Eurovision Song Contest 1996

Eurovision Song Contest 1996
Dates
Final 18 May 1996
Host
Venue Oslo Spektrum
Oslo, Norway
Presenter(s) Ingvild Bryn
Morten Harket
Conductor Frode Thingnæs
Director Pål Veiglum
Executive supervisor Christine Marchal-Ortiz
Host broadcaster Norsk rikskringkasting (NRK)
Opening act Morten Harket performing "Heaven's Not For Saints"
Interval act "Beacon Burning" video and dance act
Participants
Number of entries 23
Debuting countries None
Returning countries
  •  Estonia
  •  Finland
  •  Netherlands
  •  Slovakia
  •   Switzerland
Withdrawing countries
  •  Denmark
  •  Germany
  •  Hungary
  •  Israel
  •  Russia
Vote
Voting system Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 point(s) to their 10 favourite songs
Nul points None
Winning song  Ireland
"The Voice"
Eurovision Song Contest
◄1995 1996 1997►

The Eurovision Song Contest 1996 was the 41st Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 18 May 1996 in Oslo Spektrum in Oslo, Norway. The presenters were Ingvild Bryn and Morten Harket. Harket, lead singer of a-ha, opened the show with a performance of his single "Heaven's Not for Saints". Twenty-three countries participated in the contest, with Eimear Quinn of Ireland crowned the winner after the final voting, with the song, "The Voice". The song was written by Brendan Graham, who also composed the 1994 winner "Rock 'n' Roll Kids". It was also a record seventh win for Ireland and the most recent win of Ireland.

A non-televised audio-only pre-qualification round was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), in order to shortlist the number of participating nations that would compete in the televised final from twenty-nine, to a more manageable twenty-three.[1] Germany, Israel, Denmark, Hungary, Russia, Macedonia, and Romania all failed to qualify. Macedonia eventually went on to make their debut in 1998.[1] The 1996 contest remains the only Eurovision without a German entry.

Format

The European Broadcasting Union continued to experiment in their efforts to find a broadly acceptable method of whittling down the large number of potential participating countries to a more realistic figure.[1] This year, they reverted to the pre-qualifying round that had been used for the 1993 contest, but this time with just one country exempt from the process - the host Norway. The audio-only pre-qualification round, which was never televised, was used by the EBU in order to shortlist the number of participating nations that would compete in the televised final.[1] With exception to the hosts Norway, audio entries from twenty-nine countries were played to national juries, of which only twenty-two proceeded to the televised final in Oslo.[1] Germany, Israel, Denmark, Hungary, Russia, Macedonia, and Romania all failed to qualify. As a result, Macedonia's submission was never classified as a debut entry by the EBU, the nation eventually went on to make their official televised debut in 1998.[1]

It rapidly became evident that this system was no more sustainable than any other the EBU had tried, as it meant that several countries had gone through their traditional full-blown national selection procedure to come up with an entry, only to suffer the anti-climax of having their challenge quietly extinguished without even having had the opportunity of presenting the song to an international audience. As a leading financial contributor to the contest, Germany were particularly aggrieved that their entry, the techno song "Planet of Blue" performed by Leon, was one of the seven cast aside. It was the only year in the history of the ESC in which Germany did not participate in the final.[1]

The 1996 contest also featured two novelties which similarly failed to become a tradition firstly a short 'good luck message' for each entry, recorded by a political leader or official from their country. The seniority of the figure who delivered the message varied wildly from country to country, ranging from Presidents and Prime Ministers on one end of the spectrum to junior ministers or ambassadors on the other, but a few very significant European political figures did appear, including long-serving Swedish premier Göran Persson and President Alija Izetbegović of Bosnia and Herzegovina. But of course the only good luck wish that was fully rewarded in the end was that of Irish Taoiseach John Bruton, who introduced the song that took his country to a fourth win in five years.[1]

Secondly, the voting section was conducted using "blue screen" virtual reality technology provided by Silicon Graphics. The host Ingvild Bryn introduced the viewers to the 'blue room', upon which a 3D scoreboard, views of the green room, the jury spokespersons and country graphics appeared. The only physical aspects were Ingvild herself and two podiums. For the first time in the Eurovision history, during the voting a spokesperson came to stage (exactly the blue room) down next to Ingvild: the Norwegian one, Ragnhild Sælthun Fjørtoft.[1]

