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The Eurovision Song Contest 1994 was the 39th edition of the
Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...
, held on 30 April 1994 at the
Point Theatre The Point Theatre (sometimes referred to as the Point Depot or simply as the Point) was a concert and events venue in Dublin, Ireland, that operated from 1988 to 2007, visited by in excess of 2 million people. It was located on the North Wall ...
in
Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
, Ireland. Organised by the
European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; , UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are member states of the Council of Europe, members of the ...
(EBU) and host broadcaster (RTÉ), and presented by
Cynthia Ní Mhurchú Cynthia Ní Mhurchú (; born 1966) is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician, barrister and former radio host with (RTÉ) who has served as a Member of the European Parliament for the South constituency since July 2024. She presented Eurovision Song ...
and
Gerry Ryan Gerard Ryan (4 June 1956 – 30 April 2010) was an Irish people, Irish presenter of radio and television employed by Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ). He presented ''The Gerry Ryan Show'' on radio station RTÉ 2fm each weekday morning from 1 ...
, the contest was held in Ireland following the country's victory at the with the song "
In Your Eyes In Your Eyes may refer to: Film * ''In Your Eyes'', a 2004 film featuring Michael DeLorenzo * In Your Eyes (2010 film), ''In Your Eyes'' (2010 film), a Philippine romantic drama * In Your Eyes (2014 film), ''In Your Eyes'' (2014 film), a film writt ...
" by
Niamh Kavanagh Niamh Kavanagh ( ; born 13 February 1968) is an Irish singer who sang the winning entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 1993. The 1993 Eurovision Song Contest was held in Millstreet, County Cork, Ireland. She sang "In Your Eyes" to clinch t ...
. It was the first time that any country had hosted two successive editions of the contest, following the previous year's contest held in
Millstreet Millstreet () is a town in north County Cork, Ireland. As of the 2022 census, it had a population of 1,722. Millstreet is within the civil parish of Drishane, and within a Poor Law Union also called Millstreet. The Millstreet Union encompasse ...
. Twenty-five countries participated in the contest, which for the first time featured a relegation system to reduce the number of interested participating countries. Seven new countries participated in the event, with entries from , , , , , and featuring for the first time. However, , , , , and were unable to compete due to the new relegation rules as the lowest-scoring countries at the previous event, whereas decided against participating by choice. For the third time in a row, won the contest with the song " Rock 'n' Roll Kids", written by
Brendan Graham Brendan Graham (born 12 February 1945) is an Irish songwriter and novelist. Among songs he has written are " Rock 'n' Roll Kids" (1994) and " The Voice" (1996), both of which won the Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland in their respective year ...
and performed by Paul Harrington and
Charlie McGettigan Charles Joseph McGettigan (born 7 December 1950, Ballyshannon, County Donegal) is an Irish people, Irish singer. He lived in 2009 in Drumshanbo, County Leitrim. Career Performing with Paul Harrington (musician), Paul Harrington, he won the Eu ...
. Never before had a country won three 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 up till that point. Poland, , Hungary and rounded out the top five positions, with Poland achieving the most successful result for a début entry in the contest's history. The 1994 contest also featured the first appearance of ''
Riverdance ''Riverdance'' is a theatrical show that consists mainly of traditional Irish music and dance. With a score composed by Bill Whelan, it originated as an interval act during the Eurovision Song Contest 1994, featuring Irish dancing champions J ...
''. Originally a seven-minute performance of traditional Irish and modern music,
choral singing A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...
and
Irish dancing Irish dance refers to the traditional dance forms that originate in Ireland, including both solo and group dance forms, for Social dance, social, Competitive dance, competitive, and performative dance, performance purposes. Irish dance has evolv ...
featured as part of the contest's interval act, it was subsequently developed into a full stage show which has since become a worldwide phenomenon and catapulted the careers of its lead dancers
Jean Butler Jean Butler (born March 14, 1971) is an American stepdancer, Irish dancer, choreographer, and actress. She is best known for originating the principal female role in the Irish dance theatrical production ''Riverdance''. In January 2020 it was a ...
and
Michael Flatley Michael Ryan Flatley (born July 16, 1958) is an American former professional performer and choreographer of Irish dance. Flatley is credited with reinventing traditional Irish dance by incorporating new rhythms, syncopation, and upper body movem ...
.


