Eighteen countries took part in the contest with Sweden, Malta and Turkey opting not to return to the contest after participating the previous year. Malta would not return to the contest again until 1991. On the other hand, Austria and Greece returned to the competition, having been absent since 1972 and 1974 respectively.
The United Kingdom won the contest this year with the song "Save Your Kisses for Me" by Brotherhood of Man.[1] The song went on to become the biggest selling winning single in the history of the contest and won with 80.39% of the possible maximum score and an average of 9.65 of 12; a record under the voting system introduced in 1975.[2]
Location
Nederlands Congresgebouw – host venue of the 1976 contest.
The Hague is the seat of government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the capital city of the province of South Holland. It is also the third-largest city in the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Located in the west of the Netherlands, The Hague is in the centre of the Haaglandenconurbation and lies at the southwest corner of the larger Randstad conurbation. The contest took place at the Congresgebouw (presently known as the World Forum). The venue was constructed in 1969.
Sweden, Malta and Turkey all decided not to participate this year, while Austria and Greece returned to the contest, making for eighteen participating countries.[1]
Sweden did not enter the contest as broadcaster Sveriges Radio (SR) did not have enough money to host another contest if Sweden should win again. A new rule was therefore introduced that in the future each participating broadcaster would have to pay a part of the cost of staging the contest. However, the introduction of a participation fee lead to Malta withdrawing from the Eurovision Song Contest 1976, despite already confirming participation and accepting submissions for their planned national final.[3][4] As the author and historian John Kennedy O'Connor notes in his book The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History, there had been public demonstrations in Sweden against the contest, which also played a part in SR's decision not to take part.[5][6]
Following the confirmation of the eighteen competing countries, the draw to determine the running order of the contest was held on 8 January 1976.[10]
As with the Dutch hosted contest of 1970, each song was introduced by a pre-recorded film of the performing artist on location in their home nation. Unlike the 1970 films, the Dutch broadcaster made all of the films themselves, sending a crew to each nation to capture the footage. Both the artists from Monaco and Luxembourg were filmed in their respective nations, despite again not being from the country they were representing. Each film was preceded by an animated insert featuring the flags of the eighteen participating nations and ended with a profile shot of the artists.
The interval act was The Dutch Swing College Band led by Peter Schilperoort, who performed live on the stage, intercut with brief interviews with the artists from France, Israel, Austria, Belgium and Spain backstage in the green room conducted by Hans van Willigenburg. Willigenburg asked each of the five artists which song they thought would win, but only French singer Catherine Ferry was willing to give a definite answer; correctly predicting the United Kingdom.
The scoring system introduced in the previous year's competition returned in 1976. Each jury voted internally and awarded 12 points to the highest scoring song, 10 to the second highest, then 8 to the third, and then 7 to 1 (from fourth to tenth best song, according to the jury). Unlike today, the points were not given in order (from 1 up to 12), but in the order the songs were performed. The current procedure was not established until 1980 (also held in The Hague).
Contest overview
The following tables reflect the officially verified scores given by each jury, adjusted after the transmission. During the live broadcast, France failed to announce the 4 points they awarded to Yugoslavia, an error overlooked by the scrutineer, Clifford Brown. Thus in the live show, Norway were placed 17th and Yugoslavia 18th. After the broadcast, the scores were adjusted and the two nations swapped places, with Yugoslavia's score being adjusted from 6 to 10 points, moving Norway down to last place.
In terms of points gained as a percentage of maximum available, the winning UK entry from Brotherhood of Man is statistically the most successful winning Eurovision entry since the introduction of the 'douze points' scoring system inaugurated in 1975.[b]
Each country nominated a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1976 contest are listed below.
Each participating broadcaster was required to relay the contest via its networks. Non-participating EBU member broadcasters were also able to relay the contest as "passive participants". Broadcasters were able to send commentators to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language and to relay information about the artists and songs to their television viewers.[1][16]
The contest was reportedly broadcast in 33 countries, including the participating countries, EBU member broadcasters in Algeria, Morocco, Iceland, Tunisia and Turkey, in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and the Soviet Union via Intervision, and in Hong Kong, Japan and Mexico.[8][17][18] There were also reportedly 27 television and 17 radio commentator teams present at the contest.[17] At least 25 radio stations from 8 countries were reported to have broadcast the contest. There was an estimated global audience of 450 to 500 million television viewers and 80 million listeners.[18][19]
Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.
Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries
^On behalf of the German public broadcasting consortium ARD[9]
^As noted on a TOTP2 Eurovision special, the 1997 Katrina and the Waves entry Love Shine a light ranks third in the rankings of points achieved as a percentage of maximum available with 227 out of 288 or 78.81%, behind Nicole's "Ein bißchen Frieden" in 1982 (161 out of 204 or 78.92%) and Brotherhood of Man's "Save Your Kisses for Me" in 1976 (164 out of 204 or 80.39%). For comparison, Elena Paparizou's 2005 win took 230 points out of a possible 456, or only 50.04% while Portugal's dominant 2017 win from Salvador Sobral took 758 points from a possible 984 available, equating to 77.04%.
^Delayed broadcast in a shortened format on 8 August 1976 at 15:33 (CET)[52]
^Delayed broadcast on 25 April 1976 at 20:35 (WET)[53]
^Delayed broadcast in a shortened format on 17 April 1976 at 21:10 (EET)[54]
^Deferred broadcast in a shortened format at 01:15 (CET)[55]
^Delayed broadcast in a shortened format on 29 April 1976 at 21:40 (EET)[56]
^O'Connor, John Kennedy (2007). The Eurovision Song Contest: The Official History. UK: Carlton Books. ISBN978-1-84442-994-3.
^"Malta's Participation In Euro Song Festival". Times of Malta. 12 September 1975. p. 9.
^"Malta out of Eurovision Song Contest". Times of Malta. 5 November 1975. p. 9.
^O'Connor, John Kennedy (2007). The Eurovision Song Contest: The Official History. UK: Carlton Books. pp. 64–67. ISBN978-1-84442-994-3.
^Thorsson, Leif; Verhage, Martin (2006). Melodifestivalen genom tiderna : de svenska uttagningarna och internationella finalerna (in Swedish). Stockholm: Premium Publishing. pp. 120–121. ISBN91-89136-29-2.
^ abcdRoxburgh, Gordon (2014). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Volume Two: The 1970s. Prestatyn: Telos Publishing. pp. 227–243. ISBN978-1-84583-093-9.
^Tobin, Robert (2023). "Queer Camp against Franco: Iván Zulueta's Eurovision Song Contest Parody Un Dos Tres". In Dubin, Adam; Vuletic, Dean; Obregón, Antonio (eds.). The Eurovision Song Contest as a Cultural Phenomenon : From Concert Halls to the Halls of Academia. London; New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. p. 180. doi:10.4324/9781003188933-15. ISBN978-1-03-203774-5.
^"Τό ραδιόφωνον" [The radio]. Makedonia (in Greek). Thessaloniki, Greece. 3 April 1976. p. 3. Retrieved 21 September 2024 – via National Library of Greece.
^"radioprogrammen" [radio programmes]. Svenska Dagbladet (in Swedish). Stockholm, Sweden. 3 April 1976. p. 31.
^"Televizyon" [Television]. Cumhuriyet (in Turkish). Istanbul, Turkey. 3 April 1976. p. 6. Archived from the original on 9 January 2023. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
