Eurovision Song Contest 1994

Eurovision Song Contest 1994
Dates
Final date	30 April 1994
Host
Venue	Point Theatre Dublin, Ireland
Presenter(s)	Cynthia Ní Mhurchú Gerry Ryan
Conductor	Noel Kelehan
Host broadcaster	RTÉ
Interval act	Riverdance
Participants
Number of entries	25
Debuting countries	Estonia Hungary Lithuania Poland Romania Russia Slovakia
Returning countries	None
Withdrawing countries	Belgium Denmark Israel Italy Luxembourg Slovenia Turkey
Participation map      Participating participants     Countries who have participated in the past but did not this year
Vote
Voting system	Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs
Nul points	Lithuania
Winning song	Ireland "Rock 'n' Roll Kids"
Eurovision Song Contest
◄1993 1995►

The Eurovision Song Contest 1994 was the 39th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 30 April 1994 in the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. The presenters were Cynthia Ní Mhurchú and Gerry Ryan. The pair hosted the evening in French, English and Irish. Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan from Ireland were the winners of this Eurovision with a song written by Brendan Graham, "Rock 'N' Roll Kids". This was a record sixth victory for Ireland, giving it the outright record number of victories at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was also the first time — and to date the only time — that the contest had been won by the same country in three consecutive years.

The contest opened with a brief film of stars floating in water, fireworks and caricatures dancing around, drinking coffee and biking. The cameras then went live to the venue itself, where dancers dressed in white and wearing caricatured heads of well-known Irish figures, arrived on stage carrying European countries’ flags. The presenters entered the stage spectacularly from a bridge which descended from the roof of the theatre. This year’s video postcards had a literary theme, showing contestants reading, fishing and doing other activities around Ireland. The stage, by Paula Farrell, was four times larger than the Millstreet stage, and its design which included a city scene of skyscrapers and video screens plus a backdrop of an ever changing nightsky was based upon the concept of what a futuristic Dublin might look like with one remaining constant being the river Liffey. Indeed, the floor was painted with a dark blue reflective paint to give a watery effect.

To cope with the increasing number of countries wishing to participate in the contest, for 1994 the European Broadcasting Union ruled that the five lowest-placed countries from the preceding year's contest would not participate. This meant that Belgium, Denmark, Israel, Slovenia and Turkey did not participate this year opening spaces for the overwhelming amount of new countries. This contest also saw Luxembourg withdraw from Eurovision indefinitely. Because Italy and Luxembourg withdrew voluntarily, the bottom 6 of the 1993 Contest were actually relegated.

Poland took part for the first time and caused a scandal when Edyta Górniak broke the rules by singing her song in English during the dress rehearsal (which is shown to the juries who selected the winner until 1997). Only six countries demanded that Poland should be disqualified, though the rules required 13 countries to complain before Poland could be removed from the competition. The proposed removal did not occur and Poland went on to come 2nd in the contest, the highest placing that any country's debut song had ever achieved (even the winner in 1956 was Switzerland's second song of the night).

For the first time in Eurovision history, voting was done via satellite instead of by telephone, and as a result, viewers could actually see the spokespersons onscreen.

When the voting started, Hungary took the lead from the first six juries and was well ahead of all the other countries. However, Ireland powered their way through the score board ending up the winners with a 60 point lead over second-placed Poland.

The interval act was the first ever performance of the Irish dancing spectacular Riverdance, featuring Michael Flatley and Jean Butler. Although the costs of producing the 1994 contest was only half of what the previous year cost, the success of Riverdance ensured that is was by far the most commercially successful Eurovision ever.

Results

Draw	Country	Language	Artist	Song	English translation	Place	Points
01	Sweden	Swedish	Marie Bergman and Roger Pontare	"Stjärnorna"	The stars	13	48
02	Finland	Finnish	CatCat	"Bye Bye Baby"	–	22	11
03	Ireland	English	Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan	"Rock 'n' Roll Kids"	–	1	226
04	Cyprus	Greek	Evridiki	"Eimai Anthropos Ki Ego" (Είμαι άνθρωπος κι εγώ)	I'm human too	11	51
05	Iceland	Icelandic	Sigga	"Nætur"	Nights	12	49
06	United Kingdom	English	Frances Ruffelle	"We Will Be Free (Lonely Symphony)"	–	10	63
07	Croatia	Croatian	Tony Cetinski	"Nek' ti bude ljubav sva"	You may have all the love	16	27
08	Portugal	Portuguese	Sara Tavares	"Chamar a música"	Call the music	8	73
09	Switzerland	Italian	Duilio	"Sto pregando"	I'm praying	19	15
10	Estonia	Estonian	Silvi Vrait	"Nagu merelaine"	Like a seawave	24	2
11	Romania	Romanian	Dan Bittman	"Dincolo de nori"	Beyond the clouds	21	14
12	Malta	English	Chris and Moira	"More than Love"	–	5	97
13	Netherlands	Dutch	Willeke Alberti	"Waar is de zon?"	Where is the sun?	23	4
14	Germany	German	MeKaDo	"Wir geben 'ne Party"	We're throwing a party	3	128
15	Slovakia	Slovak	Tublatanka	"Nekonečná pieseň"	Neverending song	19	15
16	Lithuania	Lithuanian	Ovidijus Vyšniauskas	"Lopšinė mylimai"	Lullaby for my beloved	25	0
17	Norway	Norwegian	Elisabeth Andreassen and Jan Werner Danielsen	"Duett"	Duet	6	76
18	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Bosnian	Alma and Dejan	"Ostani kraj mene"	Stay beside me	15	39
19	Greece	Greek	Kostas Bigalis and The Sea Lovers	"To Trehandiri" (Το tρεχαντήρι)	The trehandiri	14	44
20	Austria	German	Petra Frey	"Für den Frieden der Welt"	For the peace of the world	17	19
21	Spain	Spanish	Alejandro Abad	"Ella no es ella"	She's not her	18	17
22	Hungary	Hungarian	Friderika Bayer	"Kinek mondjam el vétkeimet?"	Whom can I tell my sins?	4	122
23	Russia	Russian	Youddiph	"Vyechniy stranik" (Вечный странник)	Eternal wanderer	9	70
24	Poland	Polish	Edyta Górniak	"To nie ja!"	That's not me!	2	166
25	France	French	Nina Morato	"Je suis un vrai garçon"	I'm a real boy	7	74

