Eurovision Song Contest 1996 participants | Eurovision Song Contest News - 2008 Belgrade, Serbia 

The relegation system was replaced by a qualification system. Only last years winner, Norway, was admitted directly into the contest, all the other potential participants (29 countries), competed in a.. More..

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Date of the Eurovision Song Contest 1996: 18 May 1996
Location: Specktrum, Oslo, Norway
Broadcaster: NRK
Host(s): Morten Harket and Ingvild Bryn
Participating countries: 23
Voting: Each country allocated 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point to the top 10 of the national jury in descending order.

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Eurovision Song Contest 1996

		country	participant(s)	song	pts	rnk
	17	Ireland	Eimear Quinn	The voice	162	1
	12	Norway	Elisabeth Andreasson	I evighet	114	2
	23	Sweden	One More Time	Den vilda	100	3
	7	Croatia	Maja Blagdan	Sveta ljubav	98	4
	11	Estonia	Ivo Linna and Maarja-Liis Ilus	Kaelakee hääl	94	5
	4	Portugal	Lúcia Moniz	O meu coração não tem cor	92	6
	15	The Netherlands	Maxine and Franklin Brown	De eerste keer	78	7
	2	United Kingdom	Gina G	Just a little bit	77	8
	5	Cyprus	Constantinos	Mono gia mas	72	9
	8	Austria	George Nußbaumer	Weil's dr guat got	68	10
	6	Malta	Miriam Christine	In a woman's heart	68	10
	1	Turkey	Sebnem Paker	Besinçi mevsim	57	12
	19	Iceland	Anna Mjöll	Sjúbídú	51	13
	10	Greece	Marianna Efstratiou	Emis forame to himona anixiatika	36	14
	20	Poland	Kasia Kowalska	Chce znac swój grzech	31	15
	9	Switzerland	Cathy Leander	Mon coeur l'aime	22	16
	16	Belgium	Lisa del Bo	Liefde is een kaartspel	22	16
	22	Slovakia	Marcel Palonder	Kým nás máš	19	18
	13	France	Dan Ar Braz et l'Héritage des Celtes	Diwanit bugale	18	19
	3	Spain	Antonio Carbonell	¡Ay, qué deseo!	17	20
	14	Slovenia	Regina	Dan najlepših sanj	16	21
	21	Bosnia & Herzegovina	Amila Glamocak	Za našu ljubav	13	22
	18	Finland	Jasmine	Niin kaunis on taivas	9	23

Click here for a full crostable of the votes (available after the contest)

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The relegation system was replaced by a qualification system. Only last years winner, Norway, was admitted directly into the contest, all the other potential participants (29 countries), competed in an audio-preselection (songs were judged only by listening to them) for 22 places. Germany, Israel, Denmark, Hungary, Russia, FYR Macedonia and Romania failed to qualify for the actual final. The Norwegian broadcaster NRK tried to modernize the contest. For example virtual reality was used to visualize the voting. In the introduction postcards every participant received the best wishes from a government representative (for example the prime minister). Ireland got it's seventh victory, the fourth in five years.