studio Swiss International.

[60] In addition to the graphic design, there was a theme music for the contest, titled "Wolverine" and composed by Adam Kafe, which was used in the intros and in-between commercial breaks.

It was also suggested that similar activity was taking place in a total of 15 countries including Latvia, Estonia, Belarus, Ukraine, Croatia and Switzerland.

[157] In response to the allegations, Executive Supervisor Jon Ola Sand reaffirmed the contest's commitment to a "fair and transparent result".

The Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed that the result had been falsified, and stated that "this outrageous action will not remain without a response".

Simultaneously, the Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko claimed that his own country having received no points from Russia showed that the result must have been falsified.

[160] Cascada's entry for Germany, "Glorious", was the subject of investigation by NDR following allegations that it was too similar to the 2012 winner, "Euphoria" by Loreen.

[161] NDR spokeswoman Iris Bents played down the allegations, stating that "Every year there are attempts to create scandals around the Eurovision Song Contest and the participants.

[167] While the statement was supposedly scripted and SVT were aware of Saade's plan, some on social media were confused and offended by the comment.

The Marcel Bezençon Awards, organised since 2002 by Sweden's then-Head of Delegation and 1992 representative Christer Björkman, and 1984 winner Richard Herrey, honours songs in the contest's final.

After all votes were cast, the top-ranked entry in the 2013 poll was also the winner of the contest, "Only Teardrops" performed by Emmelie de Forest; the top five results are shown below.

[174] Eurovision Song Contest: Malmö 2013 was a compilation album put together by the European Broadcasting Union, and released by CMC International and Universal Music Group on 29 April 2013.

The digital version featured a bonus track, "We Write the Story", composed by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson of ABBA, and DJ and music producer Avicii.