Location

The 1994 contest took place in
Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
, Ireland, following the country's victory at the with the song "
In Your Eyes In Your Eyes may refer to: Film * ''In Your Eyes'', a 2004 film featuring Michael DeLorenzo * In Your Eyes (2010 film), ''In Your Eyes'' (2010 film), a Philippine romantic drama * In Your Eyes (2014 film), ''In Your Eyes'' (2014 film), a film writt ...
", performed by
Niamh Kavanagh Niamh Kavanagh ( ; born 13 February 1968) is an Irish singer who sang the winning entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 1993. The 1993 Eurovision Song Contest was held in Millstreet, County Cork, Ireland. She sang "In Your Eyes" to clinch t ...
. It was the fifth time that Ireland had hosted the contest, following the , and events also held in Dublin, and the previous year's event held in
Millstreet Millstreet () is a town in north County Cork, Ireland. As of the 2022 census, it had a population of 1,722. Millstreet is within the civil parish of Drishane, and within a Poor Law Union also called Millstreet. The Millstreet Union encompasse ...
. Ireland thus became the first country to host two successive contests. The selected venue was the
Point Theatre The Point Theatre (sometimes referred to as the Point Depot or simply as the Point) was a concert and events venue in Dublin, Ireland, that operated from 1988 to 2007, visited by in excess of 2 million people. It was located on the North Wall ...
, a concert and events venue located among the
Dublin Docklands Dublin Docklands () is an area of the city of Dublin, Ireland, on both sides of the River Liffey, roughly from Talbot Memorial Bridge eastwards to the 3Arena (Dublin), 3Arena. It mainly falls within the city's List of Dublin postal districts ...
and originally built as a train depot and warehouse to serve the nearby port. Opened as a music venue in 1988, it was closed for redevelopment and expansion in 2008 and is now known as the
3Arena 3Arena may refer to the following: * 3Arena (Dublin) The 3Arena (originally The O2) is an indoor amphitheatre located at North Wall Quay in the Dublin Docklands in Dublin, Ireland. The venue opened as The O2 on 16 December 2008 and was re-bran ...
. At the time of the contest, the arena could seat around 3,200 audience members.


