Eurovision Song Contest 1986

The Eurovision Song Contest 1986 was the 31st edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Bergen, Norway, following the country's victory at the 1985 contest with the song "La det swinge" by Bobbysocks! Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Norsk rikskringkasting (NRK), the contest was held at Grieghallen on 3 May 1986 and was hosted by previous Norwegian contestant Åse Kleveland.

Eurovision Song Contest 1986
Dates
Final3 May 1986
Host
VenueGrieghallen
Bergen, Norway
Presenter(s)Åse Kleveland
Musical directorEgil Monn-Iversen
Directed byJohn Andreassen
Executive supervisorFrank Naef
Executive producerHarald Tusberg
Host broadcasterNorsk rikskringkasting (NRK)
Websiteeurovision.tv/event/bergen-1986
Participants
Number of entries20
Debuting countries Iceland
Returning countries
Non-returning countries
Participation map
  • A coloured map of the countries of Europe
         Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1986
Vote
Voting systemEach country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 point(s) to their 10 favourite songs
Winning song Belgium
"J'aime la vie"

Twenty countries took part in this years contest with Greece and Italy deciding not to participate and Yugoslavia and Netherlands returning. Iceland also competed for the first time this year.

The winner was Belgium with the song "J'aime la vie" by Sandra Kim. Belgium was the last of the original 7 countries that had competed in the very first contest to win. Aged 13, Kim was the youngest ever Eurovision winner. Current rules require Eurovision Song Contest participants to be at least 16, so unless the rule is changed, Kim's record will never be broken. In the lyrics of her song, Kim claimed to be 15 years of age, but after the contest, it was revealed that she was actually 13. Switzerland, who finished second, appealed for her to be disqualified, but was not successful.

The 1986 contest was a first for Eurovision in that royalty were among the guests—Crown Prince Harald, Crown Princess Sonja, Princess Märtha Louise and Prince Haakon Magnus were all in attendance.

Background
Locations of the candidate cities. The chosen host city is marked in blue.
Grieghallen, Bergen – host venue of the 1986 contest.

By 1985, Norway had received the unwanted distinction of being "the nul points country," receiving 0 points three times and coming in last six times. When they finally won the 1985 contest, it was a source of pride among the Norwegian population, and the national broadcaster, NRK, took full advantage of being able to showcase Norway and its achievements in front of over 500 million television viewers. By the autumn of 1985, NRK had decided to hold the next year's contest at the Grieghallen in Bergen, turning down other bids from capital Oslo, and main cities of Stavanger, Sandnes and Trondheim. Bergen is the northernmost city to have ever hosted the Eurovision Song Contest.

As this was the first time Norway hosted a Eurovision Song Contest, NRK commissioned a lavish budget for the event, turning Grieghallen into a Viking-esque "ice palace" for the live show, complete with white and pastel neon lights for the stage. In addition, NRK also had a special diamond-encrusted dress made for presenter Åse Kleveland for her opening number. The prized dress, which weighed upwards of 15 pounds (6.8 kg), is still available for viewing at NRK's costuming department at Marienlyst in Oslo.

Åse Kleveland, a well-known folk guitarist and singer, who was President of the Norwegian Association of Musicians and a former Eurovision entrant in 1966, sang the multilingual "Welcome to Music" as the opening act, incorporating English and French primarily, in addition to other European languages. BBC commentator Terry Wogan, at the close of Kleveland's number, dryly remarked, "Katie Boyle (a former Eurovision host for the UK) never sang, did she?"

During her opening speech, Kleveland said of Norway's road in the contest, "For those of you who have followed Norway's course through the history of the Eurovision Song Contest, you will know that it has been quite thorny, in fact. So, imagine our joy when last year we finally won, and the pleasure we feel today, being able to welcome 700 million viewers to the top of Europe, to Norway, and to Bergen."

The intersong videos introducing each participant, traditionally named 'postcards' were for the only time, represented as actual picture postcards sent from the artists to your own nation. Each video began with clips of various scenic views of a part of Norway, which then 'flipped' to reveal a message of greeting, written in the language of the upcoming song, alongside details of the title, author and composer. The postage stamp on each card (a representation of a genuine Norwegian postage stamp) was linked to the theme of the video content. The postcard then 'flipped' back to the picture side, where the performing artist had been superimposed onto the image. After the video, Åse Kleveland gave details of the entry and introduced the conductors in a mix of English and French, reading from cards represented by the flag of the upcoming country.