Voting structure

The presenters Cynthia Ní Mhurchú & Gerry Ryan

Each country had a jury who awarded 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points for their top ten songs.

With advances in technology, this was the first contest in which the spokesperson for each national jury appeared on-screen, live from their own countries.

In the early stages of the voting it looked as if Hungary was surging to victory in its first-ever Eurovision appearance, winning the maximum twelve points from the first three juries. However, this turned out to be completely deceptive, as from that point on it was virtually one-way traffic for Ireland, which became the first country to win the contest for a third year in succession.

Score sheet

		Results
	Sweden	48					2				7	2		3	6	5		5	10			5	1	2
	Finland	11																		1	10
	Ireland	226	10	7		8	12	10	12	12	12	10	8	5	12	12	6	10	12	10		10	10	10	12	8	8
	Cyprus	51		10			3			5	2								5		12		4		2	5	3
	Iceland	49	8	1	6			6		3	3						1	3				3	6		1	4	4
	United Kingdom	63			1	5			6	8	8	5			2	4	3		2	4		1	3	3	5	3
	Croatia	27												10			12				5
	Portugal	73	5	5	8		8	8			5			1	3								12	7	4	1	6
	Switzerland	15												8									2				5
	Estonia	2																			2
	Romania	14												6				2			6
	Malta	97	4	6	10	2		1	7	4	6	7	10		1	3	10	7		12	7
	Netherlands	4																				4
	Germany	128	6	3	5	6	7	7	10	10		3	12		4		7	4	1	7		2	8	12	7	7
	Slovakia	15												12							3
	Lithuania	0
	Norway	76	7		3	10	1	4	3		1	8	4		7	2		1		6	1		5	5	8
	Bosnia and Herzegovina	39		2					4					7			8						7	1			10
	Greece	44	2	4		12							6	4		1	5		4					4		2
	Austria	19	1			7		3	2				1							5
	Spain	17											5				2				8						2
	Hungary	122	12	12	12		10	2	5	1	4	4	2		10	7			8	3		8			3	12	7
	Russia	70			4	3	4	5	1	2		1	3		5	6		6	3		4	6		6		10	1
	Poland	166		8	7	1	6	12	8	7	10	12	7	2	8	10	4	12	6	8		12		8	6		12
	France	74	3		2	4	5			6		6				8		8	7	2		7			10	6

12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 point in the final:

N.	Recipient nation	Voting nation
8	Ireland	Croatia, Germany, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Switzerland
5	Poland	Austria, Estonia, France, Lithuania, United Kingdom
4	Hungary	Ireland, Finland, Poland, Sweden
2	Germany	Hungary, Romania
1	Croatia	Slovakia
	Cyprus	Greece
	Greece	Cyprus
	Malta	Bosnia and Herzegovina
	Portugal	Spain
	Slovakia	Malta

Returning artists

Artist	Country	Previous Year(s)
Evridiki	Cyprus	1992
Sigga	Iceland	1990 (part of Stjórnin), 1992 (part of Heart 2 Heart)
Elisabeth Andreassen	Norway	1982 (for Sweden, part of Chips) 1985 (part of Bobbysocks!, winner)
Marie Bergman	Sweden	1971 & 1972 (part of Family Four)

International broadcasting

Other involved countries

FR Yugoslavia

After the breakup of Yugoslavia, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was last participated in 1992. Third channel of Radio Television of Serbia broadcast the show, although Yugoslavia did not participate.

