Eurovision Song Contest 1996

The Eurovision Song Contest 1996 was the 41st Eurovision Song Contest and was held on May 18, 1996 in Oslo. The presenters were Ingvild Bryn and Morten Harket. Eimear Quinn was the winner of this Eurovision with the song, The Voice.

Related Topics:
Eurovision Song Contest - May 18 - 1996 - Oslo - Ingvild Bryn - Morten Harket - Eimear Quinn - The Voice

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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. 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 hosts Norway. The pre-qualifier was an oddity in that it was not broadcast in any form, and did not even entail any live performance of the entries. Instead, the traditional set of national juries simply listened to the studio recordings of each song, and awarded points accordingly. All that was subsequently revealed of their deliberations was which countries had qualified, with the precise scores and placings remaining under wraps.

Related Topics:
European Broadcasting Union - 1993 contest

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It rapidly became evident that this system was no more sustainable than any other the EBU had trialled, 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, Planet of Blue performed by Leon, was one of the seven cast aside. The others were Denmark, Hungary, Israel, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Romania and Russia.

Related Topics:
Germany - Denmark - Hungary - Israel - Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia - Romania - Russia

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The 1996 contest also featured the novelty - which similarly failed to become a tradition - of 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.

Related Topics:
Swedish - Göran Persson - Alija Izetbegović - Bosnia and Herzegovina - Irish - Taoiseach - John Bruton

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