The main interval act presented featured Norwegian musicians, a hitherto unknown young woman outside of Norway, Sissel Kyrkjebø and the musician Steinar Ofsdal, accompanied by Norwegian national broadcasting orchestra, Kringkastingsorkesteret (KORK). They opened with the traditional song of the city of Bergen, Udsikter fra Ulriken (also known as "Nystemte'n"), and presented a number of familiar tunes while showing the sights and sounds of Bergen area. Ofsdal played a range of traditional Norwegian folk instruments such as accordion, recorder and hardingfele. This was Kyrkjebø's first performance on an international event, which served as the starting point for a consolidated international career years later.

Participating countries
Further information: List of countries in the Eurovision Song Contest

Iceland competed for the first time, as the national broadcaster RÚV had finally cemented their satellite television connections with the rest of Europe.[1]

Greece withdrew, as the contest coincided with Holy Saturday on the Eastern Orthodox Church liturgical calendar. Their entry would have been "Wagon-lit" (Βάγκον λι), performed by Polina, who was backing vocalist of Elpida at the 1979 contest (Elpida represented Cyprus this year). Prior to their withdrawal, they were set to be 18th in the running order between Sweden and Denmark.[2] Italian broadcaster RAI, on the other hand, decided not to send any delegation to Bergen.

Participants of the Eurovision Song Contest 1986[2][3][4][5]
Country Broadcaster Artist Song Language Songwriter(s) Conductor
 Austria ORF Timna Brauer "Die Zeit ist einsam" German
Richard Oesterreicher
 Belgium RTBF Sandra Kim "J'aime la vie" French
  • Angelo Crisci
  • Jean-Pierre Furnémont
  • Rosario Marino
 Jo Carlier
 Cyprus CyBC Elpida "Tora zo" (Τώρα ζω) Greek
  • Phivos Gavris
  • Peter Yiannaki
 Martyn Ford
 Denmark DR Lise Haavik "Du er fuld af løgn" Danish John Hatting Egil Monn-Iversen
 Finland YLE Kari "Never the End" Finnish[lower-alpha 1] Kari Kuivalainen Ossi Runne
 France Antenne 2 Cocktail Chic "Européennes" French
  • Georges Costa
  • Michel Costa
 Jean-Claude Petit
 Germany BR[lower-alpha 2] Ingrid Peters "Über die Brücke geh'n" German Hans Blum Hans Blum
 Iceland RÚV ICY "Gleðibankinn" Icelandic Magnús Eiríksson Gunnar Þórðarson
 Ireland RTÉ Luv Bug "You Can Count On Me" English Kevin Sheerin Noel Kelehan
 Israel IBA Moti Giladi and Sarai Tzuriel "Yavo Yom" (יבוא יום) Hebrew
Yoram Zadok
 Luxembourg CLT Sherisse Laurence "L'Amour de ma vie" French
Rolf Soja
 Netherlands NOS Frizzle Sizzle "Alles heeft ritme" Dutch
  • Rob ten Bokum
  • Peter Schön
 Harry van Hoof
 Norway NRK Ketil Stokkan "Romeo" Norwegian Ketil Stokkan Egil Monn-Iversen
 Portugal RTP Dora "Não sejas mau p'ra mim" Portuguese
  • Guilherme Inês
  • Luís Oliveira
  • Zé da Ponte
 Colin Frechter
 Spain TVE Cadillac "Valentino" Spanish José Maria Guzmán Eduardo Leiva
 Sweden SVT Lasse Holm and Monica Törnell "E' de' det här du kallar kärlek" Swedish Lasse Holm Anders Berglund
  Switzerland SRG SSR Daniela Simons "Pas pour moi" French
Atilla Şereftuğ
 Turkey TRT Klips ve Onlar "Halley" Turkish[lower-alpha 3]
Melih Kibar
 United Kingdom BBC Ryder "Runner in the Night" English
  • Maureen Darbyshire
  • Brian Wade
 No conductor
 Yugoslavia JRT Doris Dragović "Željo moja" (Жељо моја) Serbo-Croatian Zrinko Tutić Nikica Kalogjera

Returning artists
Artist Country Previous year(s)
Elpida  Cyprus 1979 (for  Greece)

