France in the Eurovision Song Contest 1976

Before Eurovision

National final

Télévision Française 1 (TF1) opted to choose its 1976 entry via public selection. Two semi-finals were held, followed by the final on 29 February.

Semi-finals

Each semi-final contained seven songs, with the top three in each going forward to the final. The qualifiers were chosen by public televoting.

Final

The final took place on 29 February 1976, hosted by Evelyn Leclercq, Enrico Macias and Demis Roussos. Once again, the winner was chosen by a public vote.

At Eurovision

On the night of the final Ferry performed 17th in the running order, following and preceding . Prior to the contest most observers noted that the 1976 contest was the easiest for many years to predict, with "Un, deux, trois" and the 's "Save Your Kisses for Me" as the only possible winners. The predictions proved accurate as the two quickly surged well ahead of the field in the voting, and after half the national juries had given their votes France held the lead by 82 points to the United Kingdom's 77. However the United Kingdom scored the stronger in the second half, and ran out the winner with 164 points to France's 147. However "Un, deux, trois" finished a huge 55 points ahead of third-placed Monaco. "Un, deux, trois" had picked up five maximum 12s (from , , Monaco, the , and Yugoslavia) and gained the distinction of becoming the first ever non-winning Eurovision song to pick up points from every other national jury. In terms of points received as a percentage of the maximum possible total (72.06%) it remains the most successful runner-up ever under the 12 points system and outranks most subsequent winners.

The French jury awarded its 12 points to .

Voting

References

References

1. "Final of The Hague 1976". European Broadcasting Union.
2. "Results of the Final of The Hague 1976". European Broadcasting Union.