It took place in Vienna, Austria, following the country's victory at the 2014 contest with the song "Rise Like a Phoenix" by Conchita Wurst.

The event took place in Vienna, Austria, with the venue being the Wiener Stadthalle (specifically the main hall - Hall D) after Austria won the right to host this edition of the Eurovision Song Contest after winning the 2014 edition with the song "Rise Like a Phoenix", performed by Conchita Wurst.

The Wiener Stadthalle hosts the annual Erste Bank Open tennis tournament, along with many concerts and events throughout the year.

[3] Vienna, considered the front-runner, had two venues in the phase: Wiener Stadthalle and the trade fair centre, Messe Wien, with capacities of up to 16,000 and 30,000 attendees respectively.

With a maximum capacity of 30,000, the Wörthersee Stadium in Klagenfurt also joined the race; however, it would require the construction of a roof for the contest to be hosted there.

[citation needed] On 29 May 2014, Austrian host public broadcaster ORF and the EBU released some requirements and details about the venue.

[1] The contest was provisionally set to take place on 12, 14 and 16 May 2015, but the dates were later pushed back a week in order to accommodate the candidate cities.

[12] Key †  Host venue ‡  Shortlisted The city of Vienna introduced temporary new traffic signals for pedestrians on some streets, featuring same-sex couples holding hands or hugging.

They were introduced as part of events connected to the theme of tolerance and inclusion in the lead-up to the Eurovision Song Contest.

[22] On 10 February 2015, the EBU announced that in honour of the 60th anniversary of Eurovision, it had invited Australia to participate in the final of the contest, represented by Special Broadcasting Service (SBS).

Although it was considered a one-off event, if Australia were to win, SBS would have co-hosted the 2016 contest in a European host city of its choice.

BHRT and BNT, the broadcasters for Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bulgaria, had both submitted a preliminary applications to participate in the 2015 contest,[33][34] but ultimately withdrew them because of financial reasons.

[39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49] Despite tweets by Eurovision event supervisor Sietse Bakker about the possibility of the Turkey's return in 2015,[50][51] Turkish broadcaster TRT later confirmed that they had no plans in this regard.

During an initial meeting between the host broadcaster ORF and the EBU in late May 2014, the representatives of the core organising team were selected.

[58] On 31 July 2014, the EBU released a new and revamped version of the generic logo as a celebration of the Eurovision Song Contest's 60th anniversary.

[61] The theme art depicts a wave made up of spheres which symbolise diversity, the bridging of connections and people's experiences.

[64] The draw that determined the semi-final allocation was held on 26 January 2015 at the Vienna Rathaus and hosted by Andi Knoll and Kati Bellowitsch.

The pots were calculated by the televoting partner Digame and were as follows:[66] The EBU ident's accompanying "Te Deum", which opened the broadcasts, was performed by the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra from the gardens of Schönbrunn Palace for the final.

The overture featured violinist Lidia Baich, winner of the Eurovision Young Musicians 1998, who performed live on stage an excerpt of Austria's 1966 winning song "Merci, Chérie" in tribute to Udo Jürgens.

[67] The ESC Vienna All-Stars, consisting of Conchita Wurst, the Vienna Boys' Choir, multinational Suparar Children's Choir, rapper Left Boy, and the contest's presenters, then jointly performed the official anthem of the contest, "Building Bridges", accompanied by the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Peter Pejtsik.

The nine-minute performance, based on classical themes of major Austrian composers, included forty instrumentalists as well as the Grammy Award-winning Arnold Schoenberg Choir.

The voting order was revealed the morning of the final, and for the only time in Eurovision history to date, the names of all the spokespersons were displayed onscreen.

[151] The Russian entrant Polina Gagarina could be seen crying in the green room during the voting procedure, and this was reported by various media to have occurred as a result of the booing.

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.

The 2015 poll ran from 1 to 10 May,[160] and after all votes were cast, the top-ranked entry was Italy's "Grande amore" performed by Il Volo; the top five results are shown below.

The album features all 40 songs that entered in the 2015 contest, including the semi-finalists that failed to qualify into the grand final.