Contest overview
Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1986[7]
R/O Country Artist Song Points Place
1  Luxembourg Sherisse Laurence "L'Amour de ma vie" 117 3
2  Yugoslavia Doris Dragović "Željo moja" 49 11
3  France Cocktail Chic "Européennes" 13 17
4  Norway Ketil Stokkan "Romeo" 44 12
5  United Kingdom Ryder "Runner in the Night" 72 7
6  Iceland ICY "Gleðibankinn" 19 16
7  Netherlands Frizzle Sizzle "Alles heeft ritme" 40 13
8  Turkey Klips ve Onlar "Halley" 53 9
9  Spain Cadillac "Valentino" 51 10
10   Switzerland Daniela Simons "Pas pour moi" 140 2
11  Israel Moti Giladi and Sarai Tzuriel "Yavo Yom" 7 19
12  Ireland Luv Bug "You Can Count On Me" 96 4
13  Belgium Sandra Kim "J'aime la vie" 176 1
14  Germany Ingrid Peters "Über die Brücke geh'n" 62 8
15  Cyprus Elpida "Tora zo" 4 20
16  Austria Timna Brauer "Die Zeit ist einsam" 12 18
17  Sweden Lasse Holm and Monica Törnell "E' de' det här du kallar kärlek" 78 5
18  Denmark Lise Haavik "Du er fuld af løgn" 77 6
19  Finland Kari "Never the End" 22 15
20  Portugal Dora "Não sejas mau p'ra mim" 28 14

Spokespersons

Each country nominated a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1986 contest are listed below.

Detailed voting results

The winning song, Belgium's "J'aime la vie", received points from every jury (Belgium received five sets of 12 points; every country awarded Belgium at least five points except for Germany, which gave them just one point). Belgium was the leader in the voting from the results of the second jury out of twenty, in the longest winning stretch during voting since 1974. Switzerland was behind Belgium in nearly every part of the voting, but Belgium had a commanding lead from the very beginning. Traditionally some juries give high points to the host country's entrant, but this did not happen this year; no jury gave Norway's song "Romeo" more than six points out of a possible 12.

Belgium scored an absolute record at the time, with Sandra Kim earning a never seen before number of 176 points (that record remained seven years until the 1993 contest, with Ireland scoring 187 points), an average of 9.26 points per voting nation. Kim received 77.2% of the maximum possible score, which, as of 2023, still ranks 8th among all Eurovision winners.

Detailed voting results[10][11]
Total score
Luxembourg
Yugoslavia
France
Norway
United Kingdom
Iceland
Netherlands
Turkey
Spain
Switzerland
Israel
Ireland
Belgium
Germany
Cyprus
Austria
Sweden
Denmark
Finland
Portugal
Contestants
 Luxembourg 1175812818247101281010246
Yugoslavia 492757331341211
France 13373
Norway 44442665665
United Kingdom 724106624252388102
Iceland 1952642
Netherlands 401271810137
Turkey 536122683682
Spain 517461281537313
Switzerland 14012675531210412101254124710
Israel 7115
Ireland 9638328512621271288
Belgium 176101012810101012101051211066101212
Germany 6281128785724
Cyprus 431
Austria 1221261
Sweden 78572731237124565
Denmark 77510674531047745
Finland 22611833
Portugal 28444871

12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final:

N. Contestant Nation(s) giving 12 points
5  Belgium Finland,  France,  Ireland,  Portugal,  Turkey
  Switzerland Belgium,  Israel,  Luxembourg,  Netherlands,  Sweden
3  Ireland Austria,  Denmark,  Spain
2  Luxembourg Germany,  Norway
 Sweden Iceland,   Switzerland
1  Germany United Kingdom
 Turkey Yugoslavia
 Yugoslavia Cyprus

