The United Kingdom was represented at the

Eurovision Song Contest 1996 The Eurovision Song Contest 1996 was the 41st edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 18 May 1996 at the in Oslo, Norway. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (NRK) and presented by Ingvild Bryn and ...

with the song " Ooh Aah... Just a Little Bit", composed by

Steve Rodway Steve Rodway (born in Cambridgeshire), also known under the alias Motiv 8 or Motiv8, is a British electronic dance music producer, songwriter, remixer and sound engineer. While known for many remixes, including those produced for Erasure, Spice G ...

, with lyrics by Simon Tauber, and performed by

Gina G Gina G (born Gina Gardiner, 3 August 1970) is an Australian former singer. She is most notable for her song " Ooh Aah... Just a Little Bit", with which she represented the United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1996. The song reached ...

. The British participating broadcaster, the

British Broadcasting Corporation The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public broadcasting, public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved in ...

(BBC), selected its entry through a national final.

Before Eurovision

''The Great British Song Contest 1996''

The

(BBC) developed ''The Great British Song Contest 1996'' in order to select its entry for the

. Eight acts competed in the competition which consisted of a semi-final on 1 March 1996 and a televised final on 8 March 1996. Both semi-final and final were broadcast on

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and Flagship (broadcasting), flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includ ...

Semi-final

The qualifying round for the contest (the first since ), a special edition of ''

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British record chart television programme, made by the BBC and broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most of its histo ...

'', was broadcast on BBC1 on 1 March 1996 and hosted by

Nicky Campbell Nicholas Andrew Argyll Campbell OBE (born Nicholas Lackey; 10 April 1961) is a Scottish broadcaster and journalist. He has worked in television and radio since 1981 and as a network presenter with BBC Radio since 1987. Early life Campbell wa ...

. It was announced that the four songs with the highest number of telephone votes would qualify for the final. A recap of the songs were also featured during the following morning's edition of ''

Live & Kicking ''Live & Kicking'' was a British children's television series that originally aired on BBC1 from 2 October 1993 to 15 September 2001. It was the replacement for '' Going Live!'', and took many of its features from it, such as phone-ins, games, ...

'' with voting lines reopened for a short time. The top four songs were announced later that evening during ''

The National Lottery Live ''The National Lottery Results'' (previously ''The National Lottery Live'', ''The National Lottery Draw'', ''The National Lottery Stars'' and ''The National Lottery Draws'') is the television programme that broadcasts the drawing of the Nation ...

'' and went forward to the final on 8 March.

Final

The BBC held the final on 8 March 1996 at

BBC Television Centre Television Centre (TVC), formerly known as BBC Television Centre, is a building complex in White City, London, White City, West London, which was the headquarters of BBC Television from 1960 to 2013, when BBC Television moved to Broadcasting H ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. Hosted by

Terry Wogan Sir Michael Terence Wogan (; 3 August 1938 – 31 January 2016) was an Irish radio and television broadcaster who worked for the BBC in Britain for most of his career. Between 1993 and his semi-retirement in 2009, his BBC Radio 2 weekday brea ...

, it was broadcast on BBC1 at 20:00. For the first time since 1985, there was no simultaneous broadcast with

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the List of most-listened-to radio programs, most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 14 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the sta ...

. The winning entry was announced at the end of the show following a further public phone vote. The guest performers were Irish boy band

Boyzone Boyzone were an Irish boy band created in 1993 by the talent manager Louis Walsh. Before even recording any material, Boyzone made an appearance on RTÉ's ''The Late Late Show (Ireland), The Late Late Show''. Its most successful line-up was co ...

who performed their version of

Cat Stevens Yusuf Islam (born Steven Demetre Georgiou; ), commonly known by his stage names Cat Stevens, Yusuf, and Yusuf / Cat Stevens, is a British singer-songwriter and musician. He has sold more than 100 million records and has more than two billion st ...

' " Father and Son", and actress Nicola Hughes who performed "

The Acid Queen "The Acid Queen" is a song written by Pete Townshend and is the ninth song on the Who's rock opera album ''Tommy''. Townshend also sings the lead vocal. The song tells the attempts of Tommy's parents to try to cure him. They leave him with an ecc ...

" from the rock musical ''

The Who's Tommy ''The Who's Tommy'' is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Pete Townshend and a book by Townshend and Des McAnuff. It is based on the 1969 rock opera '' Tommy'' by The Who. Productions The musical opened at La Jolla Playhouse in San Di ...

''.

At Eurovision

With the exception of host nation Norway, who were exempted, all 29 countries wishing to participate in the 1996 contest had to go through an audio-only pre-qualifying round held on 20 March. The lowest-placed seven songs would be eliminated and would not appear in Oslo. Gina G was placed 3rd with 153 points, thus qualifying for the final. On the night of the final Gina G performed 2nd in the running order, following Turkey and preceding Spain. At the end of the voting it had received 77 points, placing 8th out of 23 contestants. The United Kingdom jury awarded its 12 points to Cyprus. Despite this result, 'Just a Little Bit' is one of the most successful of the UK's entries at Eurovision, not only topping the UK singles chart but also finding success in America, where the song was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording in 1998.

Voting

Qualifying round

Final

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 1996

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1996

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster submits an origina ...