1976 Eurovision Song Contest
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1976 was the 21st edition of the
Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...
. It took place in
The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...
, Netherlands, following the country's victory at the with the song " Ding-a-dong" by Teach-In. Organised by the
European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; , UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are member states of the Council of Europe, members of the ...
(EBU) and host broadcaster (NOS), the contest was held at the Nederlands Congrescentrum on 3 April 1976 and was hosted by
Corry Brokken Cornelia Maria "Corry" Brokken (3 December 1932 – 31 May 2016) was a Dutch singer, television presenter and jurist. In 1957, she won the second edition of the Eurovision Song Contest with the song " Net als toen", representing the Netherlands ...
, who had won the contest for the . 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. The won the contest this year with the song " Save Your Kisses for Me" by Brotherhood of Man. 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.


Location

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...
is the seat of government of the
Kingdom of the Netherlands The Kingdom of the Netherlands (, ;, , ), commonly known simply as the Netherlands, is a sovereign state consisting of a collection of constituent territories united under the monarch of the Netherlands, who functions as head of state. The re ...
and the capital city of the
province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...
of
South Holland South Holland ( ) is a province of the Netherlands with a population of over 3.8 million as of January 2023 and a population density of about , making it the country's most populous province and one of the world's most densely populated areas. ...
. It is also the third-largest city in the Netherlands, after
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
and
Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...
. Located in the west of the Netherlands, The Hague is in the centre of the Haaglanden
conurbation A conurbation is a region consisting of a number of metropolises, cities, large towns, and other urban areas which, through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous urban or industrially developed area. In most ...
and lies at the southwest corner of the larger
Randstad The Randstad (; "Rim City" or "Edge City") is a roughly crescent- or Circular arc, arc-shaped conurbation in the Netherlands, that includes almost half the country's population. With a central-western location, it connects and comprises the Net ...
conurbation. The contest took place at the (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 Sveriges Radio Aktiebolag, AB (; "Sweden's Radio") is Sweden's national publicly funded radio programming, radio broadcaster. Sveriges Radio is a public limited company, owned by an independent foundation, previously funded through a television ...
(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 Fredi may refer to: * Fredi (Valencian pilota) (born 1957), retired Valencian pilota professional player * Fredi Bobic (born 1971), German football striker * Fredi González (born 1964), Cuban current manager of the Atlanta Braves * Fredi Walker, A ...
had represented ; Anneli Koivisto as part of "The Friends" had represented as part of ;
Peter, Sue and Marc Peter, Sue and Marc were a Switzerland, Swiss music group from Bern. The members were Peter Reber (born 1949, vocals / piano / guitar), Sue Schell (born 1950 in New York, vocals), and Marc Dietrich (born 1948, vocals / guitar). They represented S ...
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 Turkish invasion of Cyprus began on 20 July 1974 and progressed in two phases over the following month. Taking place upon a background of Cypriot intercommunal violence, intercommunal violence between Greek Cypriots, Greek and Turkish Cy ...
. The previous year, Greece had withdrawn from the contest for the same reason, and in 1976, it was Turkey who withdraw. 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 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...
, 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 The Dutch Swing College Band (DSCB) is a traditional dixieland band founded on 5 May 1945 by bandleader and clarinettist/ saxophonist Peter Schilperoort. Highly successful in their native home of the Netherlands, the band quickly found an in ...
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 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...
(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. * * Jacques Harvey * José María Íñigo * Ray 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.


See also

* OTI Festival 1976


Notes


References


External links

* {{Portal bar, Music
1976 Events January * January 2 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 18 – Full diplomatic ...
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