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The Eurovision Song Contest 1994 was the 39th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Dublin, Ireland, following the country's victory at the 1993 contest with the song "In Your Eyes" by Niamh Kavanagh. It was the first time that any country had hosted the contest two years in a row. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), the contest was held at the Point Theatre on 30 April 1994. It was presented by Irish television and radio presenters Cynthia Ní Mhurchú and Gerry Ryan. This remains the last time that the contest has been held in the month of April.

Eurovision Song Contest 1994
Dates
Final	30 April 1994
Host
Venue	Point Theatre, Dublin, Ireland
Presenter(s)	Cynthia Ní Mhurchú Gerry Ryan
Musical director	Noel Kelehan
Directed by	Patrick Cowap
Executive supervisor	Christian Clausen
Executive producer	Moya Doherty
Host broadcaster	Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ)
Opening act	Walpurgisnacht performance by Macnas, followed by dancing caricatures of Irish artists and celebrities, accompanied by flag bearers featuring the flags of all 25 competing nations
Interval act	"Riverdance" performed by Irish dancing champions Jean Butler, Michael Flatley and the vocal ensemble Anúna, with score composed by Bill Whelan
Website	eurovision.tv/event/dublin-1994
Participants
Number of entries	25
Debuting countries	Estonia  Hungary  Lithuania  Poland  Romania  Russia  Slovakia
Returning countries	None
Non-returning countries	Belgium  Denmark  Israel  Italy  Luxembourg  Slovenia  Turkey
Participation map      Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1994
Vote
Voting system	Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 point(s) to their 10 favourite songs
Nul points in final	Lithuania
Winning song	Ireland "Rock 'n' Roll Kids"
1993 ← Eurovision Song Contest → 1995

Twenty-five countries participated in the contest, equalling the record of the 1993 edition. A total of seven countries took part in the contest for the first time; Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia and Slovakia. To cope with the increasing number of countries wishing to participate in the contest, the EBU ruled that the seven lowest-placed countries from the preceding year's contest could not participate. Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Israel, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Turkey were therefore relegated based on these new rules. However, due to the withdrawal of Italy, Cyprus avoided relegation. Italy would not return to the contest until three years later.[1] On the other hand, Luxembourg has not competed in the contest again ever since.

For the third time in a row Ireland won the contest with the song "Rock 'n' Roll Kids", performed by Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan, and written by Brendan Graham. Never before had a country won 3 times in a row in the history of the contest. At the same time, it was also a record sixth win, cementing Ireland as the country with the most wins in Eurovision history. Poland, Germany, Hungary and Malta rounded out the top five. Poland achieved the best result for a debut entry since 1957, and would remain as the record holder in that regard until 2007.

For the first time in Eurovision history, voting was done via satellite instead of by telephone, and as a result, viewers could see the spokespeople onscreen.[2]

Location

Ireland hosted the contest for the fifth time after winning the 1993 contest in Millstreet. Dublin was chosen to be the host city, making it the fourth time that the Eurovision Song Contest was staged in the Irish capital. For the first time, the venue for the contest was the Point Theatre located on the North Wall Quay of the River Liffey, amongst the Dublin Docklands.

Contest overview

The contest opened with a brief film starring Macnas, a popular street group celebrating Walpurgis Night, with a replica Viking longboat sailing through the river Liffey with stars floating in water, fireworks and various caricatures dancing around various central Dublin locations. 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 while others doing in a separate studio (i.e. singing their except from their songs, doing photoshoots and others). 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 night sky was based upon the concept of what a futuristic Dublin might look like with one remaining constant being the river Liffey. The floor was painted with dark blue reflective paint to give a watery effect resembling Dublin bay.

