1996 Worldvision Song Contest

The 1996 Worldvision Song Contest was the seventh edition of Worldvision Song Contest, and was held in Helsinki, Finland. Belgium, Brazil, The Netherlands, and Romania are still all on hiatus. Canada is still on a five year break from the Worldvision Song Contest for unknown reasons. Four new countries were introduced, Austria, Latvia, Slovakia and Switzerland.

Format
Citizens of each participating country vote by telephone and SMS message, which counts for 50%, while a jury in each country also has a 50% say in the outcome. Each country's 10 favourites are awarded 1 to 8, 10 and 12 points. Due to the overwhelming number of entries, a new rule was introduced: the five countries with the lowest scores from the previous year's contest would not be able to participate in the preceding year's contest. That mean Hungary, Germany, France, Japan and the United Kingdom were all excluded from participating in this year's contest.