Returning artists

Artist Country Previous Year(s)
Mariana Efstratiou  Greece 1989
Elisabeth Andreassen  Norway 1982 (for Sweden, part of Chips)
1985 (part of Bobbysocks!, winner)
1994 (in duet with Jan Werner Danielsen)

Results

Draw Country Artist Song Language[2] Place[1] Points[1]
01  Turkey Şebnem Paker "Beşinci Mevsim" Turkish 12 57
02  United Kingdom Gina G "Ooh Aah... Just a Little Bit" English 8 77
03  Spain Antonio Carbonell "¡Ay, qué deseo!" Spanish 20 17
04  Portugal Lúcia Moniz "O meu coração não tem cor" Portuguese 6 92
05  Cyprus Constantinos "Mono gia mas" (Μόνο για μας) Greek 9 72
06  Malta Miriam Christine "In a Woman's Heart" English 10 68
07  Croatia Maja Blagdan "Sveta ljubav" Croatian 4 98
08  Austria George Nussbaumer "Weil's dr guat got" Vorarlbergish 10 68
09   Switzerland Kathy Leander "Mon cœur l'aime" French 17 22
10  Greece Marianna Efstratiou "Emis forame to himona anixiatika"
(Εμείς φοράμε το χειμώνα ανοιξιάτικα)
Greek 14 36
11  Estonia Maarja-Liis Ilus & Ivo Linna "Kaelakee hääl" Estonian 5 94
12  Norway Elisabeth Andreassen "I evighet" Norwegian 2 114
13  France Dan Ar Braz & l'Héritage des Celtes "Diwanit Bugale" Breton 19 18
14  Slovenia Regina "Dan najlepših sanj" Slovene 21 16
15  Netherlands Maxine & Franklin Brown "De eerste keer" Dutch 7 78
16  Belgium Lisa del Bo "Liefde is een kaartspel" Dutch 16 22
17  Ireland Eimear Quinn "The Voice" English 1 162
18  Finland Jasmine "Niin kaunis on taivas" Finnish 23 9
19  Iceland Anna Mjöll "Sjúbídú" Icelandic 13 51
20  Poland Kasia Kowalska "Chcę znać swój grzech..." Polish 15 31
21  Bosnia and Herzegovina Amila Glamočak "Za našu ljubav" Bosnian 22 13
22  Slovakia Marcel Palonder "Kým nás máš" Slovak 18 19
23  Sweden One More Time "Den vilda" Swedish 3 100

Pre-qualifying round

Countries listed below submitted entries for the audio-only pre-qualification round, which was never televised, and was used by the EBU in order to shortlist the number of participating nations that would compete in the televised final. Despite a submitted entry from Macedonia, it was never classified as an official debut entry, although the nation would eventually make their official televised debut in 1998.[1]

Shaded countries were eliminated from the competition[3][4]

