| Eurovision Song Contest | |
| Year: | 1976 |
| Size: | 250px |
| Final: | 3 April 1976 |
| Musdirector: | Jan Stulen |
| Director: | Theo Ordeman |
| Exsupervisor: | Clifford Brown |
| Exproducer: | Fred Oster |
| Winner: | "Save Your Kisses for Me" |
| Vote: | Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs |
| Host: | Dutch; Flemish: [[Nederlandse Omroep Stichting]]|i=unset (NOS) |
| Venue: | Dutch; Flemish: [[World Forum (The Hague)|Nederlands Congresgebouw]]|i=unset The Hague, Netherlands |
| Entries: | 18 |
| Debut: | None |
| Map Nosemis: | Y |
The Eurovision Song Contest 1976 was the 21st edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in The Hague, Netherlands, following the country's victory at the with the song "Ding-a-dong" by Teach-In. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Dutch; Flemish: [[Nederlandse Omroep Stichting]]|i=unset (NOS), the contest was held at the Nederlands Congrescentrum on 3 April 1976 and was hosted by 1957 Dutch Eurovision winner Corry Brokken.
Eighteen countries took part in the contest with, and opting not to return to the contest after participating the previous year. Malta would not return to the contest again until 1991. On the other hand, and returned to the competition, having been absent since 1972 and 1974 respectively.
won the contest this year with the song "Save Your Kisses for Me" by Brotherhood of Man.[1] The song went on to become the biggest selling winning single in the history of the contest and won with 80.39% of the possible maximum score and an average of 9.65 of 12; a record under the voting system introduced in 1975.[2]
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 Dutch; Flemish: Congresgebouw|i=unset (presently known as the World Forum). The venue was constructed in 1969.
Sweden, Malta and Turkey all decided not to participate this year, while Austria and Greece returned to the contest, making for eighteen participating countries.
Sweden did not enter the contest as broadcaster Sveriges Radio (SR) did not have enough money to host another contest if Sweden should win again. A new rule was therefore introduced that in the future each participating broadcaster would have to pay a part of the cost of staging the contest. However, the introduction of a participation fee lead to Malta withdrawing from the Eurovision Song Contest 1976, despite already confirming participation and accepting submissions for their planned national final.[3] [4] 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.[5] [6]
| + Participants of the Eurovision Song Contest 1976[7] [8] [9] | |||||||
| Country | Broadcaster | Artist | Song | Language | Songwriter(s) | Conductor | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORF | Waterloo and Robinson | "My Little World" | English | Gerhard Heinz | Erich Kleinschuster | ||
| RTB | Pierre Rapsat | "French: Judy et Cie|i=no" | French | Michel Bernholc | |||
| YLE | Fredi and the Friends | "Pump-Pump" | English | Ossi Runne | |||
| TF1 | Catherine Ferry | "French: Un, deux, trois|i=no" | French | Tony Rallo | |||
| HR | Les Humphries Singers | "Sing, Sang, Song" | German, English | Les Humphries | |||
| ERT | Mariza Koch | "Greek, Modern (1453-);: Panaghia mou, panaghia mou|i=no" (Greek, Modern (1453-);: Παναγιά μου, παναγιά μου) | Greek | Mihalis Rozakis | |||
| RTÉ | Red Hurley | "When" | English | Brendan Graham | Noel Kelehan | ||
| IBA | Chocolate, Menta, Mastik | "Hebrew: Emor Shalom|i=no" (Hebrew: אמור שלום) | Hebrew | Matti Caspi | |||
| RAI | Romina and Al Bano | "We'll Live It All Again" | English, Italian | Maurizio Fabrizio | |||
| CLT | Jürgen Marcus | "French: Chansons pour ceux qui s'aiment|i=no" | French | Jo Plée | |||
| TMC | Mary Christy | "French: Toi, la musique et moi|i=no" | French | Raymond Donnez | |||
| NOS | Sandra Reemer | "The Party Is Over Now" | English | Hans van Hemert | Harry van Hoof | ||
| NRK | Anne-Karine Strøm | "Mata Hari" | English | Frode Thingnæs | |||
| RTP | Carlos do Carmo | "Portuguese: Uma flor de verde pinho|i=no" | Portuguese | Thilo Krasmann | |||
| TVE | Braulio | "Spanish; Castilian: Sobran las palabras|i=no" | Spanish | Braulio García Bautista | Joan Barcons | ||
| SRG SSR | Peter, Sue and Marc | "Djambo Djambo" | English | Peter Reber | Mario Robbiani | ||
| BBC | Brotherhood of Man | "Save Your Kisses for Me" | English | Alyn Ainsworth | |||
| JRT | Ambasadori | "Ne mogu skriti svoju bol|i=no" (Не могу скрити своју бол) | Serbo-Croatian | Esad Arnautalić |
| Artist | Country | Previous year(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fredi (Along with "The Friends") | |||
| Anneli Koivisto (As part of "The Friends") | (as part of Finnish: Koivistolaiset|i=unset) | ||
| Peter, Sue and Marc | |||
| Sandra Reemer | |||
| Anne-Karine Strøm | (as part of Bendik Singers) (Along with Bendik Singers) |
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 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).
