Eurovision Song Contest 1976

[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.

The Swedish withdrawal forced the introduction of a new rule in which from 1977 onwards, registration and maintenance fees would be introduced for each of the participating broadcasters, which was meant for financing future contests.

[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.

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.

During the live broadcast, France failed to announce the 4 points they awarded to Yugoslavia, an error overlooked by the scrutineer, Clifford Brown.

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.

A coloured map of the countries of Europe Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 1976 Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 1976 Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 1976 Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1976 Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 1976 United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1976 Monaco in the Eurovision Song Contest 1976 Luxembourg in the Eurovision Song Contest 1976 Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 1976 Yugoslavia in the Eurovision Song Contest 1976 Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1976 Denmark in the Eurovision Song Contest Denmark in the Eurovision Song Contest Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1976 Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 1976 Portugal in the Eurovision Song Contest 1976 Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 1976 Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 1976 Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest 1976 France in the Eurovision Song Contest 1976 Turkey in the Eurovision Song Contest
Nederlands Congresgebouw – host venue of the 1976 contest.