The Eurovision Song Contest 1996 was the 41st edition held at the Spektrum in Oslo, Norway on 18 May 1996 thanks to Secret Garden's win in Dublin the previous year. It was co-presented by New York-based news correspondent Ingvild Bryn and the frontman of the popular band A-ha, Morten Harket.
A pre-qualifier was held among 29 nations who wished to compete where juries listened to audio recordings of all the songs (Norway, as the host nation, was exempt), and 22 advanced. Germany, who was the last of the founding seven nations with an unbroken streak of participation, was eliminated.
This contest also marked the first and only use of "virtual reality" during the voting sequence. It was also the last contest to make use of 100% jury voting with the introduction of televoting the following year.
Ireland won for a record-breaking seventh time with the song The Voice performed by Eimear Quinn and written by Brendan Graham, who had also written the 1994 winner. Finishing second for Norway was Elisabeth Andreassen, who became the fourth person to finish first one year and second another year (she had won previously in 1985 as part of Bobbysocks).
Gina G's eighth-place finisher for the United Kingdom would go on to become a worldwide hit, earning her a Grammy nomination in the United States.
Participants[]
Norway already qualified to the grand final, being the host. Eliminated entries are displayed in pink.
Pre-Qualifier Round[]
| Draw | Country | Artist | Song | Language | Translation | Place[1] | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 |  Austria
|
George Nussbaumer | Weil's dr guat got | Vorarlbergish | Because you feel good | 6 | 80 |
| 02 |  Belgium
|
Lisa Del Bo | Liefde is een Kaartspel | Dutch | Love is a cardgame | 12 | 45 |
| 03 |  Bosnia and Herzegovina
|
Amila Glamočak | Za našu ljubav | Bosnian | For our love | 21 | 29 |
| 04 |  Croatia
|
Maja Blagdan | Sveta ljubav | Croatian | Divine love | 19 | 30 |
| 05 |  Cyprus
|
Constantinos Christoforou | Mono Yia Mas | Greek | Only for us | 15 | 42 |
| 06 |  Denmark
|
Dorthe Andersen & Martin Loft | Kun med dig | Danish | Only with you | 25 | 22 |
| 07 |  Estonia
|
Maarja-Liis Ilus & Ivo Linna | Kaelakee hääl | Estonian | Sound of necklace | 5 | 106 |
| 08 |  Finland
|
Jasmine Valentin | Niin kaunis on taivas | Finnish | So beautiful is the sky | 22 | 26 |
| 09 |  France
|
Dan Ar Braz & L'Héritage des Celtes | Diwanit Bugale | Breton | May you blossom, children | 11 | 55 |
| 10 |  North Macedonia
|
Kaliopi | Samo ti | Macedonian | Only you | 26 | 14 |
| 11 |  Germany
|
Leon | Planet of Blue | German, English | -- | 24 | 24 |
| 12 |  Greece
|
Mariana Efstratiou | Emeis Forame to Himona Anixiatika | Greek | We wear spring clothes in winter time | 12 | 45 |
| 13 |  Hungary
|
Gjon Delhusa | Fortuna | Hungarian | Fortune | 22 | 26 |
| 14 |  Iceland
|
Anna Mjöll | Sjúbídú | Icelandic | Shooby-doo | 10 | 59 |
| 15 |  Ireland
|
Eimear Quinn | The Voice | English | -- | 2 | 198 |
| 16 |  Israel
|
Galit Bell | Shalom Olam | Hebrew | Hello world | 28 | 12 |
| 17 |  Malta
|
Miriam Christine | In A Woman's Heart | English | -- | 4 | 138 |
| 18 |  The Netherlands
|
Maxine & Franklin Brown | De eerste keer | Dutch | The first time | 9 | 63 |
| 19 |  Poland
|
Kasia Kowalska | Chcę znać swój grzech... | Polish | I want to know my sin | 15 | 42 |
| 20 |  Portugal
|
Lúcia Moniz | O meu coração não tem cor | Portuguese | My heart has no color | 18 | 32 |
| 21 |  Romania
|
Monica Anghel & Sincron | Rugă pentru pacea lumii | Romanian | Prayer for world peace | 29 | 11 |
| 22 |  Russia
|
Andrey Kosinskiy | Ya eto ya | Russian | I am what I am | 26 | 14 |
| 23 |  Slovakia
|
Marcel Palonder | Kým nás máš | Slovak | As long as you have us | 17 | 36 |
| 24 |  Slovenia
|
Regina | Dan najlepših sanj | Slovene | The day of the most beautiful dream | 19 | 30 |
| 25 |  Spain
|
Antonio Carbonell | ¡Ay, qué deseo! | Spanish | Oh, what desire! | 14 | 43 |
| 26 |  Sweden
|
One More Time | Den vilda | Swedish | The wild one | 1 | 227 |
| 27 |  Switzerland