During the dress rehearsal, Polish representative Edyta Górniak broke the contest's rules by singing her song in English. The dress rehearsal is the performance shown to the juries who would select the winner. Only six countries demanded that Poland should be disqualified, though the rules required thirteen 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 until 2007 (the winner in 1956 was Switzerland's second song of the night).[3][4]

When the voting started, Hungary took the lead from the first six juries and were 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, a then-unknown Irish act which combines folk music with modern dance. After being featured in the contest, Riverdance became a global phenomenon, arguably even eclipsing the popularity of the winning song and remaining popular to this day.[5]

Participating countries

Qualification

In order to allow new countries to participate in the contest, a relegation system was announced by the EBU in summer of 1993. The bottom seven countries from the 1993 contest were prevented from participating to allow seven new countries to make their debut. As the seven countries to place the lowest the previous year, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Israel, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Turkey were the countries to take part in the first relegation, to make room for entries from Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia and Slovakia.[5][6] Italy subsequently declined to participate in the 1994 contest, allowing Cyprus, as the highest-placed relegated country in 1993, to be readmitted.[6]

Conductors

With the exception of Ireland, each performance had a conductor who directed the orchestra.[7][6] Ireland's Noel Kelehan, the musical director and a Eurovision veteran, conducted the songs from three countries, but not his home country's song.[lower-alpha 1]

Returning artists

Artist	Country	Previous year(s)
Evridiki	Cyprus	1983 (backing singer for Stavros and Constantina), 1987 (backing singer for Alexia), 1992
Sigga	Iceland	1990 (part of Stjórnin), 1992 (member of Heart 2 Heart)
Elisabeth Andreasson (with Jan Werner Danielsen)	Norway	1982 (for  Sweden, member of Chips), 1985 (member of Bobbysocks!)
Marie Bergman (with Roger Pontare)	Sweden	1971 and 1972 (member of Family Four)
Rhonda Heath (backing vocalist for MeKaDo)	Germany	1977 (member of Silver Convention)

Participants and results

R/O	Country	Artist	Song	Language[8][9]	Points	Place[10]
1	Sweden	Marie Bergman and Roger Pontare	"Stjärnorna"	Swedish	48	13
2	Finland	CatCat	"Bye Bye Baby"	Finnish[lower-alpha 2]	11	22
3	Ireland	Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan	"Rock 'n' Roll Kids"	English	226	1
4	Cyprus	Evridiki	"Ime anthropos ki ego" (Είμαι άνθρωπος κι εγώ)	Greek	51	11
5	Iceland	Sigga	"Nætur"	Icelandic	49	12
6	United Kingdom	Frances Ruffelle	"We Will Be Free (Lonely Symphony)"	English	63	10
7	Croatia	Tony Cetinski	"Nek' ti bude ljubav sva"	Croatian	27	16
8	Portugal	Sara Tavares	"Chamar a música"	Portuguese	73	8
9	Switzerland	Duilio	"Sto pregando"	Italian	15	19
10	Estonia	Silvi Vrait	"Nagu merelaine"	Estonian	2	24
11	Romania	Dan Bittman	"Dincolo de nori"	Romanian	14	21
12	Malta	Moira Stafrace and Christopher Scicluna	"More than Love"	English	97	5
13	Netherlands	Willeke Alberti	"Waar is de zon"	Dutch	4	23
14	Germany	Mekado	"Wir geben 'ne Party"	German[lower-alpha 2]	128	3
15	Slovakia	Martin Ďurinda and Tublatanka	"Nekonečná pieseň"	Slovak	15	19
16	Lithuania	Ovidijus Vyšniauskas	"Lopšinė mylimai"	Lithuanian	0	25
17	Norway	Elisabeth Andreasson and Jan Werner Danielsen	"Duett"	Norwegian	76	6
18	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Alma and Dejan	"Ostani kraj mene"	Bosnian	39	15
19	Greece	Kostas Bigalis and the Sea Lovers	"To trehandiri (Diri Diri)" (Το τρεχαντήρι (Ντίρι Ντίρι))	Greek	44	14
20	Austria	Petra Frey	"Für den Frieden der Welt"	German	19	17
21	Spain	Alejandro Abad	"Ella no es ella"	Spanish	17	18
22	Hungary	Friderika Bayer	"Kinek mondjam el vétkeimet?"	Hungarian	122	4
23	Russia	Youddiph	"Vechny strannik" (Вечный странник)	Russian	70	9
24	Poland	Edyta Górniak	"To nie ja!"	Polish	166	2
25	France	Nina Morato	"Je suis un vrai garçon"	French	74	7

Detailed voting results

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

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.

