The Eurovision Song Contest 1986 was the 31st edition held on 3 May 1986 at the Grieghalle in Bergen, Norway by way of Bobbysocks!' win in Gothenburg the previous year. It was hosted by Åse Kleveland, who, like Lill Lindfors before her, represented her country at the 1966 contest.
Iceland made its debut, while Yugoslavia and the Netherlands returned after a year away. Italy and Greece withdrew.
Several milestones were reached in this edition: the 500th song was performed by Sherisse Laurence representing Luxembourg, who was also the very first Canadian artist to participate in the contest. It also launched the career of interval act performer Sissel Kyrkjebø, who would later go on to perform at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer and lend her voice to the soundtrack of the hit 1997 movie Titanic.
After finishing last place the previous year, Belgium emerged as the winner with the song J'aime La Vie performed by Sandra Kim. At only 13 years old, Sandra became the youngest ever Eurovision winner, a record that under the current rules of the contest and with the creation of Junior Eurovision in 2003, will never be broken.
Participants[]
| Draw | Country | Artist | Song | Language | Translation | Place | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 |  Luxembourg
|
Sherisse Laurence | L'amour de ma vie | French | The love of my life | 3 | 117 |
| 02 |  Yugoslavia
|
Doris Dragović | Željo Moja | Croatian | My desire | 11 | 49 |
| 03 |  France
|
Cocktail Chic | Européennes | French | Europeans | 17 | 13 |
| 04 |  Norway
|
Ketil Stokkan | Romeo | Norwegian | -- | 12 | 44 |
| 05 |  United Kingdom
|
Ryder | Runner in the Night | English | 7 | 72 | |
| 06 |  Iceland
|
ICY | Gleðibankinn | Icelandic | The bank of fun | 16 | 19 |
| 07 |  The Netherlands
|
Frizzle Sizzle | Alles heeft ritme | Dutch | Everything has rhythm | 13 | 40 |
| 08 |  Türkiye
|
Klips ve Onlar | Halley | Turkish | -- | 9 | 53 |
| 09 |  Spain
|
Cadillac | Valentino | Spanish | 10 | 51 | |
| 10 |  Switzerland
|
Daniela Simmons | Pas pour moi | French | Not for me | 2 | 140 |
| 11 |  Israel
|
Moti Giladi and Sarai Tzuriel | Yavo Yom | Hebrew | A day will come | 19 | 7 |
| 12 |  Ireland
|
Luv Bug | You Can Count On Me | English | -- | 4 | 96 |
| 13 |  Belgium
|
Sandra Kim | J'aime La Vie | French | I love life | 1 | 176 |
| 14 |  Germany
|
Ingrid Peters | Über die Brücke geh'n | German | Crossing the bridge | 8 | 62 |
| 15 |  Cyprus
|
Elpida | Tora Zo | Greek | Now I live | 20 | 4 |
| 16 |  Austria
|
Timna Brauer | Die Zeit ist einsam | German | Time is lonely | 18 | 12 |
| 17 |  Sweden
|
Lasse Holm and Monica Törnell | E' de' det här du kallar kärlek? | Swedish | Is this what you call love? | 5 | 78 |
| 18 |  Denmark
|
Lise Haavik | Du er fuld af løgn | Danish | You are full of lies | 6 | 77 |
| 19 |  Finland
|
Kari Kuivalainen | Never The End | Finnish | -- | 15 | 22 |
| 20 |  Portugal
|
Dora | Não sejas mau para mim | Portuguese | Don't be bad to me | 14 | 28 |
Trivia[]
- The top 3 places on the scoreboard (Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg) were countries that were part of the Founding Seven nations. This would eventually repeat itself in 2021, when Italy, France and Switzerland made up the top 3 that year. And similarly, all three podium finishers in both years performed their songs in a language other than English (all French in 1986, and Italian and French in 2021).
- In both instances, a French song finished in 2nd and 3rd.
- This was the only year in the 100% jury era where Turkey made the top 10.
- The Swiss broadcaster petitioned to get Belgium disqualified due to the controversy over Sandra Kim's actual age, but to no avail.