| Dates | |
| Final | 3 April 1976 |
| Venue |  Nederlands Congresgebouw, The Hague, The Netherlands |
| Presenter(s) | Corry Brokken Hans van Willigenburg (green room) |
| Musical director | Jan Stulen |
| Directed by | Theo Ordeman |
| Executive supervisor | Clifford Brown |
| Executive producer | Fred Oster |
| Host broadcaster | Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS) |
| Winner |  Brotherhood of Man from United Kingdom |
| Interval act | The Dutch Swing College Band |
| Participants | |
| Number of entries | 18 |
| Debuting countries | None |
| Returning countries |  Austria Greece |
| Non-returning countries |  Malta Sweden Turkey |
Sweden withdraws!
After being host of the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest, Sweden withdrew from the contest as Swedish TV thought that the contest had become too commercial. They were also afraid of winning again and having to host the expensive show again. Turkey and Malta withdrew as well, but Greece and Austria returned, so altogether 18 countries participated in the 1976 song contest. Former Dutch Eurovision Song Contest winner Corry Brokken was the host of this year’s contest.
The orchestra rules changed this year. For the first time, instrumental playback was allowed if certain passages in the music could not be reproduced by the live orchestra. Most of the countries decided to sing in English hoping that they might get a better placing with this. The Yugoslav entry was sung by Ambassadori and it marked the last Yugoslav entry for five years – the country would only come back in 1981.
About the winner
The United Kingdom succeeded in winning being first on stage – just as the Netherlands in the preceding year. The British winner Save Your Kisses For Me became a big hit and broke a lot of sales records -the single sold six million copies which makes it the most sold Eurovision Song Contest winner ever.
Facts & figures
- Italy sent the daughter of US actor Tyrone Power to the contest, Romina Power who sang with her husband, Al Bano;
- Luxembourg looked abroad again to find its entry. Winning the Luxembourg national final, Jürgen Marcus from Germany beat the equally popular German singer Marianne Rosenberg who then went on to have a big hit with her unsuccessful Eurovision Song Contest song.
The Participants
| # | Representing country | Performer(s) | Song title, writer(s) and composer(s) | Points | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | United Kingdom BBC | Brotherhood of Man | Save Your Kisses For Me | 164 | 01 |
| 02 | Switzerland SSR SRG | Peter, Sue and Marc | Djambo, Djambo | 091 | 04 |
| 03 | Germany ARD | Les Humphries Singers | Sing, Sang, Song | 012 | 15 |
| 04 | Israel IBA | Chocolate, Menta, Mastik | Emor Shalom | 077 | 06 |
| 05 | Luxembourg CLT | Jürgen Marcus | Chansons Pour Ceux Qui S’aiment | 017 | 14 |
| 06 | Belgium RTB | Pierre Rapsat | Judy Et Cie. | 068 | 08 |
| 07 | Ireland RTÉ | Red Hurley | When | 054 | 10 |
| 08 | The Netherlands NOS | Sandra Reemer | The Party’s Over Now | 056 | 09 |
| 09 | Norway NRK | Anne-Karine Ström | Mata Hari | 007 | 18 |
| 10 | Greece ERT | Mariza Koch | Panaghia Mou, Panaghia Mou | 020 | 13 |
| 11 | Finland YLE | Fredi and The Friends | Pump-pump | 044 | 11 |
| 12 | Spain TVE | Braulio | Sobran Las Palabras | 011 | 16 |
| 13 | Italy RAI | Romina and Al Bano | We’ll Live It All Again | 069 | 07 |
| 14 | Austria ORF | Waterloo and Robinson | My Little World | 080 | 05 |
| 15 | Portugal RTP | Carlos do Carmo | Uma Flor De Verde Pinho | 024 | 12 |
| 16 | Monaco TMC | Mary Christy | Toi, La Musique Et Moi | 093 | 03 |
| 17 | France TF1 | Catherine Ferry | Un, Deux, Trois | 147 | 02 |
| 18 | Yugoslavia JRT | Ambasadori | Ne Mogu Skriti Svoju Bol | 010 | 17 |
Scoreboard
| Participant | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Points | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 10 | 12 | 10 | 7 | 8 | 12 | 3 | 12 | 4 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 10 | 10 | 164 | 1 | |
| Switzerland | 8 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 10 | 7 | 4 | 6 | 12 | 7 | 91 | 4 | ||
| Germany | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 12 | 15 | ||||||||||||
| Israel | 6 | 5 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 10 | 7 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 77 | 6 | |||
| Luxembourg | 6 | 6 | 5 | 17 | 14 | |||||||||||||||
| Belgium | 3 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 7 | 68 | 8 | |||||||
| Ireland | 2 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 3 | 12 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 10 | 1 | 54 | 10 | |||||||
| The Netherlands | 4 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 56 | 9 | ||||
| Norway | 4 | 3 | 7 | 18 | ||||||||||||||||
| Greece | 2 | 4 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 20 | 13 | |||||||||||||
| Finland | 7 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 44 | 11 | |||||||||
| Spain | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 11 | 16 | |||||||||||||
| Italy | 1 | 6 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 2 | 3 | 10 | 8 | 1 | 6 | 69 | 7 | |||||||
| Austria | 3 | 5 | 10 | 6 | 10 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 8 | 3 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 80 | 5 | ||||
| Portugal | 1 | 12 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 24 | 12 | |||||||||||||
| Monaco | 5 | 8 | 2 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 12 | 5 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 8 | 5 | 4 | 93 | 3 | |||
| France | 12 | 10 | 3 | 12 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 10 | 12 | 8 | 5 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 8 | 12 | 147 | 2 | |
| Yugoslavia | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 10 | 17 |