Eurovision Song Contest 1986

Eurovision Song Contest 1986

Dates
Final	3 May 1986
Host
Venue	Grieghallen Bergen, Norway
Presenter(s)	Åse Kleveland
Musical director	Egil Monn-Iversen
Directed by	John Andreassen
Executive supervisor	Frank Naef
Executive producer	Harald Tusberg
Host broadcaster	Norsk rikskringkasting (NRK)
Opening act	"Welcome to Music" performed by Åse Kleveland
Interval act	"Bergensiana" performed by Sissel Kyrkjebø and Steinar Ofsdal
Website	eurovision.tv/event/bergen-1986
Participants
Number of entries	20
Debuting countries	Iceland
Returning countries	Netherlands Yugoslavia
Non-returning countries	Greece Italy
hide Participation map Participating countries Countries that participated in the past but not in 1986
Vote
Voting system	Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 point(s) to their 10 favourite songs
Nul points	None
Winning song	Belgium "J'aime la vie"
1985 ← Eurovision Song Contest → 1987

The Eurovision Song Contest 1986 was the 31st Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 3 May 1986 in Grieghallen in Bergen, Norway. It was the first occasion on which Norway played host to the contest. The presenter was Åse Kleveland, a well-known folk guitarist who was President of the Norwegian Association of Musicians (and a former Eurovision entrant, in 1966).

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.

Sandra Kim was the winner of this Eurovision with the song "J'aime la vie", representing Belgium. 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 it was not successful.

Background[]

Oslo

Stavanger

Sandnes

Trondheim

Bergen

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 did win the 1985 Contest, it was a source of pride among 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.

Kleveland 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 to each 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.

One of the interval acts presented featured Norwegian musicians Sissel Kyrkjebø and 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.^[1] The presentation launched Kyrkjebø into a career as an internationally recognized artist.

Changes in participation[]

Iceland competed for the first time, as the national broadcaster RÚV had finally cemented their satellite television connections with the rest of Europe.^[2]

Greece withdrew, having been drawn eighteenth in the running order, as the contest coincided with Holy Saturday. 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 in this year). ^[3]^[4] Italian broadcaster RAI decided not to send any delegation to Bergen.

Conductors[]

Luxembourg -
Yugoslavia -
France - Jean-Claude Petit
Norway - Egil Monn-Iversen
United Kingdom - no conductor
Iceland -
Netherlands - Harry van Hoof
Turkey - Melih Kibar
Spain -
Switzerland - Atilla Şereftuğ
Israel -
Ireland - Noel Kelehan
Belgium -
Germany - Hans Blum
Cyprus - Martyn Ford
Austria -
Sweden - Anders Berglund
Denmark - Egil Monn-Iversen
Finland - Ossi Runne
Portugal - Colin Frechter

Results[]

Draw	Country	Artist	Song	Language^[5]^[6]	Place^[7]	Points
01	Luxembourg	Sherisse Laurence	"L'amour de ma vie"	French	3	117
02	Yugoslavia	Doris Dragović	"Željo moja" (Жељо моја)	Serbo-Croatian	11	49
03	France	Cocktail Chic	"Européennes"	French	17	13
04	Norway	Ketil Stokkan	"Romeo"	Norwegian	12	44
05	United Kingdom	Ryder	"Runner in the Night"	English	7	72
06	Iceland	ICY	"Gleðibankinn"	Icelandic	16	19
07	Netherlands	Frizzle Sizzle	"Alles heeft ritme"	Dutch	13	40
08	Turkey	Klips ve Onlar	"Halley"	Turkish^[a]	9	53
09	Spain	Cadillac	"Valentino"	Spanish	10	51
10	Switzerland	Daniela Simmons	"Pas pour moi"	French	2	140
11	Israel	Moti Giladi &	"Yavo Yom" (יבוא יום)	Hebrew	19	7
12	Ireland	Luv Bug	"You Can Count On Me"	English	4	96
13	Belgium	Sandra Kim	"J'aime la vie"	French	1	176
14	Germany	Ingrid Peters	"Über die Brücke geh'n"	German	8	62
15	Cyprus	Elpida	"Tora zo" (Τώρα ζω)	Greek	20	4
16	Austria	Timna Brauer	"Die Zeit ist einsam"	German	18	12
17	Sweden	Lasse Holm & Monica Törnell	"E' de' det här du kallar kärlek?"	Swedish	5	78
18	Denmark	Lise Haavik	"Du er fuld af løgn"	Danish	6	77
19	Finland	Kari Kuivalainen	"Never the End"	Finnish	15	22
20	Portugal	Dora	"Não sejas mau para mim"	Portuguese	14	28

