The United Kingdom was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1976 with the song "Save Your Kisses for Me", written by Tony Hiller, Lee Sheriden, and Martin Lee, and performed by Brotherhood of Man. The British participating broadcaster, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), selected its entry through a national final titled A Song for Europe 1976. The entry eventually won the Eurovision Song Contest.
Before Eurovision
A Song for Europe 1976
Following the lowest published figure known for the public vote in the British national finals that used either voting by mail or telephone in 1975 and the BBC's choice of The Shadows singing all the shortlisted songs, calls from the Music Publishers Association for the songwriters and composers to be allowed to select the artist of their choice to perform the songs in future British selections for Eurovision led to an 'all-comers' final being reinstated in 1976. It was a reversion to the format used for the national finals from 1961 to 1963. Twelve songs were chosen by the Music Publisher's Association, with the songwriters choosing their own artist.
Final
The show took place on 25 February 1976 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Michael Aspel (who had hosted the 1969 UK final) acted as presenter for the event. Fourteen regional juries voted on the songs: Bristol, Bangor, Leeds, Norwich, Newcastle, Aberdeen, Birmingham, Manchester, Belfast, Cardiff, Plymouth, Glasgow, Southampton and London. Each jury ranked the songs 1-12, awarding 12 points for their favourite down to 1 point for their least preferred. The songs were backed by the Alyn Ainsworth Orchestra. A Song for Europe was watched in 6.3 million homes (giving it a general viewing figure of 12.6 million viewers), and finishing as the 18th-most watched programme of the week.
|-
! scope="col" |
! scope="col" | Artist
! scope="col" | Song
! scope="col" class="unsortable" | Songwriter(s)
! scope="col" class="unsortable" | Points
! scope="col" | Place
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 1
| align="left" | Co-Co
| align="left" | "Wake Up"
| align="left" |
| 138
| 2
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 2
| align="left" | Polly Brown
| align="left" | "Do You Believe in Love at First Sight?"
| align="left" |
| 71
| 10
|- style="font-weight:bold; background:gold;"
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 3
| align="left" | Brotherhood of Man
| align="left" | "Save Your Kisses for Me"
| align="left" |
| 140
| 1
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 4
| align="left" | Hazell Dean
| align="left" | "Couldn't Live Without You"
| align="left" | Paul Curtis
| 77
| 8
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 5
| align="left" | Champagne
| align="left" | "A Love for All Seasons"
| align="left" |
| 77
| 8
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 6
| align="left" | Frank Ifield
| align="left" | "Ain't Gonna Take No for an Answer"
| align="left" |
| 21
| 12
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 7
| align="left" | Sunshine
| align="left" | "Maria"
| align="left" |
| 80
| 7
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 8
| align="left" | Tammy Jones
| align="left" | "Love's a Carousel"
| align="left" | Harold Spiro
| 98
| 6
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 9
| align="left" | Joey Valentine
| align="left" | "Going to the Movies"
| align="left" | Daniel Boone
| 52
| 11
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 10
| align="left" | Sweet Dreams
| align="left" | "Love, Kiss and Run"
| align="left" |
| 109
| 4
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 11
| align="left" | Louisa Jane White
| align="left" | "Take the Money and Run"
| align="left" |
| 100
| 5
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 12
| align="left" | Tony Christie
| align="left" | "Queen of the Mardi Gras"
| align="left" |
| 129
| 3
|}
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto; text-align:center;"
|+ Regional jury votes and Jean Terrell (former lead singer of The Supremes) both recorded and released versions of the song "Do You Believe In Love At First Sight?" despite the song's poor placing in the contest. Only the winning song reached the UK singles chart: "Save Your Kisses for Me" became a UK No.1 single, the group had a 2 further UK No.1 singles over the next 18 months. The track was the biggest selling single of 1976 in the UK and the sixth biggest selling for the 1970s in Britain, with sales well in excess of 1 million copies. Globally, the track attained sales of over 6 million, making it the biggest selling winning single in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest.
At Eurovision
By scoring 164 points out of a possible maximum of 204, the UK achieved the highest relative score ever reached under the "Douze Points" voting system inaugurated in the Eurovision Song Contest 1975 and used ever since, with 80.4% of the possible score attained. No song has ever achieved this since, although previously in 1973, Luxembourg's winning entry scored 80.6% under a different voting system. The contest was seen by 8.85 million viewers.
Voting
{| class="wikitable"
|-
|+ Points awarded to the United Kingdom
|-
! scope="col" width="20%" | Score
! scope="col" | Country
|-
! scope="row" | 12 points
|
|-
! scope="row" | 10 points
|
|-
! scope="row" | 8 points
|
|-
! scope="row" | 7 points
|
|-
! scope="row" | 6 points
|
|-
! scope="row" | 5 points
|
|-
! scope="row" | 4 points
|
|-
! scope="row" | 3 points
|
|-
! scope="row" | 2 points
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1 point
|
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|-
|+ Points awarded by the United Kingdom
|-
! scope="col" width="20%" | Score
! scope="col" | Country
|-
! scope="row" | 12 points
|
|-
! scope="row" | 10 points
|
|-
! scope="row" | 8 points
|
|-
! scope="row" | 7 points
|
|-
! scope="row" | 6 points
|
|-
! scope="row" | 5 points
|
|-
! scope="row" | 4 points
|
|-
! scope="row" | 3 points
|
|-
! scope="row" | 2 points
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1 point
|
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|-
|+ Points awarded to "Save Your Kisses for Me" (Round 2)
|-
! scope="col" width="20%" | Score
! scope="col" | Country
|-
! scope="row" | 12 points
|
|-
! scope="row" | 10 points
|
|-
! scope="row" | 8 points
|
|-
! scope="row" | 7 points
|
|-
! scope="row" | 6 points
|
|}