Eurovision Song Contest 1986

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 3 May 1986 and was hosted by previous Norwegian contestant Åse Kleveland.

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)
Website	eurovision.tv/event/bergen-1986
Participants
Number of entries	20
Debuting countries	Iceland
Returning countries	Netherlands  Yugoslavia
Non-returning countries	Greece  Italy
Participation map      Competing 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
Winning song	Belgium "J'aime la vie"
1985 ← Eurovision Song Contest → 1987

Twenty countries took part in this year's 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.

 

 

Oslo

 

Stavanger

 

Sandnes

 

Trondheim

 

Bergen

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Locations of the candidate cities. The chosen host city is marked in blue.

 

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 and singer, 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 remarks, 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 from the artists to your own 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.

The main interval act presented featured Norwegian musicians, a hitherto unknown young woman outside of Norway, Sissel Kyrkjebø and the musician 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. This was Kyrkjebø's first performance on an international event, which served as the starting point for a consolidated international career years later.

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

Greece withdrew, as the contest coincided with Holy Saturday on the Eastern Orthodox Church liturgical calendar. 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 this year). Prior to their withdrawal, they were set to be 18th in the running order between Sweden and Denmark. Italian broadcaster RAI, on the other hand, decided not to send any delegation to Bergen.

Participants of the Eurovision Song Contest 1986

Country	Broadcaster	Artist	Song	Language	Songwriter(s)	Conductor
Austria	ORF	Timna Brauer	"Die Zeit ist einsam"	German	Peter Cornelius Peter Janda	Richard Oesterreicher
Belgium	RTBF	Sandra Kim	"J'aime la vie"	French	Angelo Crisci Jean-Pierre Furnémont Rosario Marino	Jo Carlier
Cyprus	CyBC	Elpida	"Tora zo" (Τώρα ζω)	Greek	Phivos Gavris Peter Yiannaki	Martyn Ford
Denmark	DR	Lise Haavik	"Du er fuld af løgn"	Danish	John Hatting	Egil Monn-Iversen
Finland	YLE	Kari	"Never the End"	Finnish	Kari Kuivalainen	Ossi Runne
France	Antenne 2	Cocktail Chic	"Européennes"	French	Georges Costa Michel Costa	Jean-Claude Petit
Germany	BR	Ingrid Peters	"Über die Brücke geh'n"	German	Hans Blum	Hans Blum
Iceland	RÚV	ICY	"Gleðibankinn"	Icelandic	Magnús Eiríksson	Gunnar Þórðarson
Ireland	RTÉ	Luv Bug	"You Can Count On Me"	English	Kevin Sheerin	Noel Kelehan
Israel	IBA	Moti Giladi and Sarai Tzuriel	"Yavo Yom" (יבוא יום)	Hebrew	Moti Giladi Yoram Zadok	Yoram Zadok
Luxembourg	CLT	Sherisse Laurence	"L'Amour de ma vie"	French	Frank Dostal Alain Garcia Rolf Soja	Rolf Soja
Netherlands	NOS	Frizzle Sizzle	"Alles heeft ritme"	Dutch	Rob ten Bokum Peter Schön	Harry van Hoof
Norway	NRK	Ketil Stokkan	"Romeo"	Norwegian	Ketil Stokkan	Egil Monn-Iversen
Portugal	RTP	Dora	"Não sejas mau p'ra mim"	Portuguese	Guilherme Inês Luís Oliveira Zé da Ponte	Colin Frechter
Spain	TVE	Cadillac	"Valentino"	Spanish	José Maria Guzmán	Eduardo Leiva
Sweden	SVT	Lasse Holm and Monica Törnell	"E' de' det här du kallar kärlek"	Swedish	Lasse Holm	Anders Berglund
Switzerland	SRG SSR	Daniela Simons	"Pas pour moi"	French	Nella Martinetti Atilla Şereftuğ	Atilla Şereftuğ
Turkey	TRT	Klips ve Onlar	"Halley"	Turkish	İlhan İrem Melih Kibar	Melih Kibar
United Kingdom	BBC	Ryder	"Runner in the Night"	English	Maureen Darbyshire Brian Wade	No conductor
Yugoslavia	JRT	Doris Dragović	"Željo moja" (Жељо моја)	Serbo-Croatian	Zrinko Tutić	Nikica Kalogjera

