Mans Zelmerlow emerged Saturday as the
winner of Eurovision 2015, edging out Russia's Polina Gagarina.
Austria won the right to host this
year's singing contest after its representative at last year's
competition, Conchita Wurst, claimed the title.
Zelmerlow's persistence paid off. The
pop star had been rejected in two previous attempts to represent
Sweden at Eurovision. The win, which comes 41 years after Swedish
super group ABBA performed Waterloo, marks Sweden's sixth
Eurovision victory.
Zelmerlow's
Heroes
quickly raced to the fourth spot on the UK iTunes chart.
In 2014, Zelmerlow created controversy
when he said during a celebrity cooking show “it isn't equally
natural for men to want to sleep with one another.”
After being crowned the winner,
Zelmerlow made a reference to the comments.
“I just want to say that we are all
heroes. No matter who we love, who we are or what we believe in, we
are all heroes,” he said.
In comments to UK gay glossy Attitude,
Zelmerlow offered an apology and an explanation.
“This entire story makes me really
sad,” he
said. It's been going on for a year since the show aired. I
used words that weren't right… I was trying to say 'not as common'
but used a word with a negative ring to it. I think homosexuality is
as natural as heterosexuality and have always been a LGBT friend and
have always supported gay rights. So this whole incident makes me
feel really sad because what has been reported is not me. And I have
been apologizing ever since and will keep doing so when it goes
away.”