Voting[]

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 winner 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 until 1993, 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 2019, still ranks 8th among all Eurovision winners.

Scoreboard[]

Voting results^[8]
		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	117		5	8	12	8	1	8			2	4	7	10	12	8	10	10	2	4	6
	Yugoslavia	49	2				7	5	7	3	3		1	3	4		12	1	1
	France	13				3						7							3
	Norway	44			4			4	2			6		6	5	6	6			5
	United Kingdom	72	4		10	6				6	2	4	2			5	2	3	8	8	10	2
	Iceland	19							5	2	6						4		2
	Netherlands	40	1	2						7	1		8			10	1				3	7
	Turkey	53	6	12			2		6			8	3		6	8		2
	Spain	51	7	4	6		1	2		8		1		5	3			7		3	1	3
	Switzerland	140	12	6	7	5	5	3	12	10	4		12	10	12		5	4	12	4	7	10
	Israel	7			1	1						5
	Ireland	96	3	8	3	2		8		5	12		6		2			12	7	12	8	8
	Belgium	176	10	10	12	8	10	10	10	12	10	10	5	12		1	10	6	6	10	12	12
	Germany	62	8	1			12							8	7			8	5	7	2	4
	Cyprus	4		3										1
	Austria	12												2	1	2					6	1
	Sweden	78	5	7	2	7	3	12	3		7	12				4		5		6	5
	Denmark	77			5	10	6	7	4		5	3	10	4		7	7		4			5
	Finland	22						6	1	1					8	3	3
	Portugal	28				4	4			4	8		7							1

As the free language rule was still cancelled, all songs were performed in native languages to the country they represented. All songs however, with the exception of the song from Cyprus, have had studio versions recorded by the original Eurovision artists in English as well as their own languages.

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
5	Switzerland	Belgium, Israel, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Sweden
3	Ireland	Austria, Denmark, Spain
2	Luxembourg	Germany, Norway
2	Sweden	Iceland, Switzerland
1	Germany	United Kingdom
	Turkey	Yugoslavia
	Yugoslavia	Cyprus

Returning artists[]

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

Commentators[]

Television[]

Participating countries[]

Luxembourg – Valérie Sarn (RTL Télévision),^[9] Matthias Krings (RTL plus)
Yugoslavia – Mladen Popović (TVB1), Ksenija Urličić (TVZ 1), Miša Molk (TVL1)
France – Patrice Laffont (Antenne 2)^[9]
Norway – Knut Bjørnsen (NRK)^[10]
United Kingdom – Terry Wogan (BBC 1)^[11]
Iceland – Þorgeir Ástvaldsson (Sjónvarpið)^[12]
Netherlands – Leo van der Goot (Nederland 1)^[13]
Turkey – Gülgün Baysal (TRT)^[14]
Spain – Antonio Gómez Mateo (TVE2)^[15]
Switzerland – German: Bernard Thurnheer (DRS), French: Serge Moisson (TSR), Italian: Ezio Guidi (TSI)
Israel – No commentator
Ireland – Brendan Balfe (RTÉ 1)
Belgium – French: Patrick Duhamel (RTBF La Une),^[16]^[17] Dutch: Luc Appermont (BRT TV1)^[18]
Germany – Ado Schlier (Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen)^[19]
Cyprus – Neophytos Taliotis (RIK)^[20]
Austria – Ernst Grissemann (FS1)^[21]
Sweden – Ulf Elfving (SVT, TV1)^[22]
Denmark – Jørgen de Mylius (DR TV)^[23]
Finland – Heikki Harma and Kari Lumikero (YLE TV1)^[24]
Portugal – Fialho Gouveia (RTP1)^[25]