Returning artists

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

Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1986

R/O	Country	Artist	Song	Points	Place
1	Luxembourg	Sherisse Laurence	"L'Amour de ma vie"	117	3
2	Yugoslavia	Doris Dragović	"Željo moja"	49	11
3	France	Cocktail Chic	"Européennes"	13	17
4	Norway	Ketil Stokkan	"Romeo"	44	12
5	United Kingdom	Ryder	"Runner in the Night"	72	7
6	Iceland	ICY	"Gleðibankinn"	19	16
7	Netherlands	Frizzle Sizzle	"Alles heeft ritme"	40	13
8	Turkey	Klips ve Onlar	"Halley"	53	9
9	Spain	Cadillac	"Valentino"	51	10
10	Switzerland	Daniela Simons	"Pas pour moi"	140	2
11	Israel	Moti Giladi and Sarai Tzuriel	"Yavo Yom"	7	19
12	Ireland	Luv Bug	"You Can Count On Me"	96	4
13	Belgium	Sandra Kim	"J'aime la vie"	176	1
14	Germany	Ingrid Peters	"Über die Brücke geh'n"	62	8
15	Cyprus	Elpida	"Tora zo"	4	20
16	Austria	Timna Brauer	"Die Zeit ist einsam"	12	18
17	Sweden	Lasse Holm and Monica Törnell	"E' de' det här du kallar kärlek"	78	5
18	Denmark	Lise Haavik	"Du er fuld af løgn"	77	6
19	Finland	Kari	"Never the End"	22	15
20	Portugal	Dora	"Não sejas mau p'ra mim"	28	14

Spokespersons

Each country nominated a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1986 contest are listed below.

•   Iceland – Guðrún Skúladóttir
•   Sweden – Agneta Bolme Börjefors
•   United Kingdom – Colin Berry

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 2023, still ranks 8th among all Eurovision winners.

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

Each participating broadcaster was required to relay the contest via its networks. Non-participating EBU member broadcasters were also able to relay the contest as "passive participants". Broadcasters were able to send commentators to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language and to relay information about the artists and songs to their television viewers. Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries

Country	Broadcaster	Channel(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Austria	ORF	FS1	Ernst Grissemann
Belgium	RTBF	RTBF1	Patrick Duhamel [fr]
	BRT	TV1	Luc Appermont
Cyprus	CyBC	RIK
Denmark	DR	DR TV	Jørgen de Mylius
Finland	YLE	TV1	Kari Lumikero [fi]
		2-verkko [fi]
France	Antenne 2		Patrice Laffont
Germany	ARD	Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen	Ado Schlier [de]
Iceland	RÚV	Sjónvarpið	Þorgeir Ástvaldsson [is]
Ireland	RTÉ	RTÉ 1	Brendan Balfe
		RTÉ Radio 1	Larry Gogan
Israel	IBA	Israeli Television
		Reshet Gimel [he]
Luxembourg	CLT	RTL Télévision
		RTL plus
Netherlands	NOS	Nederland 1	Leo van der Goot [nl]
Norway	NRK	NRK Fjernsynet, NRK P1, NRK P2	Knut Bjørnsen
Portugal	RTP	RTP1
Spain	TVE	TVE 2	Antonio Gómez Mateo
Sweden	SVT	TV1	Ulf Elfving
	RR [sv]	SR P3	Jacob Dahlin
Switzerland	SRG SSR	TV DRS	Bernard Thurnheer [de]
		TSR	Serge Moisson [fr]
		TSI
Turkey	TRT	TRT Televizyon	Gülgün Baysal
United Kingdom	BBC	BBC1	Terry Wogan
		BBC Radio 2	Ray Moore
Yugoslavia	JRT	TV Beograd 1
		TV Koper-Capodistria
		TV Ljubljana 1 [sl]
		TV Zagreb 1	Ksenija Urličić

Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries

Country	Broadcaster	Channel(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Australia	SBS	SBS TV	Terry Wogan
Czechoslovakia	ČST	ČST2
Estonian SSR	ETV
Hungary	MTV	MTV1
Poland	TP	TP1
Soviet Union	CT USSR	Programme One