Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1996

Eimear Quinn represented Ireland in the 1996 Eurovision Song Contest after winning the national selection contest, which was held on 3 March 1996 at the Point Theatre in Dublin. Hosted by Pat Kenny, the contest featured eight songs, with the winning song being selected by ten regional juries.^[1]

Draw	Song	Performer	Points	Rank
1	"Gotta Know Right Now"	Rob Burke Band	76	3rd
2	"Missing You"	Dav McNamara	84	2nd
3	"Once Again"	William Byrne & Lorraine Nolan	61	5th
4	"The Voice"	Eimear Quinn	105	1st
5	"This Time"	Marion Fossett	40	8th
6	"Find My Way"	Yvonne Holmes	73	4th
7	"Amhrán an Ronnach"	Seán Monaghan	61	5th
8	"Worlds Apart"	Maura Donaghy	50	7th

As part of the EBU's scheme to limit the growing number of countries wishing to participate, audio recordings of the entries were sent to juries in each participating country some weeks before the contest. The juries listened to the songs, and awarded points to their ten favorites. Of the 29 countries wishing to participate (host country Norway was exempt from the process), only the 22 highest-scorers were allowed to perform in the contest. In this pre-qualifying round, "The Voice" came in 2nd place with 187 points, and confirmed an Irish presence in Oslo that year.

Quinn performed 17th in the running order on the night of the contest. "The Voice" went on to win with 162 points, giving Ireland its seventh overall victory, and its fourth in five years.

At Eurovision

Points Awarded to Ireland

Points Awarded to Ireland^[2]
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
Bosnia and Herzegovina Estonia Netherlands Poland Slovenia Switzerland Turkey	Finland Greece Norway	Portugal	Austria Slovakia Sweden	Cyprus France
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
	Malta	Belgium

Points Awarded by Ireland^[2]

12 points	Sweden
10 points	Iceland
8 points	Austria
7 points	Norway
6 points	Croatia
5 points	Netherlands
4 points	Switzerland
3 points	United Kingdom
2 points	Estonia
1 point	Cyprus

References

Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest

Participation

1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 ~~1983~~ 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 ~~2002~~ 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Artists

1960s	~~1960 to 1964~~ Butch Moore Dickie Rock Sean Dunphy Pat McGeegan Muriel Day

1970s	Dana Angela Farrell Sandie Jones Maxi Tina Reynolds The Swarbriggs Red Hurley The Swarbriggs Plus Two Colm 'C.T.' Wilkinson Cathal Dunne

1980s	Johnny Logan Sheeba The Duskeys ~~1983~~ Linda Martin Maria Christian Luv Bug Johnny Logan Jump the Gun Kiev Connolly & The Missing Passengers

1990s	Liam Reilly Kim Jackson Linda Martin Niamh Kavanagh Paul Harrington & Charlie McGettigan Eddie Friel Eimear Quinn Marc Roberts Dawn Martin The Mullans

2000s	Eamonn Toal Gary O'Shaughnessy ~~2002~~ Mickey Harte Chris Doran Donna and Joe Brian Kennedy Dervish Dustin the Turkey Sinéad Mulvey & Black Daisy

2010s	Niamh Kavanagh Jedward Ryan Dolan Can-linn feat. Kasey Smith Molly Sterling Nicky Byrne

Songs

1960s	~~1960 to 1964~~ "Walking the Streets in the Rain" "Come Back to Stay" "If I Could Choose" "Chance of a Lifetime" "The Wages of Love"

1970s	"All Kinds of Everything" "One Day Love" "Ceol an Ghrá" "Do I Dream" "Cross Your Heart" "That's What Friends Are For" "When" "It's Nice To Be In Love Again" "Born to Sing" "Happy Man"

1980s	"What's Another Year?" "Horoscopes" "Here Today Gone Tomorrow" ~~1983~~ "Terminal 3" "Wait Until the Weekend Comes" "You Can Count On Me" "Hold Me Now" "Take Him Home" "The Real Me"

1990s	"Somewhere In Europe" "Could It Be That I'm In Love" "Why Me?" "In Your Eyes" "Rock 'n' Roll Kids" "Dreamin'" "The Voice" "Mysterious Woman" "Is Always Over Now?" "When You Need Me"

2000s	"Millennium of Love" "Without Your Love" ~~2002~~ "We've Got the World" "If My World Stopped Turning" "Love?" "Every Song Is a Cry for Love" "They Can't Stop the Spring" "Irelande Douze Pointe" "Et Cetera"

2010s	"It's for You" "Lipstick" "Waterline" "Only Love Survives" "Heartbeat" "Playing with Numbers" "Sunlight"

(Note: Entries scored out are when Ireland did not compete)

Eurovision Song Contest 1996

Countries

Final (by final results)	Ireland (winner) Norway Sweden Croatia Estonia Portugal Netherlands United Kingdom Cyprus Malta Austria Turkey Iceland Greece Poland Switzerland Belgium Slovakia France Spain Slovenia Bosnia and Herzegovina Finland

Semi-final only (in alphabetical order)	Denmark Germany Hungary Israel Macedonia Romania Russia