1996

VENUE

Specktrum, Oslo

ENTRIES

HOSTS

Ingvild Bryn

Morten Harket

DEBUTS

None

Fading pop-star attempts to revive career by presenting Eurovision!. Morten Harket swallowed his credibility by co-presenting the event with a lady with a Welsh-sounding surname, Ingvild Bryn (who seemed to rub a lot of people up the wrong way, probably due to her rather arrogant and patronising behaviour during the voting?).

This year we had, for the first time in ages, a Euro song that was not only an American and worldwide hit, but also launched a career (well OK, not a long one). The UK's "Ooh Aah Just A Little Bit" remains a bona-fide dancefloor anthem. Maybe with televoting, a better draw and a less ragged vocal performance, it might have been challenging ? We can only speculate.

Anyone tuning in about two-thirds through the songs could have been forgiven for thinking we were watching another review of previous contests. Slovenia, Netherlands and Belgium each presented songs (and fashion statements) that were firmly rooted in the 70s (or even earlier).

Turkey	Besìncì Mevsìm	Sebnem Paker	12
United Kingdom	Just A Little Bit	Gina G	8
Spain	Ay Qué Deseo	Antonio Carbonell	20
Portugal	O Meu Coração Não Tem Cor	Lúcia Moniz	6
Cyprus	Mono Yia Mas	Constantinos	9
Malta	In A Woman's Heart	Miriam Christine	10
Croatia	Sveta Ljubav	Maja Blagdan	4
Austria	Weils Da Guat Got	George Nussbaumer	10
Switzerland	Mon Cœur L'Aime	Kathy Leander	16
Greece	Emis Forameto Himona Anixiatiko	Marianna Efstratiou	14
Estonia	Kaelakee Hääl	Ivo Linna & Maarja-Liis Ilus	5
Norway	I Evighet	Elisabeth Andreassen	2
France	Diwanit Bugale	Dan Ar Braz & L'Héritage Des Celtes	19
Slovenia	Dan Najlepših Sanj	Regina	21
Netherlands	De Eerste Keer	Maxine & Franklin Brown	7
Belgium	Liefde Is Een Kaartspel	Lisa Del Bo	16
Ireland	The Voice	Eimear Quinn	1
Finland	Niin Kaunis On Taivas	Jasmine	23
Iceland	Sjúbídú	Anna Mjöll	13
Poland	Chce Znac Swój Grzech	Kasia Kowalska	15
Bosnia	Za Nasa Ljubav	Amila Glamocak	22
Slovakia	Kym Nas Maš	Marcel Palonder	18
Sweden	Den Vilda	One More Time	3

This year every entry (apart from the hosts Norway) had to go through a pre-selection before the final. This was done by a jury system after all juries had heard audio versions of the songs. There were 29 entries and the following 7 songs were eliminated:

Denmark	Kun Med Dig	Dorthe Andersen & Martin Loft
Germany	Planet Of Blue	Leon
Hungary	Fortuna	Gjon Delhusa
Israel	Shalom Olam	Galit Bell
FYR Macedonia	Samo Ti	Kaliopi Gril
Romania	Ruga Pentru Pacea Lumii	Monica Anghel & Sincron
Russia	Ja Eto Ja	Andrej Kosinskij

Voting

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