Draw Country Artist Song Language[2] Place[4] Points[4]
01  Austria George Nussbaumer "Weil's dr guat got" Vorarlbergish 6 80
02  Belgium Lisa del Bo "Liefde is een kaartspel" Dutch 12 45
03  Bosnia and Herzegovina Amila Glamočak "Za našu ljubav" Bosnian 21 29
04  Croatia Maja Blagdan "Sveta ljubav" Croatian 19 30
05  Cyprus Constantinos "Mono gia mas" (Μόνο για μας) Greek 15 42
06  Denmark Dorthe Andersen & Martin Loft "Kun med dig" Danish 25 22
07  Estonia Maarja-Liis Ilus & Ivo Linna "Kaelakee hääl" Estonian 5 106
08  Finland Jasmine "Niin kaunis on taivas" Finnish 22 26
09  France Dan Ar Braz & l'Héritage des Celtes "Diwanit Bugale" Breton 11 55
10  Macedonia Kaliopi "Samo ti" (Само ти) Macedonian 26 14
11  Germany Leon "Planet of Blue" German 24 24
12  Greece Marianna Efstratiou "Emis forame to himona anixiatika"
(Εμείς φοράμε το χειμώνα ανοιξιάτικα)
Greek 12 45
13  Hungary Gjon Delhusa "Fortuna" Hungarian 23 26
14  Iceland Anna Mjöll "Sjúbídú" Icelandic 10 59
15  Ireland Eimear Quinn "The Voice" English 2 198
16  Israel Galit Bell "Shalom Olam" (שלום עולם) Hebrew 28 12
17  Malta Miriam Christine "In a Woman's Heart" English 4 138
18  Netherlands Maxine & Franklin Brown "De eerste keer" Dutch 9 63
19  Poland Kasia Kowalska "Chcę znać swój grzech..." Polish 15 42
20  Portugal Lúcia Moniz "O meu coração não tem cor" Portuguese 18 32
21  Romania Monica Anghel & Sincron "Rugă pentru pacea lumii" Romanian 29 11
22  Russia Andrey Kosinskiy "Ya eto ya" (Я это я) Russian 26 14
23  Slovakia Marcel Palonder "Kým nás máš" Slovak 17 36
24  Slovenia Regina "Dan najlepših sanj" Slovene 19 30
25  Spain Antonio Carbonell "¡Ay, qué deseo!" Spanish 14 43
26  Sweden One More Time "Den vilda" Swedish 1 227
27   Switzerland Kathy Leander "Mon cœur l'aime" French 8 67
28  Turkey Şebnem Paker "Beşinci Mevsim" Turkish 7 69
29  United Kingdom Gina G "Ooh Aah... Just a Little Bit" English 3 153

Voting structure

Each country had a jury that awarded 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 point(s) for their top ten songs. One year later, televoting would be introduced in only some countries, such as Sweden and the United Kingdom. When Belén Fernández de Henestrosa, the Spanish spokesperson, announced the votes of the Spanish jury, she awarded two points to "Czechoslovakia" (while meaning 'Slovakia'). Furthermore, she awarded six points to "Holland" (the Netherlands), which host Ingvild Byrn misheard as "Poland." The official results table corrected this error, and the Netherlands' seventh-place result was restored at the expense of the United Kingdom, who ultimately finished eighth. Because originally Poland awarded six points from Spain, Greece was placed 14th over Poland after the official results table corrected this error.[1] Norway's entry, "I evighet", is notable for being the only runner-up not to receive a single "12 points" score in a Eurovision final since the current voting method was introduced in 1975.

Score sheet

Juries[5]
Turkey 57 6 8 10 1 6 4 7 5 5 5
United Kingdom 77 3 12 1 6 7 3 4 2 8 12 3 4 6 6
Spain 17 2 5 4 6
Portugal 92 5 2 12 10 1 10 5 12 5 6 6 3 10 1 4
Cyprus 72 12 7 3 2 8 2 5 12 2 1 6 10 2
Malta 68 10 10 12 8 1 4 6 12 5
Croatia 98 8 4 5 10 8 7 1 1 6 7 3 5 4 6 5 2 10 5 1
Austria 68 4 5 12 2 7 12 1 8 8 6 3
Switzerland 22 3 2 4 2 4 4 3
Greece 36 7 10 1 2 3 1 1 8 3
Estonia 94 10 4 7 5 8 1 8 3 2 12 12 10 12
Norway 114 2 8 2 3 5 8 7 5 7 10 10 8 7 7 8 4 3 10
France 18 1 1 3 4 7 2
Slovenia 16 1 6 1 8
Netherlands 78 1 6 7 5 12 3 4 10 5 1 5 2 7 2 8
Belgium 22 5 12 2 1 2
Ireland 162 12 8 6 4 7 12 10 12 10 6 12 12 3 10 12 12 7 7
Finland 9 2 7
Iceland 51 3 6 6 3 8 5 6 10 3 1
Poland 31 7 4 4 7 7 2
Bosnia and Herzegovina 13 6 3 3 1
Slovakia 19 2 8 4 5
Sweden 100 4 10 8 10 6 3 7 8 10 12 8 6 4 4

12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 point in the final:[5]