Broadcasts

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.[12] 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
Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Austria ORF FS1 Ernst Grissemann [13][14]
 Belgium RTBF RTBF1 Patrick Duhamel [15][16]
BRT TV1 Luc Appermont [15][16]
 Cyprus CyBC RIK Neophytos Taliotis [17]
 Denmark DR DR TV Jørgen de Mylius [18]
 Finland YLE TV1 Kari Lumikero [19]
2-verkko Unknown
 France Antenne 2 Patrice Laffont [20]
 Germany ARD Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen Ado Schlier [13][16][21]
 Iceland RÚV Sjónvarpið Þorgeir Ástvaldsson [22]
 Ireland RTÉ RTÉ 1 Brendan Balfe [23][24]
RTÉ Radio 1 Larry Gogan
 Israel IBA Israeli Television Unknown [25]
Reshet Gimel Unknown
 Luxembourg CLT RTL Télévision Unknown [15][26]
RTL plus Unknown
 Netherlands NOS Nederland 1 Leo van der Goot [16][26]
 Norway NRK NRK Fjernsynet, NRK P1, NRK P2 Knut Bjørnsen [27][28]
 Portugal RTP RTP1 Unknown [29]
 Spain TVE TVE 2 Antonio Gómez Mateo [30][31]
 Sweden SVT TV1 Ulf Elfving [9][19][28]
RR SR P3 Jacob Dahlin [9][28]
  Switzerland SRG SSR TV DRS Bernard Thurnheer [13][20][32]
TSR[lower-alpha 4] Serge Moisson
TSI Unknown
 Turkey TRT TRT Televizyon Gülgün Baysal [33][34]
 United Kingdom BBC BBC1 Terry Wogan [2][35][36]
BBC Radio 2 Ray Moore
 Yugoslavia JRT TV Beograd 1 Unknown [37][38][39][40]
TV Koper-Capodistria Unknown
TV Ljubljana 1 Unknown
TV Zagreb 1 Ksenija Urličić
Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries
Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Australia SBS SBS TV[lower-alpha 5] Terry Wogan [41]
 Czechoslovakia ČST ČST2[lower-alpha 6] Unknown [42]
 Hungary MTV MTV1 Unknown [43]
 Poland TP TP1[lower-alpha 7] Unknown [44]
 Soviet Union CT USSR Programme One[lower-alpha 8] Boris Vassin [45][46]

Notes
  1. Contains some words in English
  2. On behalf of the German public broadcasting consortium ARD[6]
  3. Contains some words in English, French, and Italian
  4. Broadcast through a second audio programme on TSI[20]
  5. Deferred broadcast on 4 May at 19:30 AEST (09:30 UTC)[41]
  6. Delayed broadcast on 2 June 1986 at 17:15 CEST (15:15 UTC)[42]
  7. Delayed broadcast on 24 May 1986 at 20:00 CEST (18:00 UTC)[44]
  8. Delayed broadcast on 30 May 1986 at 22:15 MSD (18:15 UTC)[45]

References
  1. "History - Eurovision Song Contest 1986". Eurovision.tv. Archived from the original on 2008-08-02.
  2. Roxburgh, Gordon (2017). Songs For Europe - The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Volume Three: The 1980s. UK: Telos Publishing. pp. 265–276. ISBN 978-1-84583-118-9.
  3. "Participants of Bergen 1986". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 31 March 2023. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  4. "1986 – 31st edition". diggiloo.net. Archived from the original on 22 March 2022. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  5. "Detailed overview: conductors in 1986". And the conductor is... Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  6. "Alle deutschen ESC-Acts und ihre Titel" [All German ESC acts and their songs]. www.eurovision.de (in German). ARD. Archived from the original on 12 June 2023. Retrieved 12 June 2023.
  7. "Final of Bergen 1986". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 16 April 2021. Retrieved 16 April 2021.
  8. "Þjóðviljinn, 01.05.1986". Timarit.is. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  9. Thorsson, Leif; Verhage, Martin (2006). Melodifestivalen genom tiderna : de svenska uttagningarna och internationella finalerna (in Swedish). Stockholm: Premium Publishing. pp. 188–189. ISBN 91-89136-29-2.
  10. "Results of the Final of Bergen 1986". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 16 April 2021. Retrieved 16 April 2021.
  11. "Eurovision Song Contest 1986 – Scoreboard". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  12. "The Rules of the Contest". European Broadcasting Union. 31 October 2018. Archived from the original on 4 October 2022. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
  13. "TV + Radio · Samstag". Bieler Tagblatt (in German). Bien, Switzerland. 3 May 1986. p. 28. Retrieved 14 January 2023 – via e-newspaperarchives.ch.
  14. Halbhuber, Axel (22 May 2015). "Ein virtueller Disput der ESC-Kommentatoren". Kurier (in German). Archived from the original on 23 May 2015. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
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  40. "RTV program". Slobodna Dalmacija (in Serbo-Croatian). Split, SR Croatia, Yugoslavia. 3 May 1986. pp. 13, 16. Retrieved 14 January 2023.
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