Detailed voting results[11][12]

		Total score	Sweden	Finland	Ireland	Cyprus	Iceland	United Kingdom	Croatia	Portugal	Switzerland	Estonia	Romania	Malta	Netherlands	Germany	Slovakia	Lithuania	Norway	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Greece	Austria	Spain	Hungary	Russia	Poland	France
Contestants	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.	Contestant	Nation(s) giving 12 points
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

Spokespersons

This section needs additional citations for verification. (October 2021)

With advances in satellite technology, this was the first contest in which the spokesperson for each national jury appeared on screen, live from their own countries.[6]

Broadcasts

This section needs additional citations for verification. (October 2021)

National broadcasters were able to send a commentary team to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language.

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries

Country	Broadcaster(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Austria	ORF 1	Ernst Grissemann [de]
	Hitradio Ö3	Martin Blumenau [de]
Bosnia and Herzegovina	TV BiH	Ismeta Dervoz-Krvavac [bs]
Croatia	HRT 1	Aleksandar "Aco" Kostadinov
	HR2	Draginja Balaš
Cyprus	RIK 1	Evi Papamichail
	RIK Deftero	Pavlos Pavlou
Estonia	ETV	Vello Rand
	Raadio 2	Marko Reikop
Finland	YLE TV1	Erkki Pohjanheimo and Kirsi-Maria Niemi	[14]
	YLE Radio Suomi	TBC
France	France 2	Patrice Laffont
Germany	Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen	Jan Hofer
	Deutschlandfunk/WDR 4	Horst Senker
Greece	ET1	Dafni Bokota
	ERA 2	Katia Kalitsounaki
Hungary	MTV 2	István Vágó	[15]
Iceland	Sjónvarpið	Jakob Frímann Magnússon	[16]
Ireland	RTÉ 1	Pat Kenny
	RTÉ Radio 1	Larry Gogan
Lithuania	LTV	TBC
Malta	TVM	Charles Arrigo
Netherlands	Nederland 3	Willem van Beusekom	[17]
	Radio 2	Cornald Maas
Norway	NRK	Jostein Pedersen	[18]
Poland	TVP1	Artur Orzech
	Polskie Radio Program I	Dorota Wellman
Portugal	RTP Canal 1	Eládio Clímaco
Romania	TVR1	Gabriela Cristea
Russia	RTR	Sergei Antipov [ru]
	Voice of Russia	TBC
Slovakia	STV2	Martin Sarvaš
Spain	La Primera	José Luis Uribarri
Sweden	Kanal 1	Pekka Heino
	SR P3	Claes-Johan Larsson and Lisa Syrén
Switzerland	SF DRS	German: Bernard Thurnheer [de]	[19]
	TSR[lower-alpha 3]	French: Jean-Marc Richard
	TSI[lower-alpha 3]	Italian: Wilma Gilardi
United Kingdom	BBC1	Terry Wogan	[6]
	BBC Radio 2	Ken Bruce	[6]

Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries

Country	Broadcaster(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Australia	SBS TV	Unknown
Belgium	BRTN TV2	Dutch: André Vermeulen	[20]
	RTBF1	French: Jean-Pierre Hautier
	BRTN Radio 2	Dutch: Julien Put [nl]
	RTBF La Première	French: Patrick Duhamel [fr]
Denmark	DR TV1	Jørgen de Mylius
	DR P3	Ole Jacobsen [dk]
Israel	Israeli Television	No commentator
Macedonia	MTV 2	Milanka Rašić
Slovenia	SLO1	Damjana Golavšek [sl]
Turkey	TRT 1	Bülend Özveren
Yugoslavia	RTS 3K	Mladen Popović

Notes

References

External links

• Official website

На других языках

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- [en] Eurovision Song Contest 1994

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[ru] Евровидение-1994

Конкурс песни Евровидение-1994 — 39-й конкурс песни «Евровидение». Он прошёл 30 апреля 1994 года в Дублине (Ирландия) на сцене театра «Пойнт». Поскольку Ирландия проводила и предыдущий конкурс, это был первый случай, когда страна принимает у себя Евровидение два года подряд.

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