Eurovision 1996: Ireland does it again, despite Gina G's legs, a member of ABBA's offspring and an Icelandic lady going 'Sjubidu'

NRK (Norwegian telly) didn't have to worry about finding the cash to host Eurovision, unlike the nation which had stage the previous three events - and the 41st Eurovision Song Contest looked like it had a heck of a lot of money thrown at it. There were a few innovations tried out in '96 which were never repeated. Most obviously, a leading figure from each of the participating nations appeared as part of the postcard film to wish their representative well. Sweden got its Prime Minister to give a good luck message. The UK got Virginia Bottomley. Aah well.

The other new bit was that each country got to have an individual special effect during its performance. This ranged from a superimposed heart during Malta's In a Woman's Heart and a sort-of playing card effect for the Belgian entry, to turning the Icelandic performer completely black and white (except for her lips). Neither of these innovations were back for '97, or indeed, any year after that.

The huge stage was sort-of dunked in the world's biggest paddling pool and had a moving Meccano-style backdrop (we think it was supposed to represent an oil rig) and it did indeed move up and down whenever it needed to (which wasn't very often). To show the watching world that they were taking this gig seriously, the host for the evening was none other than Morten Harket of A-ha, who was no doubt tempted to take part because he got to plug his latest single, Heaven's Not For Saints, at the top of the show.

Morten was also joined by the very cheeky Norwegian TV reporter Ingvild Bryn who was certainly from the Lill Lindfors school of Eurovision presenting and a right little monkey from start to finish, but it must be said, with only an nth of her Swedish predecessor's charm.

It was, therefore, an altogether different show than the viewers had been used to during the RTE dominance, even if the result had that ever-familiar ring.

Winner 1996: Eimear Quinn performs The Voice for Ireland
(a) In 1996, the sublime Channel 4 sitcom Father Ted aired its infamous Eurovision episode. The premise was that Ted and Dougal's dire My Lovely Horse was deliberately selected by Itish television to throw the Contest and prevent them footing the bill for yet another production. Indeed, as the end credits rolled, the juries are all heard sending a big fat zero in the priests' direction.

It was all so unwittingly ironic. In 1996, Ireland won Eurovision for the fourth time in five years. By this time, I was in my first year at Glasgow University and I remember buying the Radio Times in the week before the show to see the names of the different songs taking part. I will always remember reading 'Ireland: The Voice' as I waited outside the English Language department for a tutorial to begin and saying to myself: "Ah well, they've won again." I hadn't heard a note of the song - and didn't need to. The title was enough.

The Voice was written by Brendan Graham, the man behind the dreadful Rock 'n' Roll Kids of 1994 and gave the accountants at Irish telly, only just drawing breath after seeing the bill for hosting the 1993, 1994 and 1995 great cause to sit down and put their head in their hands for a while. The only Irish winner which genuinely draws on traditional Celtic folk music, The Voice was not a particularly popular winner. Rumours abound that Eimear Quinn reprised her song to a half-empty Spektrum Centre as the crowd were so miffed at yet another win for Ireland, most of them voted with their feet and walked out before she had even collected her bouquet.

I was now so accustomed to Ireland doing well no matter what they sent that I didn't even get annoyed when this romped home with 162 points. Irish victories were now just an irritating fact of life. I went straight out to the pub with my mates after the show and I don't remember it crossing my mind again for the remainder of the evening. By jimminy, I was growing up at last.

(b) Morten was the big Norwegian name of the night in the Spektrum, but domestic goddess Elisabeth Andreasson got a huge cheer from the hometown crowd. One half of Bobbysocks, the 1985 winners, and just two years after finishing sixth in Dublin, Elisabeth was back with something very folksy and very celtic-sounding. Well, why bother changing a winning formula? I Evighet translates as Eternity and, one must confess, it sometimes sounds like it lasts an eternity instead of the three minutes allowed.

However, I Evighet does have one impressive stat which is still all its own. This remains the only runner-up song in Eurovision history not to receive a single douze points. As Sweden were the last jury of the evening, Ingvild Bryn cheekily reminded their (rather serious) spokeswoman that over the years, Norway had given Sweden an awful lot more points than their neighbours had reciprocated, so could they have the difference back in one lump that evening? They didn't, but they did get 10 points from Stockholm. Bless 'em.

