MADRID, SPAIN – According to a Spanish publication the Jury vote from 1996 was fixed and did not correspond with the original votes given by the Jury on the night.
The statement comes alongside commentary stating that there was incredible surprise during the live voting link of how the votes were given, with the Spanish favourite that year being Holland, performed by Franklin and Maxine but when the votes were read out, there was nothing given to Holland.
In fact, among those that were favoured by the Jury were Portugal and Greece, yet again, neither received a single vote during the live transmission.
It’s claimed that the 6 points received by Poland were actually meant for Holland but were read out so badly that the host misunderstood the sayign of Holland for Poland and nothing was done about this.
Also there was no airtime given to the Jury to explain their votes, fearing that the members of the Jury would likely claim that these were not their votes and that there had been an agreement among TVE and the other delegates to fix the voting.
It should be noted that there is no actual support for this presumed story, nor has the publication supported it’s statements with actual evidence from any members of the Jury or eyewitnesses to the event. However the suggestions of fixing votes are not new where Eurovision is concerned.
THE JURY MEMBERS OF SPAIN 1996
José María Purón (composer)
Anabel Conde (singer)
Álvaro de Luna (actor)
Elvira Quintillá (actress)
Adriana Vega (actress)
Mónica Pont (actress)
Pepe Sancho (actor)
Asunción Embuena (TVE host)
Mikel Herzog (singer)
Mabel Alfonso (singer)
Pedro Bermúdez, ‘Azuquita’ (singer)
Montserrat Marial
Manuel Redondo
Juan Diego (maestro)
Antonio Pinilla (student)
María Mayor (model)
WIKIPEDIA.ORG REPORTS ON THE RESULTS
“When Belén Fernández de Henestrosa, the Spanish spokesperson, announced the votes of the Spanish jury, she awarded two points to “Czechoslovakia” (while meaning ‘Slovakia’). Furthermore, she awarded six points to “Holland” (the Netherlands), which host Ingvild Byrn misheard as “Poland.” The official results table corrected this error, and the Netherlands’ seventh-place result was restored at the expense of the United Kingdom, who ultimately finished eighth. Because originally Poland awarded six points from Spain, Greece was placed 14th over Poland after the official results table corrected this error.”
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The part about Holland/Poland is a non-story. Read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest_1996#Voting_structure “When Belén Fernández de Henestrosa, the Spanish spokesperson, announced the votes of the Spanish jury, she awarded two points to “Czechoslovakia” (while meaning ‘Slovakia’). Furthermore, she awarded six points to “Holland” (the Netherlands), which host Ingvild Byrn misheard as “Poland.” The official results table corrected this error, and the Netherlands’ seventh-place result was restored at the expense of the United Kingdom, who ultimately finished eighth. Because originally Poland awarded six points from Spain, Greece was placed 14th over Poland after the official results table corrected this error.”
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