N. Contestant Voting nation
7 Ireland Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia, Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Switzerland, Turkey
3 Estonia Finland, Iceland, Sweden
2 Austria France, Malta
Cyprus Greece, United Kingdom
Malta Croatia, Slovakia
Portugal Cyprus, Norway
United Kingdom Belgium, Portugal
1 Belgium Spain
Netherlands Austria
Sweden Ireland

Good luck wishes

In 1996 all contestants were wished good luck by a politician from their own country in their own language. Those wishes were shown right before their performance. This was the only year in Eurovision with such wishes. These are the people who wished their country's participant good luck (language in parentheses):

International broadcasts and voting

Voting and spokespersons

The order in which each country announced their votes was determined by order of performance in the contest. The spokespersons are shown alongside each country.

  1.  Turkey - Ömer Önder
  2.  United Kingdom - Colin Berry
  3.  Spain - Belén Fernández de Henestrosa
  4.  Portugal - Cristina Rocha
  5.  Cyprus - Marios Skordis[6]
  6.  Malta - Ruth Amaira
  7.  Croatia - Danijela Trbović[7]
  8.  Austria - Martina Rupp
  9.   Switzerland - Yves Ménestrier[8]
  10.  Greece - Niki Venega[9]
  11.  Estonia - Annika Talvik
  12.  Norway - Ragnhild Sælthun Fjørtoft
  13.  France - Laurent Broomhead[8]
  14.  Slovenia - Mario Galunič
  15.  Netherlands - Marcha (Dutch representative in 1987)
  16.  Belgium - Anne Ploegaerts[8][10]
  17.  Ireland - Eileen Dunne
  18.  Finland - Solveig Herlin[11]
  19.  Iceland - Svanhildur Konráðsdóttir
  20.  Poland - Jan Chojnacki
  21.  Bosnia and Herzegovina - Segmedina Srna
  22.  Slovakia - Alena Heribanová
  23.  Sweden - Ulla Rundquist

Commentators

National jury members

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 "Eurovision Song Contest 1996". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. 18 May 1996. Retrieved 21 October 2014.
  2. 1 2 "Eurovision Song Contest 1996 Languages". The Diggiloo Thrush. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
  3. O'Connor, John Kennedy (2010). The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History. United Kingdom: Carlton Books. ISBN 978-1-84732-521-1.
  4. 1 2 3 "Eurovision 1996 pre-qualification results". esc-history.com. ESC History. Retrieved 21 October 2014.
  5. 1 2 "Eurovision Song Contest 1996: Scoreboard". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. 18 May 1996. Retrieved 21 October 2014.
  6. 1 2 3 Savvidis, Christos. "OGAE Cyprus". OGAE Cyprus.
  7. 1 2 "POVIJEST EUROSONGA: 1956 - 1999 (samo tekstovi)" (in Croatian). HRT. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Concours Eurovision de la Chanson 1996" (in French). songcontest.free.fr. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  9. 1 2 "Η Δάφνη Μπόκοτα και η EUROVISION (1987-2004)" (in Greek). retromaniax. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  10. "ESC 1996 Belgian votes by An Ploegaerts". mathiasehv. YouTube. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  11. 1 2 "Selostajat ja taustalaulajat läpi vuosien?" (in Finnish). viisukuppila. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  12. "Song Contest mit Stermann & Grissemann". wien ORF.at. 2012-05-01. Retrieved 2012-09-29.
  13. "Eurosong" (in Dutch). mediawatchers.be. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  14. "41. Eurovision song contest 1996" (in German). ECGermany OGAE club. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  15. "Thomas Mohr: Mit Dschinghis Khan im Garten". Eurovision.de. 2011-05-14. Retrieved 2012-10-28.
  16. "Television listings". Dagskrá (in Icelandic). 16 May 1996. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  17. "Nederlandse televisiecommentatoren bij het Eurovisie Songfestival" (in Dutch). eurovisionartists.nl. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  18. "Alt du trenger å vite om MGP" (in Norwegian). NRK. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  19. "Konkurs Piosenki Eurowizji" (in Polish). Eurowizja.com.pl. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  20. "Uribarri commentator Eurovision 2010" (in Spanish). Foro EuroSong Contest. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  21. "Nostalgični RTV press clipping". rtvforum.net. Retrieved 2015-09-02.
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