Eurovision 1986: Another maiden win for the old school, Iceland makes its debut and Sweden sends the most cringeworthy song ever written

Ase Kleveland was the incredibly serious lady who handled the proceedings in Bergen. After the madcap - and much welcomed - frolics of Lill Lindfors in Gothenburg the previous year, Ase seemed like a frosty head girl brought in to calm everything down a bit. She also opened the event by singing, with no hint of irony to the traditional sounds of Charpentier's Te Deum: "Soon we shall see who'll be the best in the Eurovision Song Contest." She really did. Honestly - check the clip.

By a quirk of fate, Ase was third in the 1966 Contest (the first ever female entrant to wear a pantsuit and not a dress, fact fans), behind 1985 presenter Lill - but there any similarity between the two ends. In 1990, Ase began a six-year stint as Norway's Minister of Culture - a period when Ms Lindfors was probably out having loads of fun.

Anyway, back to the songs.

Those tasty bits of '86:

(a) Belgium had finished last in 1985, which some may say is an unfair placing to bestow on a nation which had loyally entered every single Contest since its inception in 1956. However, Belgian telly must have held a very successful meeting on how to turn things around because 12 months on from earning a wooden spoon in Sweden, they triumphed in Norway. And how.

Brotherhood of Man's 164 points for the winning song from 10 years earlier was still a record score in 1986. However, this was shattered by Miss Kim in Norway (although there were two more countries voting than in 1976, so an extra 24 marks were available) as she walked away with the trophy after receiving 176 points from the other 19 nations taking part. That wasn't the only record she broke. Unless the rules change in the future, Sandra Kim will always be the youngest ever Eurovision winner.

Winner 1986: Sandra Kim performs J'aime La Vie for Belgium

The lyrics of her brilliant little pop song - an unusually contemporary sound for Eurovision in the 1980s - state quite clearly that Sandra is 15 years old. It was revealed after the event that she was just 13. Not that this broke any rules, but the win set wheels slowly in motion over the following four years (as contestants even younger than Sandra started taking part) that the Eurovision experience with its tensions and nerve jangles was no place for someone so young and a minimum age limit of 16 was evetually imposed.

Sandra compared herself to both Jacques Brel and Mozart through the course of J'aime La Vie and the joyfulness of the winning song resonated throughout her homeland. It remains the biggest selling single in Belgian history. I will always remember a summer job I had in the summer of 1996 when I had to show a bevvy of teenage trainee hairdressers from Belgium around the sights of Liverpool.

They were a savvy, worldly wise bunch, who treated the Spice Girls phenomenon with derision and made a determined point (as teenagers do) of not enjoying anything very much at all. One evening, however, while sat at St Michaels station awaiting a delayed train, they started singing to keep their spirits up. They sang J'aime La Vie and it cheered them up no end.

I, on the other hand, decided it was best to keep quiet about any prior knowledge of the song and its origins.

(b) One country more than a little miffed about Sandra's age-fibbing was second placed Switzerland.

Naked flames were never allowed within five miles of Daniela Simon's hair

The original Eurovision winners had yet to repeat their 1956 success by the time the 30th anniversary of the Contest rolled along and Daniela Simons piano-based Pas Pour Moi didn't come close to troubling Sandra Kim, finishing 36 points behind the Belgian popstrel in second place. Unusually for Switzerland, the song was co-composed by a flamboyant Turkish gentleman called Atilla Sereftug, who had grasped the idea that a wall-of-sound power ballad could be just the sort of song Eurovision needed to turn another Waterloo-style corner.

This came close to realising that notion - and there was an unsuccessful petition from the Swiss delegation to have Sandra Kim disqualified over the age issue - but Atilla would be back with another dramatic ballad for Switzerland - and a singer looking a lot different than she does today.

(c) Following its 1983 win, Luxembourg hadn't done too well Contest-wise, but returned to form in 1986, finishing third despite being the first act in the running order.

"What the hell have I signed up for?"

And, being Luxembourg, the entrant was naturally a children's TV presenter from Canada.

(d) It's rare for Ireland to send a band to the Contest, but they did just that in 1986. Luv Bug brought Eire's shoulder pad quotient for the decade along to Bergen alongside the repetitive, but very likeable, You Can Count On Me which had a very chart-friendly sound which a tamer version of Altered Images may very well have recorded. The gang finished fourth - albeit a long way behind the top three - but it was a good placing which Irish telly would well, shall we say, 'build on' in '87.

Your mum's best curtains have many uses.

(e) In 1986, Sweden sent what Boom Bang a Blog considers to be the worst song that has ever been dispatched to Eurovision. It's not so much that it's bad, it's just embarrassing to watch - even when you're watching/listening to it on your own.

If you can get through this without cringing, I'll give you a wine gum

To make things worse, this lump of nonsense finished fifth. In places, it sounds like the 'Holiday Rock' bit of the Hi-De-Hi theme tune while the rest of it is reminiscent of the episodes of Rainbow where Rod, Jane and Freddie decided to do a rockier song than usual. Perhaps Swedish humour is just a bit lost on me, but I'm going to have to move on from this song before I turn a strange colour and have to go and sit in a dark room. Ughhhhh... it's just horrible.

(f) Criminally finishing behind Sweden was one of the best efforts the UK had made in a long time. The band Ryder were unknown both before, after (and probably during) Eurovision 1986 - with the only vague link to the world of sh'leb being the fact that lead singer Maynard Williams - he of the impressive gnashers - was the son of future Heartbeat actor Bill Maynard. Bill was seen in the green room as the votes were called - a personal triumph for him as he had unsuccessfully attempted to be the UK's first Eurovision act in 1957.

The British version of Miami Vice still needed a few tweaks here and there

Runner in the Night, co-written by Liverpool's very own Maureen Derbyshire, was not the audience's favourite at that year's Song For Europe (they preferred this), but triumph it did and went on to be the first British song to be performed without the orchestra. Compared to the muchy sounds of Love Is... the previous year, Runner in the Night was much more of ist time, not un-punchy and got a big response from the crowd. The juries were more middling about it and the UK finished in seventh place on 72 points. Again, respectable, just not what the UK was used to after 20-odd years of top three placings.

(g) There are some strange coincidences in Eurovision. One of them is that, from 1981 to 1986, for six Contests in a row, Norway was always drawn to sing in the slot before the UK. If anyone can work out the odds against that happening - I'd love to know.

This was the final year of that bizarre streak and the host nation came unstuck after its previous success with Ketil Stokkan and Romeo. It was an even braver move in the 1980s for a performer to embrace gay culture than it is today. As part of his act, Ketil had drag queens on stage in vaguely Shakespearean garb joining in with him for a dnace routine that looked like someone doing the Shake & Vac without the Vac. It was a good effort, but could only manage 12th place. Ketil, you'll be pleased to hear, is now a secondary school teacher.

The Norwegian version of Miami Vice needed even more

(h) By 1986, Iceland had finally sorted out its satellite system, meaning it had a stable TV link with the rest of Europe.

There was now nothing stopping the remote isle joining in the Eurovision party, so it was handy that their debut performance took place in a country not too far from home.

Iceland's gone to Norway

In what will sound like a cruel irony in the present climate, ICY's song Gledibankkin translates as 'Bank of Fun'. Clearly, Icelandic banking was more fun in the mid '80s than it is at the moment. The song finished 16th out of 20 and it would take a while for Iceland to get its Eurovision act in gear.

For the second year running, a country who had waited patiently to secure its first Eurovision win was triumphant. Belgium would welcome the Contest to Brussels in 1987 were another Eurovision record was waiting to be written and things would start to get just that bit more modern...