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The Netherlands was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1976 with the song "The Party's Over", written by Hans van Hemert, and performed by Sandra Reemer. The Dutch participating broadcaster, Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS), selected its entry through a national final. In addition, NOS was also the host broadcaster and staged the event at the Nederlands Congresgebouw in The Hague, after winning the previous edition with the song "Ding-a-dong" by Teach-In. This was the second of Reemer's three Eurovision appearances for the Netherlands: she had sung in the 1972 contest in a duo with Dries Holten (Andres), and would also take part in the 1979 contest under the name of Xandra.
| Eurovision Song Contest 1976 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Participating broadcaster | Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS) | |||
| Country |  Netherlands | |||
| National selection | ||||
| Selection process | Nationaal Songfestival 1976 | |||
| Selection date(s) | 18 February 1976 | |||
| Selected artist(s) | Sandra Reemer | |||
| Selected song | "The Party's Over" | |||
| Selected songwriter(s) | Hans van Hemert | |||
| Finals performance | ||||
| Final result | 9th, 56 points | |||
| Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest | ||||
| ||||
Prior to the contest, there was controversy when some other national delegations laid accusations that "The Party's Over" plagiarised the 1968 Mary Hopkin hit "Those Were the Days". The allegations of plagiarism were considered and rejected by contest organisers the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), who conceded that the songs were very similar in style and structure, but did not find any similarity between the actual melodies.
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Nationaal Songfestival 1976
Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS) held the national final at the Nederlands Congresgebouw in The Hague (the same venue where the Eurovision final was to take place) on 18 February 1976, hosted by Willem Duys.
Five songs took part, with the winner being decided by eleven regional juries who each had 10 points to allocate between the songs. All the acts were well-known hitmakers in the Netherlands, and an extra point of interest for viewers was that one of the other participants was Reemer's former singing partner Holten, now performing with his new partner Rosy: reportedly by 1976 Reemer and Holten were no longer on the best of terms, so there was much anticipation to see them competing against each other. In the event, "The Party's Over" emerged the winner while Holten's song "I Was Born to Love" could only manage fourth place.[1]
| Draw | Artist | Song | Points | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spooky & Sue | "Do You Dig It" | 5 | 5 |
| 2 | Bolland & Bolland | "Souvenir" | 30 | 2 |
| 3 | Sandra Reemer | "The Party's Over" | 35 | 1 |
| 4 | Rosy & Andres | "I Was Born to Love" | 17 | 4 |
| 5 | Lucifer | "Someone Is Waiting for You" | 23 | 3 |
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On the night of the final Reemer performed 8th in the running order, following Ireland and preceding Norway. At the close of voting "The Party's Over" had received 56 points from 14 countries, placing the Netherlands 9th of the 18 entries.[2] The Dutch jury awarded its 12 points to France.[3]
The Dutch conductor at the contest was Harry van Hoof.
Voting
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