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.
| + Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1976[10] | ||||||
| Country | Artist | Song | Points | Place | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brotherhood of Man | "Save Your Kisses for Me" | 164 | 1 | ||
| 2 | Peter, Sue and Marc | "Djambo Djambo" | 91 | 4 | ||
| 3 | "Sing, Sang, Song" | 12 | 15 | |||
| 4 | Chocolate, Menta, Mastik | "Hebrew: Emor Shalom|i=no" | 77 | 6 | ||
| 5 | "French: Chansons pour ceux qui s'aiment|i=no" | 17 | 14 | |||
| 6 | "French: Judy et Cie|i=no" | 68 | 8 | |||
| 7 | "When" | 54 | 10 | |||
| 8 | "The Party Is Over Now" | 56 | 9 | |||
| 9 | "Mata Hari" | 7 | 18 | |||
| 10 | "Greek, Modern (1453-);: Panaghia mou, panaghia mou|i=no" | 20 | 13 | |||
| 11 | Fredi and the Friends | "Pump-Pump" | 44 | 11 | ||
| 12 | Braulio | "Spanish; Castilian: Sobran las palabras|i=no" | 11 | 16 | ||
| 13 | Romina and Al Bano | "We'll Live It All Again" | 69 | 7 | ||
| 14 | Waterloo and Robinson | "My Little World" | 80 | 5 | ||
| 15 | "Portuguese: Uma flor de verde pinho|i=no" | 24 | 12 | |||
| 16 | "French: Toi, la musique et moi|i=no" | 93 | 3 | |||
| 17 | "French: Un, deux, trois|i=no" | 147 | 2 | |||
| 18 | Ambasadori | "Ne mogu skriti svoju bol|i=no" | 10 | 17 |
Each country nominated a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1976 contest are listed below.
| + Detailed voting results[13] [14] | ||||||||||||||||||||
| scope="col" | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 164 | 12 | 8 | 12 | 8 | 12 | 3 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 10 | 12 | 4 | 10 | 12 | 10 | 7 | 10 | ||
| Switzerland | 91 | 12 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 6 | 10 | 2 | 7 | 4 | 8 | 7 | 4 | 6 | 7 | |||
| Germany | 12 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | |||||||||||||
| Israel | 77 | 6 | 7 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 8 | 1 | 10 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 8 | ||||
| Luxembourg | 17 | 6 | 6 | 5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Belgium | 68 | 7 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 12 | 8 | 3 | 8 | 8 | 5 | ||||||||
| Ireland | 54 | 10 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 5 | 12 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 1 | ||||||||
| Netherlands | 56 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 5 | |||||
| Norway | 7 | 3 | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| Greece | 20 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 8 | ||||||||||||||
| Finland | 44 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 7 | ||||||||||
| Spain | 11 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | ||||||||||||||
| Italy | 69 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 12 | 3 | 10 | 6 | 1 | 10 | 10 | 6 | ||||||||
| Austria | 80 | 4 | 3 | 10 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 10 | 7 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 5 | 2 | |||||
| Portugal | 24 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 12 | ||||||||||||||
| Monaco | 93 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 12 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 4 | ||||
| France | 147 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 5 | 10 | 10 | 7 | 12 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 10 | 6 | 12 | 5 | 12 | 12 | ||
| Yugoslavia | 10 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||||||||||||||
Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final:
| N. | Contestant | Nation(s) giving 12 points |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | ,,,,,, | |
| 5 | ,,,, | |
| 1 | ||
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.[16] [17] There were also reportedly 27 television and 17 radio commentator teams present at the contest. At least 25 radio stations from 8 countries were reported to have broadcast the contest, with an estimated global audience of 450 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.
| + Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries | ||||
| Country | Broadcaster | Channel(s) | Commentator(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORF | FS2 | Ernst Grissemann | [18] [19] | |
| RTB | RTB | [20] | ||
| BRT | BRT | [21] | ||
| YLE | TV1 | [22] [23] | ||
| TF1 | [24] | |||
| ARD | German: [[Das Erste|Deutsches Fernsehen]]|i=unset | Werner Veigel | [25] | |
| ERT | ERT, A Programma | [26] [27] | ||
| RTÉ | RTÉ | Mike Murphy | [28] [29] | |
| RTÉ Radio | [30] | |||
| IBA | Israeli Television | [31] | ||
| RAI | Italian: [[Rai 1|Rete Uno]]|i=unset | Silvio Noto | [32] | |
| CLT | French: [[RTL9|RTL Télé-Luxembourg]]|i=unset | [33] | ||
| NOS | Dutch; Flemish: [[NPO 2|Nederland 2]]|i=unset | Willem Duys | [34] | |
| Dutch; Flemish: [[NPO 3FM|Hilversum 3]]|i=unset | ||||
| NRK | Norwegian: [[NRK1|NRK Fjernsynet]]|i=unset | [35] | ||
| NRK | ||||
| RTP | Portuguese: [[RTP1|I Programa]]|i=unset | [36] | ||
| TVE | TVE 1 | José Luis Uribarri | [37] | |
| SRG SSR | TV DRS | [38] | ||
| TSR | [39] | |||
| TSI | [40] | |||
| RSI 1 | [41] | |||
| BBC | BBC1 | Michael Aspel | [42] | |
| BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2 | Terry Wogan | [43] [44] | ||
| BFBS | BFBS Radio | Andrew Pastouna | ||
| JRT | [[RTS1 (Serbian TV channel)|TV Beograd 1]]|i=unset, TV Zagreb 1 | Oliver Mlakar | [45] [46] [47] | |
| TV Koper-Capodistria | [48] | |||
| + Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries | |||||
| Country | Broadcaster | Channel(s) | Commentator(s) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DR | DR TV | Per Møller Hansen | [49] | ||
| MR | [50] | ||||
| RÚV | Icelandic: [[RÚV (TV channel)|Sjónvarpið]]|i=unset | Jón Skaptason | [51] | ||
| JTV | JTV2 | [52] | |||
| TP | TP1 | [53] | |||
| TVR | Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: [[TVR 1|Programul 1]]|i=unset | [54] | |||
| SR | SR P3 | [55] | |||
| TRT | Turkish: [[TRT 1|TRT Televizyon]]|i=unset | [56] |