|
Kathy Leander | Mon cœur l'aime | French | My heart loves him | 8 | 67 |
| 28 |  Türkiye
|
Şebnem Paker | Beşinci Mevsim | Turkish | The fifth season | 7 | 69 |
| 29 |  United Kingdom
|
Gina G | Ooh Aah... Just a Little Bit | English | -- | 3 | 153 |
Final[]
| Draw | Country | Artist | Song | Language | Translation | Place | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Türkiye
|
Şebnem Paker | Beşinci Mevsim | Turkish | The fifth season | 12 | 57 |
| 02 | United Kingdom
|
Gina G | Ooh Aah... Just a Little Bit | English | -- | 8 | 77 |
| 03 | Spain
|
Antonio Carbonell | ¡Ay, qué deseo! | Spanish | Oh, what desire! | 20 | 17 |
| 04 | Portugal
|
Lúcia Moniz | O meu coração não tem cor | Portuguese | My heart has no color | 6 | 92 |
| 05 | Cyprus
|
Constantinos Christoforou | Mono Yia Mas | Greek | Only for us | 9 | 72 |
| 06 | Malta
|
Miriam Christine | In A Woman's Heart | English | -- | 10 | 68 |
| 07 | Croatia
|
Maja Blagdan | Sveta ljubav | Croatian | Divine love | 4 | 98 |
| 08 | Austria
|
George Nussbaumer | Weil's dr guat got | Vorarlbergish | Because you feel good | 11 | 68 |
| 09 | Switzerland
|
Kathy Leander | Mon cœur l'aime | French | My heart loves him | 17 | 22 |
| 10 | Greece
|
Mariana Efstratiou | Emeis Forame to Himona Anixiatika | Greek | We wear spring clothes in winter time | 14 | 36 |
| 11 | Estonia
|
Maarja-Liis Ilus & Ivo Linna | Kaelakee hääl | Estonian | Sound of necklace | 5 | 94 |
| 12 |  Norway
|
Elisabeth Andreassen | I Evighet | Norwegian | For eternity | 2 | 114 |
| 13 | France
|
Dan Ar Braz & L'Héritage des Celtes | Diwanit Bugale | Breton | May you blossom, children | 19 | 18 |
| 14 | Slovenia
|
Regina | Dan najlepših sanj | Slovene | The day of the most beautiful dream | 21 | 16 |
| 15 | The Netherlands
|
Maxine & Franklin Brown | De eerste keer | Dutch | The first time | 7 | 78 |
| 16 | Belgium
|
Lisa del Bo | Liefde is een Kaartspel | Love is a cardgame | 16 | 22 | |
| 17 | Ireland
|
Eimear Quinn | The Voice | English | -- | 1 | 162 |
| 18 | Finland
|
Jasmine Valentin | Niin kaunis on taivas | Finnish | So beautiful is the sky | 23 | 9 |
| 19 | Iceland
|
Anna Mjöll | Sjúbídú | Icelandic | Shooby-doo | 13 | 51 |
| 20 | Poland
|
Kasia Kowalska | Chcę znać swój grzech... | Polish | I want to know my sin | 15 | 31 |
| 21 | Bosnia and Herzegovina
|
Amila Glamočak | Za našu ljubav | Bosnian | For our love | 22 | 13 |
| 22 | Slovakia
|
Marcel Palonder | Kým nás máš | Slovak | As long as you have us | 18 | 19 |
| 23 | Sweden
|
One More Time | Den vilda | Swedish | The wild one | 3 | 100 |
Trivia[]
- This is the second straight year where Sweden placed third with 100 points.
- Despite coming three places lower than their best-ever placing, Turkey's Beşinci Mevsim scored the most points for the country before 1997, with 59.
- This is the last year where all the contestants used the orchestra to some extent: starting in 1997, which made instruments on stage optional, a number of the countries would use playback.
- With France's song using the Breton language, Switzerland's entry was the only French-language song that year.
- Anabel Conde, Nucha, Yiannis Dimitras, and Justyna were all jury members for their respective countries.
- The national juries also featured future representatives Paul Oscar and Pinar.
- The 1996 contest logo was stylized as "Euro Song '96". It was the name of the fictitious Eurovision-style competition in the classic Father Ted episode "A Song for Europe".
- Christine Marchal-Ortiz became the first woman to hold the title of Executive Supervisor.
- Co-presenter Morten Harket participated in the second series of the UK version of The Masked Singer in 2021 and was unmasked as the Viking, finishing in 7th place. He managed to stump the panel despite singing his own song "Take On Me" as one of his performances.
- Bulgaria was listed amongst the participating countries for the 1996 contest, but they ended up not sending a song to the pre-qualification round.
- This was the only time Slovakia made it through a qualifying round.
