Eurovision Song Contest 1976

Location

The Hague is the seat of government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the capital city of the province of South Holland. It is also the third-largest city in the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Located in the west of the Netherlands, The Hague is in the centre of the Haaglanden conurbation and lies at the southwest corner of the larger Randstad conurbation. The contest took place at the Congresgebouw (presently known as the World Forum). The venue was constructed in 1969.

Participants

Sweden, Malta and, Turkey all decided not to participate this year, while Austria and Greece returned to the contest, making for eighteen participating countries.

After many controversies related to the previous year's contest, the Swedish broadcaster, Sveriges Radio (SR), decided not to participate, as they did not have enough money to host another contest if they won again. SR's withdrawal forced the introduction of a new rule in which from 1977 onwards, registration and maintenance fees would be introduced for each of the participating broadcasters, which was meant for financing future contests. These demands forced the Maltese broadcaster to withdraw, as it had a very small budget for 1976.

As the author and historian John Kennedy O'Connor notes in his book The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History, "there had been public demonstrations in Sweden against the contest, which also played a part in SR's decision not to take part".

Several of the performing artists had previously competed as lead artists representing the same country in past editions: Fredi had represented ; Anneli Koivisto as part of "The Friends" had represented as part of Koivistolaiset; Peter, Sue and Marc had represented ; Sandra Reemer had represented the along Andres Holten; and Anne-Karine Strøm had represented as part of the Bendik Singers and .

's participation sparked controversy as it referred to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. The previous year, Greece had withdrawn from the contest for the same reason, and in 1976, it was Turkey who withdrew.

The organizers informed Mariza Koch that they were not responsible for her physical integrity, as there were threats that armed Turks would be present at the venue and shoot her on stage. She signed a waiver stating that she would sing at her own risk. Rumors circulated that she was wearing a bulletproof vest when she went on stage.

Format

Following the confirmation of the eighteen competing countries, the draw to determine the running order of the contest was held on 8 January 1976.

As with the Dutch hosted contest of 1970, each song was introduced by a pre-recorded film of the performing artist on location in their home nation. Unlike the 1970 films, the Dutch broadcaster made all of the films themselves, sending a crew to each nation to capture the footage. Both the artists from Monaco and Luxembourg were filmed in their respective nations, despite again not being from the country they were representing. Each film was preceded by an animated insert featuring the flags of the eighteen participating nations and ended with a profile shot of the artists.

The interval act was The Dutch Swing College Band led by Peter Schilperoort, who performed live on the stage, intercut with brief interviews with the artists from France, Israel, Austria, Belgium and Spain backstage in the green room conducted by Hans van Willigenburg. Willigenburg asked each of the five artists which song they thought would win, but only French singer Catherine Ferry was willing to give a definite answer; correctly predicting the United Kingdom.

The Dutch broadcasters made the decision to use the same logo of the 1970 version held in the same country (in Amsterdam), but modified to be in black instead of the colors on the flag of the Netherlands. This logo was seen in promotions and in the introduction of the festival. This is one of the only times a Eurovision logo for the contest was used more than once.

The scoring system introduced in the previous year's competition returned in 1976. Each jury voted internally and awarded 12 points to the highest scoring song, 10 to the second highest, then 8 to the third, and then 7 to 1 (from fourth to tenth best song, according to the jury). Unlike today, the points were not given in order (from 1 up to 12), but in the order the songs were performed. The current procedure was not established until 1980 (also held in The Hague).

Contest overview

The following tables reflect the officially verified scores given by each jury, adjusted after the transmission. During the live broadcast, France failed to announce the 4 points they awarded to Yugoslavia, an error overlooked by the scrutineer, Clifford Brown. Thus in the live show, Norway were placed 17th and Yugoslavia 18th. After the broadcast, the scores were adjusted and the two nations swapped places, with Yugoslavia's score being adjusted from 6 to 10 points, moving Norway down to last place.

In terms of points gained as a percentage of maximum available, the winning UK entry from Brotherhood of Man is statistically the most successful winning Eurovision entry since the introduction of the 'douze points' scoring system inaugurated in 1975.

Spokespersons

Each participating broadcaster appointed a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for its respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1976 contest are listed below.

• Finland
• LuxembourgJacques Harvey
• SpainJosé María Íñigo
• United KingdomRay Moore

Detailed voting results

12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final:

Broadcasts

Each participating broadcaster was required to relay the contest via its networks. Non-participating EBU member broadcasters were also able to relay the contest as "passive participants". Broadcasters were able to send commentators to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language and to relay information about the artists and songs to their television viewers.

The contest was reportedly broadcast in 33 countries, including the participating countries, EBU member broadcasters in Algeria, Morocco, Iceland, Tunisia, and Turkey; in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union via Intervision; and in Hong Kong, Japan, and Mexico. There were also reportedly 27 television and 17 radio commentator teams present at the contest. At least 25 radio stations from eight countries were reported to have broadcast the contest. There was an estimated global audience of 450 to 500 million television viewers and 80 million listeners.

Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.

Notes

References

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