Non-participating countries[]

Australia - N/A (SBS)
Greece – Mako Georgiadou (ERT)
Hungary – István Vágó ()

Radio[]

Some participating countries did not provide radio broadcasts for the event; the ones who did are listed below.

Luxembourg – André Torrent (RTL Radio)
France – Julien Lepers (France Inter)
Norway – Erik Diesen and Sverre Christophersen (NRK P1)
United Kingdom – Ray Moore (BBC Radio 2)
Turkey – Fatih Orbay and Bülent Osma (TRT Radyo 3)
Israel – Daniel Pe'er (Reshet Gimel)
Ireland – Larry Gogan (RTÉ Radio 1)
Belgium – French: Jacques Mercier (RTBF La Première),^[26] Dutch: Julien Put and Herwig Haes (BRT Radio 2)
Germany – Peter Urban (Deutschlandfunk/NDR Radio 2)
Cyprus – Pavlos Pavlou (CyBC Radio 2)
Austria – Hans Leitinger (Hitradio Ö3)
Sweden – Jacob Dahlin (SR P3)^[22]
Denmark – Poul Birch Eriksen (DR P3)
Finland – TBC (YLE 2-verkko)
Portugal – Fialho Gouveia (RDP Antena 1)

Spokespersons[]

Luxembourg - Frédérique Ries
Yugoslavia - Enver Petrovci^[27]
France - Patricia Lesieur
Norway - Nina Matheson^[28]
United Kingdom - Colin Berry
Iceland - Guðrún Skúladóttir^[29]
Netherlands – Joop van Zijl
Turkey - Ümit Tunçağ
Spain - Matilde Jarrín
Switzerland - Michel Stocker^[30]
Israel - Yitzhak Shim'oni^[31]
Ireland - John Skehan
Belgium - Jacques Olivier
Germany - Christoph Deumling
Cyprus - Anna Partelidou^[20]
Austria - Tilia Herold
Sweden - Agneta Bolme-Börjefors^[22]
Denmark - [dk]
Finland - Solveig Herlin^[32]
Portugal - Margarida Mercês de Melo

National jury members[]

United Kingdom - David Elder (Scotland), Gary Speirs (Wales), Sue Lloyd (London) , Mr T Smith (South), Mr A Brown (Midlands), Miss M Chapman (Anglia) , Mrs M Heathcote (North West), Mr P Jenkinson (South East), Mrs T O'Shea (Midlands), Quentin Smith (South West)
Iceland - Berglind Orradóttir, Davíð Scheving Thorsteinsson, Elsa Björnsdóttir, Guðjón Vigfússon, Guðlaug Þorsteinsdóttir, Karl Þorsteins, Margrét Stefánsdóttir, Ríkharður Ríkharðsson, Salóme Þorkelsdóttir, Sigurdór Sigurdórsson, Svanhildur Kristjónsdóttir^[29]
Turkey - Ayça Eren, Ziya Anadol, Kaan Bozoğlu, Ayşegül Soyalp, Özlem Budakoğlu, Fatma Dikmen, Alaaddin Torun, İlhan Aslanboğan, Zahide Azılı, Saadet Aktemel, Suhal Eriş^[33]
Spain – José María Tío (industrialist), Carolina Conejero (student), Rosario Cabanas (horsewoman), Rafael Camino (bullfighter), Marta Cantón (gymnast), Emilio Aragón (comedian), María Cuadra (actress), Javier Escrivá (actor), Blanca Fernández Ochoa (skier), Antonio Imízcoz (journalist), Pablo Pérez (hairdresser)^[34]
Ireland - Martin Jones