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 Saturday 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)
Opening act"Welcome to Music" performed by Åse Kleveland
Interval act"Bergensiana" performed by Sissel Kyrkjebø and Steinar Ofsdal
Websiteeurovision.tv/event/bergen-1986
Participants
Number of entries20
Debuting countries Iceland
Returning countries
Non-returning countries
Participation map
  •      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
Nul points in finalNone
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 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 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.

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 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 2019, still ranks 8th among all Eurovision winners.

Participating countries

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 seventeenth 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][5] Italian broadcaster RAI decided not to send any delegation to Bergen. Prior to their withdrawal, they were set to be 18th in the running order between Sweden and Denmark.

Conductors

Each performance had a conductor who directed the orchestra.[6][3]

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

Results
Draw Country Artist Song Language[7][8] Place[9] 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[lower-alpha 1] 9 53
09  Spain Cadillac "Valentino" Spanish 10 51
10   Switzerland Daniela Simons "Pas pour moi" French 2 140
11  Israel Moti Giladi and Sarai Tzuriel "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 and 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

Scoreboard
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

Spokespersons

Each country announced their votes in the order of performance. The following is a list of spokespersons who announced the votes for their respective country.

Broadcasts

National broadcasters were able to send a commentary team to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language.

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries
Country Broadcaster(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Austria FS1 Ernst Grissemann [20]
Hitradio Ö3 Hans Leitinger
 Belgium RTBF1 French: Patrick Duhamel [21][22]
BRT TV1 Dutch: Luc Appermont [23]
RTBF La Première French: Jacques Mercier [24]
BRT Radio 2 Dutch: Julien Put and Herwig Haes
 Cyprus RIK Neophytos Taliotis [17]
RIK Deftero Pavlos Pavlou
 Denmark DR TV Jørgen de Mylius [25]
DR P3 Poul Birch Eriksen
 Finland YLE TV1 Heikki Harma and Kari Lumikero [26]
YLE 2-verkko TBC
 France Antenne 2 Patrice Laffont [27]
France Inter Julien Lepers
 Germany Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen Ado Schlier [28]
Deutschlandfunk/NDR Radio 2 Peter Urban
 Iceland Sjónvarpið Þorgeir Ástvaldsson [29]
 Ireland RTÉ 1 Brendan Balfe
RTÉ Radio 1 Larry Gogan
 Israel Israeli Television No commentator
Reshet Gimel Daniel Pe'er
 Luxembourg RTL Télévision Valérie Sarn [27]
RTL plus Matthias Krings
RTL André Torrent
 Netherlands Nederland 1 Leo van der Goot [30]
 Norway NRK Knut Bjørnsen [31]
NRK P1 Erik Diesen and Sverre Christophersen
 Portugal RTP1 Fialho Gouveia [32]
Antena 1
 Spain TVE 2 Antonio Gómez Mateo [33]
 Sweden TV1 Ulf Elfving [18]
SR P3 Jacob Dahlin [18]
  Switzerland TV DRS German: Bernard Thurnheer
TSR French: Serge Moisson
TSI Italian: Ezio Guidi
 Turkey TRT Gülgün Baysal [34]
TRT Radyo 3 Fatih Orbay and Bülent Osma
 United Kingdom BBC1 Terry Wogan [35][3]
BBC Radio 2 Ray Moore [3]
 Yugoslavia TVB 1 Serbo-Croatian: Mladen Popović
TVZ 1 Serbo-Croatian: Ksenija Urličić
TVL 1 Slovene: Miša Molk
Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries
Country Broadcaster(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Australia SBS TV Unknown
 Greece ERT Mako Georgiadou
 Hungary MTV1 István Vágó

Note
  1. Contains some words in English, French, and Italian.

References
  1. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "YouTube video of 1986 Interval with Sissel Kyrkjebø and Steinar Ofsdal". NRK.
  2. "History - Eurovision Song Contest 1986". Eurovision.tv. Archived from the original on 2008-08-02.
  3. 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.
  4. "Polina Biography" (in Greek). Archived from the original on 2008-09-07. Retrieved 2008-08-24.
  5. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: ""Wagon-lit" single - 1986". Sony Music. Retrieved 2008-08-24.
  6. "And the conductor is..." Retrieved 10 September 2020.
  7. "Eurovision Song Contest 1986". The Diggiloo Thrush. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
  8. "Eurovision Song Contest 1986". 4Lyrics.eu. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
  9. "Final of Bergen 1986". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 16 April 2021. Retrieved 16 April 2021.
  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. "Sumnja od Jugolasvenskog glasanja". Evropesma.org. Archived from the original on April 8, 2012. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  13. Dyrseth, Seppo (OGAE Norway)
  14. "Þjóðviljinn, 01.05.1986". Timarit.is. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  15. Baumann, Peter Ramón (OGAE Switzerland)
  16. "פורום אירוויזיון". Sf.tapuz.co.il. 1999-09-13. Archived from the original on October 8, 2011. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  17. Savvidis, Christos (OGAE Cyprus)
  18. "Infosajten.com". Infosajten.com. Archived from the original on July 18, 2012. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  19. "Selostajat ja taustalaulajat läpi vuosien? • Viisukuppila". Viisukuppila.fi. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  20. Archived October 24, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  21. Limburgs Dagblad, 3 May 1986
  22. "Mort de Patrick Duhamel". Le Soir.
  23. Adriaens, Manu & Loeckx-Van Cauwenberge, Joken. Blijven kiken!. Lannoo, Belgium. 2003 ISBN 90-209-5274-9
  24. "Jacques Mercier : " Gagner est un cadeau empoisonné "". lesoir.be. 2013-05-16. Retrieved 2019-08-09.
  25. "Forside". esconnet.dk. Archived from the original on 2012-03-24. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  26. "Selostajat ja taustalaulajat läpi vuosien? • Viisukuppila". Viisukuppila.fi. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  27. Christian Masson. "1986 - Bergen". Songcontest.free.fr. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  28. "Eurovision Song Contest 1986". Ecgermany.de. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  29. "Tíminn, 03.05.1986". Timarit.is. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  30. "Welkom op de site van Eurovision Artists". Eurovisionartists.nl. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  31. "Hvem kommenterte før Jostein Pedersen? - Debattforum". Nrk.no. Archived from the original on November 2, 2012. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  32. "Comentadores Do ESC - escportugalforum.pt.vu | o forum eurovisivo português". 21595.activeboard.com. Archived from the original on April 21, 2012. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  33. "FORO FESTIVAL DE EUROVISIÓN • Ver Tema - Uribarri comentarista Eurovision 2010". Eurosongcontest.phpbb3.es. Archived from the original on 2012-03-17. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  34. "1986 eurovision şarkı yarışması".
  35. Eurovision Song Contest 1986 BBC Archives
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