Commentators

Television

• Sweden - Pekka Heino (SVT, Kanal1)
• Finland - Erkki Pohjanheimo & Kirsi-Maria Niemi (YLE TV2)
• Ireland - Pat Kenny (RTÉ1)
• Cyprus - Evi Papamichail (RIK 1)
• Iceland - Jakob Frímann Magnússon (Sjónvarpið)
• United Kingdom - Terry Wogan (BBC1)
• Croatia - Aleksandar "Aco" Kostadinov (HRT 1)
• Portugal - Eládio Climaco (Canal 1)
• Switzerland - Bernard Thurnheer (SF DRS), Jean-Marc Richard (TSR), Wilma Gilardi (TSI)
• Estonia - Vello Rand (Eesti Televisioon)
• Romania - Gabriela Cristea (TVR1)
• Malta - Charles Arrigo
• Netherlands - Willem van Beusekom (Nederland 3)
• Germany - Jan Hofer (Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen)
• Slovakia - Alena Heribanová (STV1)
• Lithuania - Darius Užkuraitis (LTV)
• Norway - Jostein Pedersen (NRK)
• Bosnia and Herzegovina - Ismeta Dervoz-Krvavac (TVBiH)
• Greece - Dafni Bokota (ET1)
• Austria - Ernst Grissemann (ORF1)
• Spain - José Luis Uribarri (TVE1)
• Hungary - István Vágó (MTV2)
• Russia - Vadim Dolgachev (RTR)
• Poland - Artur Orzech (TVP1)
• France - Patrice Laffont (France 2)
• Belgium (non participating country) - André Vermeulen (BRTN TV2), Jean-Pierre Hautier (RTBF1)
• Denmark (non participating country) - Jørgen de Mylius (DR TV)
• Israel (non participating country) - No commentator
• Slovenia (non participating country) - Tajda Lekše (SLO2)
• Turkey (non participating country) - Bülend Özveren (TRT 2)
• Yugoslavia (non participating country) - Mladen Popović (RTS 3K)
• Macedonia(non participating country) - Milanka Rašik (MTV 2)

Radio

• Sweden - N/A
• Finland - Aki Sirkesalo (YLE Radio 1)
• Ireland - Larry Gogan (RTÉ Radio 1)
• Cyprus - Pavlos Pavlou (CyBC Radio 2)
• Iceland - N/A
• United Kingdom - Ken Bruce (BBC Radio 2)
• Croatia - Draginja Balaš (HR 2)
• Portugal - N/A
• Switzerland - N/A
• Estonia - Marko Reikop (Raadio 2)
• Romania - N/A
• Malta - N/A
• Netherlands - Cornald Maas (Radio 2)
• Germany - Roger Horné (Deutschlandfunk/hr3)
• Slovakia - Špela Močnik (Rádio FM)
• Lithuania - N/A
• Norway - N/A
• Bosnia and Herzegovina - N/A
• Greece - Giorgos Mitropoulos (ERA ERT1)
• Austria - Martin Blumenau (Hitradio Ö3)
• Spain - N/A
• Hungary - TBC (Rádió Kossuth)
• Russia - TBC (Voice of Russia)
• Poland - Dorota Wellman (Polskie Radio Program I)
• France - Stéphane Bern (France Inter)
• Belgium (non participating country) - Julien Put (BRTN Radio 2), Patrick Duhamel (RTBF La Première)
• Denmark (non participating country) - Ole Jacobsen (DR P3)

Spokespersons

• Sweden - Marianne Anderberg
• Finland - Solveig Herlin
• Ireland - Eileen Dunne
• Cyprus - Anna Partelidou
• Iceland - Sigríður Arnardóttir
• United Kingdom - Colin Berry
• Croatia - Helga Vlahović (co-presenter of the 1990 Eurovision Song Contest)
• Portugal - Isabel Bahia
• Switzerland - Sandra Simó
• Estonia - Urve Tiidus
• Romania - Gabriela Cristea
• Malta - John Demanuele
• Netherlands - Joop van Os
• Germany - Carmen Nebel
• Slovakia - Juraj Čurný
• Lithuania - Gitana
• Norway - Sverre Christophersen
• Bosnia and Herzegovina - Diana Grković-Foretić
• Greece - Fotini Giannoulatou
• Austria - Tilia Herold
• Spain - María Ángeles Balañac
• Hungary - Iván Bradányi
• Russia - Irina
• Poland - Jan Chojnacki
• France - Laurent Romejko

National jury members

• Greece – Evangelos Alexandropoulos, Nikolaos Tsolakis, Giorgos Vrouvas, Giorgos Kleftogiorgos, Kosmas Athousis, Maria Alefanti, Eleftherios Apostolopoulos, Christos Venetidis, Georgia Giannopoulou, Anna Gliati, Rozy Kasparian, Evgenia Koutsoulieri, Ekaterini Ligoni, Stamatis Panagiotaras, Ourania Papakonstantopoulou, Archontia Harismidou
• Spain – Belén Casla (economist), Daniel Santos (Eurovision Network delegate), Purificación Blanco (journalist at El Semanal TV), Àlex Sisteré (actor), Susana García (actress), Andrés Vázquez (bullfighter), Alejandra Botto (actress), Serafín Zubiri (singer, Spanish entrant at Eurovision Song Contest 1992), Elena Benarroch (fashion designer), Francisco (singer), Dora Dora (TV hostess), Francisco Herrera (director of Cadena Dial), Victoria Rodríguez (student), Manuel Liétor (businessman), Sofía Balseiro (branch bank director), Javier de la Vega (student)