For the first time since 1992, a national final was held in Germany to select their entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. At the contest, represented by

Leon Leon, Léon (French) or León (Spanish) may refer to: Places Europe * León, Spain, capital city of the Province of León * Province of León, Spain * Kingdom of León, an independent state in the Iberian Peninsula from 910 to 1230 and again fro ...

with "Planet of Blue", Germany failed to progress from the pre-qualification round, leading to the first, and so far only time that Germany failed to participate at Eurovision.

Before Eurovision

Ein bisschen Glück

The German national final for the 1996 Eurovision, organised by ARD, was held on 1 March at the

Friedrich-Ebert-Halle Friedrich-Ebert-Halle (also known as Eberthalle) is an indoor arena located in Ludwigshafen, Germany, which can accommodate 2,250 guests. The facility was designed by Roland Rainer and completed in 1965. It is used for sporting events, fairs ...

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, presented by

Jens Riewa Jens Riewa (born 2 July 1963) is a German television presenter and broadcast news analyst for the ''Tagesschau'', a programme produced by the German broadcaster ARD. Childhood and youth Jens Riewa grew up in Lübben. He did his Abitur in L ...

. 10 songs competed, and a public televote was held to select the winner: this was Leon with "Planet of Blue", which received 37.9% of the vote. Only the top three songs were announced during the show, however the placings of all the songs are known.

At Eurovision

The 1996 Contest implemented an audio-only qualifying round for all competing countries (except for host country

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

). 22 songs from the 29 competing could join Norway in the live final on 16 May. However, Germany was not among those to qualify, placing 24th in the line-up. This caused some discontent between ARD and the

EBU The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who are members of the Co ...

, the contest's organisers, because, due to its population size, Germany was one of the biggest financial contributors to the contest. This qualification failure, among other things, led to the formation of the "Big Five" status. Due to Germany's non-participation in the final, it was broadcast by ARD only after midnight (It was, however, broadcast live in Northern and Western Germany on its regional channels). The final was watched by 0.37 million viewers in Germany, the lowest TV rating ever recorded in Germany for a Eurovision final.

Voting

References

External links

German National Final 1996
{{Eurovision Song Contest 1996

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1996

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...