The Eurovision Attic

The 1996 Eurovision Song Contest took place at the Oslo Spektrum on May 18th.
Here is a look back at that contest, with links to look forward to the 1997 contest, to be held in Dublin on May 3rd.

And the winner was..


Eimear Quinn, singer of 'The Voice' which won the 1996 contest for Ireland

Photo copyright G. Harrison 1996

The songs in the running order on May 18th:

Select any highlighted text below for more details and pictures from the original selection.
Points scored to Poland and Netherlands were changed in March 1997, after the EBU recognized an error had been made on the night.

  1. Turkey - Besinci Mevsim - Sebnem Paker 12th/ 57 points
  2. United Kingdom - Just a little bit - Gina G. 8th/ 77 points
  3. Spain - Ay! Que deseo! - Antonio Carbonelle 20th/ 17 points
  4. Portugal - O Meu Coraçáo Não Tem Cor - Lucia Moniz 6th/ 92 points
  5. Cyprus - Mono gia mas - Contantinos. 9th/ 72 points
  6. Malta - In A Woman's Heart - Miriam Christine Borg 10th/ 68 points
  7. Croatia - Sveta ljubavi - Maja Blagdan. 4th/ 98 points
  8. Austria - Wiel's da guet got - George Nussbaumer 10th/ 68 points
  9. Switzerland - Mon coeur l'aime(My heart loves him) - Kathy Leander 16th/ 22 points
  10. Greece - Emis forame to himona anixiatika - Marianna Efstratiou 14th/ 36 points
  11. Estonia - Kaelakee Hääl - Ivo Linna & Marja-Liis 5th/ 94 points
  12. Norway - I evighet - Elisabeth Andreassen 2nd/ 114 points
  13. France - Diwanit bugale - Dan Ar Braz 19th/ 18 points
  14. Slovenia - Dan najlepsih sanj - Regina 21st/ 16 points
  15. The Netherlands - De eerste keer - Maxine & Franklin Brown 7th/ 78 points
  16. Belgium - Liefde is een kaartspel - Lisa Del Bo 16th/ 22 points
  17. Ireland - The Voice - Eimear Quinn 1st/ 162 points
  18. Finland - Niin kaunis on taivas - Jasmine 23rd/ 9 points
  19. Iceland - Shu-bi-du - Anna Mjöll Olafsdottir 13th/ 51 points
  20. Poland - Chce znac swoj grzech - Kasia Kowalski 15th/ 31 points
  21. Bosnia - Za nasu ljubav - Amila Glamocak 22nd/ 13 points
  22. Slovakia - Kym nas mas - Marcel Palonder 18th/ 19 points
  23. Sweden - Den Vilda - One More Time 3rd/ 100 points

Preselection

The EBU organised a pre-selection on March 20th and 21st, where international juries selected the final 22 songs out of 29 interested, to go to Oslo to join Norway's song, which as last year's winners was assured a place.
Juries selected on the basis of audio recordings only, and eliminated seven songs now listed below.

Follow this link for a report on the preselection with a Juror's view, all the English titles, and votes from some countries).

Knocked out

The following songs/countries lost out in the pre-selection, and were not seen in Oslo:

Links:


The Unofficial Eurovision Song Contest Homepage, and index to site
Final news about the 1997 contest!
My press report on my trip to the contest in Oslo
The Eurovision Song Contest Database - the original and best!
Souvenirs - A photo gallery of Eurovision stars! (70K)
The ABBA before ABBA page