Eurovision Song Contest 1986

Sandra Kim

Date: May 3, 1986
Venue: Grieghallen, Bergen, Norway
Presenter: Åse Kleveland
Orchestra: NRK orchestra, Kringkastingsorkesteret
Conductor: Egil Monn-Iversen
Director: John Andreassen
Scruteneer: Frank Naef
Host broadcaster: NRK
Price presenter: Bobbysocks, Rolf Løvland
Interval act: Sissel Kyrkjebø and Steinar Ofsdal
Duration: 2 hours, 43 minutes
Number of entries: 20
Debuting countries: Iceland
Returning countries: Netherlands, Yugoslavia
Withdrawing countries: Greece, Italy
Winning Song: J'aime la vie - Sandra Kim, Belgium
Voting system: Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs

Entries

01. Luxembourg: Shrisse Laurence - L'amour de ma vie (3rd place, 117 points)
02. Yugoslavia: Doris Dragović - Željo moja (11th place, 49 points)
03. France: Cocktail Chic - Européennes (17th place, 13 points)
04. Norway: Ketil Stokkan - Romeo (12th place, 44 points)
05. UK: Ryder - Runner in the night (7th place, 72 points)
06. Iceland: ICY - Gleðibankinn (16th place, 19 points)
07. The Netherlands: Frizzle Sizzle - Alles heeft ritme (13th place, 40 points)
08. Turkey: Klips ve Onlar - Halley (9th place, 53 points)
09. Spain: Cadillac - Valentino (10th place, 51 points)
10. Switzerland: Daniela Simmons - Pas pour moi (2nd place, 140 points)
11. Israel: Moti Giladi & Sarai Tzuriel - Yavo yom (19th place, 7 points)
12. Ireland: Luv Bug - You can count on me (4th place, 96 points)
13. Belgium: Sandra Kim - J'aime la vie (1st place, 176 points)
14. Germany: Ingrid Peters - Über die Brücke geh'n (8th place, 62 points)
15. Cyprus: Elpida - Tora zo (20th place, 3 points)
16. Austria: Timna Brauer - Die Zeit ist einsam (18th place, 12 points)
17. Sweden: Lasse Holm & Monica Törnell - E' de' det här du kallar kärlek? (5th place, 78 points)
18. Denmark: Lise Haavik - Du er fuld af løgn (6th place, 77 points)
19. Finland: Kari Kuivalainen - Never the end (15th place, 22 points)
20. Portugal: Dora - Não sejas mau p'ra mim (14th place, 28 points)

Frizzle sizzle

Backround

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.

Format

The Eurovision Song Contest 1986 was the 31st Eurovision Song Contest and was held on May 3, 1986 in the Grieg Hall 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.

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.

Sherisse Laurence

Åse Kleveland sang the multilingual song 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 never sang, did she?

During her opening speech, Åse 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 interval act featured Norwegian musicians Sissel Kyrkjebø and Steinar Ofsdal, accompanied by Norwegian national broadcasting orchestra, Kringkastingsorkesteret. They opened with the traditional song of the city of Bergen, Udsikter fra Ulriken, 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. The presentation launched Kyrkjebø into a career as an internationally recognized artist.

The winner

Sandra Kim was the winner of this Eurovision with the song, J'aime la vie which was written by R. Marino-Atria and J.F. Furnemont-A. Crisci. Aged 13, Sandra 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 Sandra Kim's record will never be broken. In the lyrics of her song, Sandra 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 this was to no avail.

Ingrid Peters

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.

Participating countries

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

Greece withdrew, having been drawn eighteenth in order of presentation. The reason behind the withdrawal, was that the Eurovision contest coincided with Holy Saturday. Their entry would have been Wagon-lit performed by Polina. The Italian broadcaster, RAI, simply decided not to send any delegation to Bergen.

Returning artists

Elpida, who represented Greece in 1979, represented Cypus with the song Tora zo which came last.