# Talk:Eurovision Song Contest 1996

they failed to qualify through the semi-final. for consistency throughout all eurovision articles, only countries that actually withdrew should be listed under withdrawing countries. the number of participating countries should also changed to reflect the total number participating.(including those that failed to qualify through the semi-final.)84.213.46.153 (talk) 18:40, 5 November 2014 (UTC)

Not a chance of that ever happening.  It was not an official semifinal, it was a "pre-qualification round" as too many countries wanted to take part.  This is all detailed in the article, and even the official Eurovision and EBU websites do not classify the round as a semifinal.  They do however, show the same countries as we have, as being withdrawn.  We cannot deviate away from reliable sources, as this violates verifying rules and may result in blocking sanctions from future editing.  Wes Mouse | T@lk 18:45, 5 November 2014 (UTC)

Looking at the qualification table, I suspect the EBU treated not qualifying in 1996 as 0 points - I've never heard that Israel withdrew voluntarily from 1997, and can't find any source whatsoever to back that up. If you treat their NQ in 1996 as 0 points, their average score drops below that of Bosnia, which would then fit perfectly.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by TF100 (talk • contribs) 09:50, 24 April 2020 (UTC) 

I did find this now deleted page on eurovision.tv that states "Israel withdrew voluntarily". It doesn't elaborate beyond that but it is from a very reliable source. dummelaksen (talk) 11:16, 24 April 2020 (UTC)

Is there any reason it was "Eurosong" for just this year? The official website merely notes it in passing, and researching it with Google is difficult. It stands out because the Father Ted episode "A Song for Europe" - broadcast a month earlier - goes out of its way to never use the word "Eurovision", calling the contest "Eurosong" throughout, perhaps accidentally that's actually what the contest was called that year. -Ashley Pomeroy (talk) 14:24, 27 August 2022 (UTC)

As to the sequence:
"NRK introduced visual effects to the contest for the first time. Computer-generated imagery (CGI) was featured as overlays during the broadcast of the competing entries [...]"
As far as I can see, none of the sources quoted support these claims. "Visual effects" is a very broad term, in my opinion. Already a simple animation, such as Eurocat in 1990, is a visual effect, right? So it's not entirely clear what "first time" is being referred to here. I can neither understand in which aspect the "overlays" (giving the title, artists and country of each entry, shown briefly at the bottom as an animated overlay during the performances) are new. There are similar overlays in the 1994 contest, for example. EurovisionLibrarian (talk) 15:13, 3 March 2024 (UTC)

Potentially this section could do with some rewriting to make it clearer. The overlays, CGI and visual effects mentioned here specifically refer mainly to the artistic elements that featured in the performances that made it more "music video"-like and less like a standard television production. This is something that is quite common in modern contests but it was very new in 1996. It's definitely not meant to refer to the overlays which list the song and artist etc. which have existed in some shape or form since the 1960s and became more advanced using CGI in the 1980s. Sims2aholic8 (talk) 15:25, 3 March 2024 (UTC)
Alright, thank you for clarification! EurovisionLibrarian (talk) 08:24, 6 March 2024 (UTC)