(c) The runaway winner of the qualifying round - and the last song in the running order in 1996 - was the Swedish entry. For some reason, Den Vilda didn't excite the juries in its live version as much as The Voice did, although it is another folksy new-age type ballad, but with a touch of Swedish melody thrown in as a nod to the Contest. One More Time also had very strong links with the winners of 22 years previous. Member Peter Gronvall is the son of ABBA's Benny Andersson, although the two don't appear to be especially close. His wife Nanne also tried to represent the UK five years later - but we'll come to that another time.

Den Vilda may not have won Eurovision 1996, but Boom Bang a Blog can recommend listening to it while wrapping Christmas presents in a lamplit room. Very festive.

(d) Terry Wogan was renowned by this point for rubbing hardcore fans of the Contest up the wrong way - and this was the year he upset some of them in spectacular fashion - by speaking over an act halfway through their performance.

Croatia's Maja Blagdan certainly threw herself in to Sveta Ljubav, so much so that she went into histrionics halfway through, prompting Tel's interruption. Dressed in garb reminiscent of a Playschool presenter, the Titian-haired Maja and her song certainly wasn't expected to do well before the Contest, but it found itself in the lead at one stage and wound up an impressive fourth, just a few points behind Sweden. Maja no doubt screeched in delight.

(e) Back with a bang after being relegated in its sophomore year, Estonia went all the way to the top five on its second go, with a song that translates as Sound of Necklace and is performed by a duo who probably wouldn't be able to take to the stage in this day and age without a fair few knowing nudges and winks.

Maarja would be back the following year, whereas Ivo wouldn't, but Estonia was well on the way to a brief period when it was the country to watch out for as the votes started to come in.

(f) Have you seen Love Actually? Notice I didn't ask you if you enjoyed Love Actually? Anyway, if you followed Colin Firth's story in that full-on gushy piece of Curtis mush, you'll no doubt recognise the lady singing in that glowing tellybox above these words.

Yes! It's Lucia Moniz, the Portuguese lady he falls in love with despite neither speaking the other's language (y'see, Richard Curtis is teaching us there that love does not need a common tongue to bring two people together, because we're all too stupid and cynical in this age of iPods and electric toothbrushes to realise that for ourselves).

Not only is Lucia the most famous Portuguese lady in Love Actually, she is also the most successful Portuguese entrant in Eurovision history thus far, acheiving sixth place with this song. It is held with fond regard by Contest fans but I have to be honest, it reminds me of those songs Victoria Wood sang at the piano after Acorn Antiques on As Seen On TV when she wanted to be a bit more serious.

(g) The UK embraced its Eurovision entry in 1996 like it hadn't donce since Bucks Fizz 15 years earlier. When Eurovision was screened on May 18, Gina G was poised to knock George Michael's Fastlove off the number one spot and become the first British Eurovision entry to reach number one since the aforementioned Fizz. Seven days later, Gina was knocked off by Baddiel & Skinner (and The Lightning Seeds)' Three Lions - has there ever been two successive UK number one hits oozing such patriotism?*

But back to the Contest. What happens when the UK has a song which everyone is sitting up and taking notice of? We get the @*$#ing second slot in the draw! Grrr! And then we have an Australian vocalist singing the song who is anything but a live performer. Double Grrr!

To be fair, the infectious appeal of Just A Little Bit was such that it didn't need a superlative vocal performance to carry it off and the crowd certainly gave the UK a massive response after the performance. Gina was wearing what was originally a full length dress designed by Paco Rabanne for Cher. Cher didn't want it, Gina got it and turned it into a mini dress which just about maintains her dignity throughout the three minutes she was on stage. Would this have won with a viewer vote as opposed to the juries? We'll never know - but probably not.

Portugal and Belgium liked this enough to give it the full 12 points, but the other marks were hard to come by and our Gina wound up eighth with 77 points. In sales terms, she had by far the biggest hit of the 1996 Contest and Just A Little Bit was eventually nominated for a Grammy. Hmm... don't think The Voice or Rock 'n' Roll Kids ever were (oh, hush my mouth... mwa-ha-ha-ha..!).

