Eurovision pre-selection 96: A ‘How-to’ special

A slightly different approach to the re-order board this time! For completeness, I’m covering the pre-selection round for the 1996 Contest, and the race for the 22 spots available in Oslo, with a ‘behind-the-scenes’ look too.

The EBU were worried about the ever-expanding list of countries who wanted to compete, and whether the relegation system that had been in place since 1993 was sustainable. For 1996, we know that FYR Macedonia wanted to join, and Bulgaria were also rumoured too. How would these additions slot into a rotating relegation system, and the show remain under three hours long?

RTÉ had done an excellent job at keeping the show length in check, even with 25 contestants, but for 1996 something else was attempted: a non-broadcast audio-only pre-selection round (not a catchy title).

This proved controversial – it did not include a live performance, and I think the studio versions of the songs were used. There was no orchestra. We were on the cusp of having the public vote on their entries, yet this was the most closed off and untransparent way of deciding the entrants of a show….and, democracy and transparency was quite a new thing to a lot of the new comers! The results would prove just as controversial too.

One of things that working with computers allows is the cutting down of repetition. Over the past few months several of you have asked how I make these videos, what software I use and whether the board is accepting data. This video, with my unfortunately nasal and annoying sounding voice, will attempt to answer some questions and talk broadly about how I get to the finished product. It can’t be a complete ‘how-to’ video, as that would be about 48 hours worth of content(!), but hopefully it gives some pointers and ‘draws back the curtain’ a little on the process.

If you’re not interested in that process, and I can understand why, then you can use the chapter markers on the scrub bar to go straight to the sequence:

00:00 What I’m talking about and a thank you!
01:48 Pre-Selection 96: what is it?
02:46 The software I use
14:06 Other approaches
16:27 Organising the data, setting a voting country
23:23 Awarding a point!
28:45 Reordering the board: the logic
42:52 Building 96
44:49 Fixing some issues
49:12 Flying points!
52:54 Summing up
54:29 The reorderboard pre-selection 96

THE RESULTS
Well, it’s worth keeping an eye on Germany’s progress through this incredibly lop-sided voting round. A SVT organised show in 1997 must have seemed like a dead-cert after this and it goes without saying, the relegation battle is much more exciting than what’s going on at the top. The juries excluded Germany from 1996 – a country that was a powerhouse in the 1970s and 1980s, and also one of the main reasons for the entire show! Way before the ‘winner hosting the next year rule’ came about, Germany had offered and organised the second programme in 1957 at a time when the whole thing might have flopped after one edition. Many of the European institutions, with Eurovision being one, was specifically designed to the aide Franco-German relations after 1945 to help keep the peace. I’m not suggesting that a war was about to break out, but there was something more central to the role of these European institutions at stake, and that’s financial contributions. By removing one of the largest donors to the EBU, and one of the largest audiences – the whole show was damaged somewhat.

The result? Another relegation system would be used for 1997 to smooth out the chances of one country having a bad year and having to sit out the following show, and eventually the ‘Big 4’ (or ‘Big 5’ including Italy) would emerge from 1999. Eventually of course, relegation would be replaced by semi-finals from 2004.


TRANSFER NEWS (source: Wiki)
Everyone was back in the pot including EST, FIN, LIT, NED, ROM, SLO, and SUI.
Plus 1 with FYR Macedonia = 30.

Norway were automatically in their own final, BUT also had voting rights in this pre-selection too, which added some complication to the board!

CREDITS
Flags: Hopnguyen Mr on IconFinder (Cyprus altered), Bosnia: Wikipedia.