Eurovision 1996: Oslo

Thirty countries wanted to sing in Oslo, and there were 23 places. The way the EBU chose between them was tried once and never again.

The contest nobody saw

Norway, as host, was in. The other 29 were sent into a qualifying round that had no stage, no audience and no pictures.

On 20 and 21 March 1996, juries in every country sat down with audio tapes of the songs, listened to each one three times and voted. On the 22nd, the 22 qualifiers were announced.

Seven countries were out: Denmark, Hungary, Israel, Macedonia, Romania, Russia — and Germany. It is the only time in the contest’s history that Germany has not been in the final.

The last place went to a tie-break. Finland and Hungary had the same score, and Finland went through because the best single mark it had been given, an eight, was higher than Hungary’s best, a seven.

The votes were meant to stay secret. They have since come out.

For Macedonia it would have been a first appearance. The EBU does not count it as one.

Eurosong

Norwegian television wanted the contest to look younger and reach further, and rebranded it. On screen, and in the presenters’ mouths, this was “Eurosong ’96”. It is the only time that name has been used.

One of the presenters was a pop star: Morten Harket, the singer of a-ha, who opened the show with a song before joining the journalist Ingvild Bryn. About 6,000 people were in the Oslo Spektrum.

The blue room

There were computer graphics laid over the performances, for the first time. And the scoreboard was no longer a physical object.

For the voting Bryn stood in a “blue room” at the side of the stage, in front of an empty blue wall. Viewers saw her beside a scoreboard that existed only inside a computer, with live pictures of the green room and of each spokesperson floating in it.

Good luck from the prime minister

Each song was introduced by a film of the performers at home, packing a rucksack for Oslo — and then by a message of good luck from somebody in government.

Some countries sent an ambassador. Others went to the top. Norway’s message came from its prime minister, Gro Harlem Brundtland; Portugal’s from António Guterres; Poland’s from its president, and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s from the head of its presidency, Alija Izetbegović.

Holland, not Poland

When Spain’s votes were read out, the spokesperson gave six points to “Holland”. Bryn heard “Poland”, and that is where the points went.

The mistake was corrected afterwards. The official result gives the six points to the Netherlands.

The result

Ireland won again. It was the seventh time, and the fourth in five years.

Eimear Quinn’s “The Voice” finished on 162 points, 48 ahead of Norway. Its writer, Brendan Graham, had also written the winner of 1994.

Norway’s runner-up was Elisabeth Andreassen, in her fourth contest and with a win already to her name. Sweden was third. Croatia, Estonia and Portugal, in fourth, fifth and sixth, all had their best results so far.

Finland, having squeezed through the qualifier on a tie-break, came last.

The end of something

This was the last contest decided entirely by juries. A song that the juries placed eighth, the United Kingdom’s “Ooh Aah… Just a Little Bit”, went on to a Grammy nomination, and the gap between what juries rewarded and what the public was buying became one of the arguments for letting viewers vote.

They got their first chance the following year.