*Apologies to Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish readers for that over generalisation.

(h) With so many countries in 1996 trying to be all ballady and Celtic, the more uptempo slabs of fun burst through like a breath of fresh air. One of these exceptions came from Belgium.

Lisa Del Bo appeared to have robbed Celine Dion's winning outfit of eight years previous for her performance of Liefde is En Kaartspell (it means Love Is a Cardgame). It was super fun with a very daft little melody, which is why the overly-serious juries which permeated Eurovision in the mid-90s didn't want very much to do with it.

Boom Bang a Blog has to champion Lisa Del Bo's effort, though. Have you ever heard a song with lthe yrics: Love is a cardgame with jokers and pokers/Love is a match of giving and taking/Love is a cardgame of queens and kings, or even: Passion won from tenderness/Fury from cosiness/Did you want to devour me/Without committing yourself?

It's just boss.

(i) During the voting, Ingvild Bryn misheard a vote for 'Holland' from Spain (which is very naughty on the Spanish spokeslady's part as it's always been 'The Netherlands' at Eurovision) and so the scoreboard allocated those votes to the similar-sounding Poland instead. Once this mistake had been rectified after the event, the Netherlands found itself sneaking one place higher than Gina G to end up seventh.

Before Maxine and Franklin Brown began their performance, Terry Wogan described them as 'OJ Simpson meets Ruby Wax'. A very old school slice of Eurovision, the song was catchy and slickly performed enough to get a middling thumbs up.

Boom Bang a Blog loves it because it has lines which sound like: 'Ja, Jacques Villenueve has met you' and: 'What' springing it off? I'll sing about cashmere beards.'

It's just boss.

(j) It was to be another three years before countries could start singing in the language of their choice again but the Icelandics tried to get round that in 1996 by employing the same trick they did in 1988 - listing the names of well known people and places which are the same in any language.

This little trick led to the jazz-infused tones of Sjubidu, which namechecked Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Elvis Presley, Dizzy Gillespie and Billie Holliday - with a quick mention of Timbuktu for luck.

It sounds OK on CD, but the rather odd spot of shoulder waggling employed by the backing singers quickly drained any essence of New York blues cool from the performance. Anna had an impact on one person present anyway, as Ingvild Bryn welcomed the Icelandic jury with a mischeivous 'Sjubidu!'.

(k) This is, as far as Boom a Bang a Blog is aware, the very first gospel song ever entered into Eurovision.

George Nussbaumer was the blind singer who transported the European viewers to a little white chapel in America's deep south for three minutes as his energetic circle of backing singers swooped around him and his piano.

One of the singers comes in too early, you'll notice. Keep an eye on her. She'll be back.

(l) Bet you never knew that sophisticated folk group Capercaillie once entered Eurovision. They did, except they didn't sing under their usual name and they were helping to represent France.


This very un-French sounding offering did very badly on the night, which has always baffled me. How come the equally Celtic offerings from Ireland, Norway and Sweden can do so well, but something just as good from France sinks without trace? Anyway, I've always rather liked it.

When Ingvild called in the juries from around Europe (Morten stayed in the green room to chat occasionally with thje contestants), she did so in front of a bluescreen, onto which the Contest's first (and only) virtual reality scoreboard was superimposed.

For some reason, she called one jury from a podium on the left of the stage, then crossed to one on the right to call another - but it did make the voting process a lot more animated than usual and there are some clever bits where she walks inbetween the two slabs containing the scores. It still looks good 14 years on - and you have to wonder why it hasn't been tried again.

As modern as Eurovision 1996 looked, the winner certainly wasn't and there was disappointment from some quarters that the chart-friendlier offerings, which would do the Contest's reputation no end of good where they to triumph, were being snubbed in favour of ever drearier ballads.

Change was afoot. When Eurovision returned to Dublin in 1997, the public - in some countries - would finally get to have an input into the result of the Contest. And, by jove, that spelled great news for le Royaume Uni.