The 2026 Marcel Bezençon Awards went to Australia, Bulgaria and Denmark on the final day before Eurovision’s main broadcast, giving three entries a separate spotlight before the contest’s 70th edition moved into its biggest moments. The Press Award went to Eclipse, performed by Delta Goodrem for Australia.
The Artistic Award went to Bulgaria’s DARA for Bangaranga, while the Composer Award was given to Denmark’s Før Vi Går Hjem, written by Clara Sofie Fabricius, Søren Torpegaard Lund, Thomas Meilstrup and Valdemar Littauer Bendixene. Lund performed the song for Denmark. The three prizes are part of a parallel set of honors tied to Eurovision, created to highlight the contest’s artistic and creative side rather than its overall winner.
The Marcel Bezençon Awards have been handed out every year since 2002 and reached their 24th edition in 2026. The Composer Award was added in 2004, the awards began being announced on the final day before the main broadcast in 2009, and the Artistic Award has been chosen by the official commentators of participating broadcasters since 2010. The Press Award is decided by accredited journalists, while the Composer Award is determined by the participating songwriters of each edition.
That voting structure makes the awards a useful read on how each entry lands with people who watch Eurovision from very different seats in the arena. Journalists picked Goodrem’s Eclipse, commentators backed Bulgaria’s Bangaranga, and songwriters chose Denmark’s Før Vi Går Hjem. For the artists, the recognition arrives before the contest proper and gives them a separate form of validation at a moment when Eurovision attention is at its peak.
The prizes were created as part of an effort promoted by Christer Björkman and Richard Herrey, and they remain an adjacent honor rather than the main contest title. That distinction matters. Eurovision’s headline result is still to come, but the Marcel Bezençon winners already show which performances cut through across the press room, the commentators’ desks and the songwriter community. For readers tracking Eurovision Winners, the message from this year’s awards is straightforward: Australia, Bulgaria and Denmark have already left a mark before the vote that counts most.
For more on how different countries fare over time, see Uk Eurovision Winners: Why the UK keeps missing the mark at Eurovision.