Participants

Twenty-five countries were permitted to participate in the contest. As the number of countries interested in participating in the contest grew, and following the use of a
qualifying round Qualification may refer to: Processes * Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), a competitive contract procurement process established by the United States Congress * Process qualification, ensures that manufacturing and production processes can ...
in the previous year's event, a relegation system was introduced to the contest for the first time, which would prevent the lowest-scoring countries from the previous year's event from participating in the subsequent contest. In the summer of 1993 the
European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; , UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are member states of the Council of Europe, members of the ...
(EBU) confirmed that the seven lowest-scoring countries in the 1993 event would be barred from entering the 1994 contest, to make way for seven countries which would participate for the first time. As a result, , , , , , , and were unable to enter the contest, and in the contest's largest single expansion of new participating countries since the first edition in , , , , , , , and made their début appearances. Estonia, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia had all previously participated in the 1993 qualifying round . Belgium thus failed to participate in the contest for the first time, leaving and as the only countries to have competed in every edition of the contest so far. Later in 1993 's broadcaster
RAI (), commercially styled as since 2000 and known until 1954 as (RAI), is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many terrestrial and subscription television channels a ...
subsequently announced that it would not participate in the event, likely due to a lack of interest in the event among the Italian public and concerns within the broadcaster at the costs of staging the contest in the event that Italy won; this led to Cyprus being readmitted as the relegated country with the best result at the 1993 contest. Four performers who had competed in previous editions of contests featured among the participating artists at this year's event:
Marie Bergman Marie Bergman (born 21 November 1950) is a Swedish singer. Between 1969 and 1972, she was a member in the pop group Family Four, which represented Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1971 and 1972. She started her solo career in 1974. Sh ...
, representing with
Roger Pontare Fred Roger Pontare (born Roger Johansson; 17 October 1951) is a Swedish musician. He lives in Bjuråker in Hudiksvalls kommun. Pontare was born in Arjeplog Municipality, and is of Sami descent. He has represented Sweden twice in the Eurovisio ...
, had been a member of the group Family Four that had represented the country in the and ; Cyprus's
Evridiki Evridiki Theokleous (, ; born 25 February 1968), known mononymously as Evridiki, is a Greek Cypriot singer. She is best known in Europe for representing her home country, Cyprus, in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1992, 1994 and 2007 with the s ...
made a second appearance in the contest, following her entry at the ;
Sigga Sigríður María Beinteinsdóttir, better known as Sigga Beinteins, is an Icelandic singer who competed for her native country in the Eurovision Song Contest three times. She was born on 26 July 1962 in Reykjavík. She got three 12-point votes ...
returned to the contest for for a third time, having previously competed as part of
Stjórnin Stjórnin is an Icelandic music duo composed of singers (born 11 July 1959) and Sigríður Beinteinsdóttir (born 24 July 1962). Together, they represented Iceland at the Eurovision Song Contest 1990 held in Zagreb. Their entry, " Eitt lag enn" ...
in and Heart 2 Heart in 1992; and Elisabeth Andreasson, competing in this event with
Jan Werner Danielsen Jan Werner Danielsen, known professionally as Jan Werner, (10 April 1976 – 28 September 2006) was a Norwegian pop singer, also known for his interpretations of musical, classical, and rock standards. He was famous for his powerful voice which ...
for , also participated for the third time, having been a member of the group
Chips ''CHiPs'' is an American crime drama television series created by Rick Rosner and originally aired on NBC from September 15, 1977, to May 1, 1983. After the final first-run telecast on NBC in May 1983, the series went into reruns on Sundays fr ...
, which represented Sweden in , and
Bobbysocks! Bobbysocks is a Norwegian pop duo consisting of Norwegian Hanne Krogh and Swedish-Norwegian Elisabeth Andreassen. They won the Eurovision Song Contest 1985 with the song "La det swinge" ("Let it swing"). Elisabeth went by the surname Andreasson ...
, which had represented Norway and were the winners of the . A number of artists which had previously competed in the contest also returned as backing performers: Rhonda Heath, who was a member of the group
Silver Convention Silver Convention were a German Euro disco recording act of the 1970s. The group was originally named Silver Bird Convention or Silver Bird. History The group was initiated in Munich, then West Germany, by producers and songwriters Michael Kun ...
that had represented Germany in the , performed as a backing singer for the German entry
Mekado Germany has been represented at every Eurovision Song Contest since its inaugural edition in , except in when its entry did not qualify past the audio-only pre-selection round, and consequently did not enter the final and does not count as one ...
; and , who represented Iceland at the alongside , returned as a backing singer for Sigga. Additionally, having supported 's
William Mangion Malta was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1993 with the song "This Time", written and performed by William Mangion. The Maltese participating broadcaster, Public Broadcasting Services (PBS), selected its entry for the contest throug ...
as backing performers in the previous year's event, Moira Stafrace and Christopher Scicluna returned to the Eurovision stage as the country's entrants at this year's contest.


Production and format

The Eurovision Song Contest 1994 was produced by the Irish public broadcaster (RTÉ).
Moya Doherty Moya Doherty (born 1957, in Pettigo, County Donegal, Ireland) is a Dublin-raised Irish entrepreneur and the producer and co-founder of ''Riverdance''. Early life Doherty was born in Pettigo, a village in the south-east of County Donegal in Ul ...
served as executive producer, Patrick Cowap served as director, Paula Farrell served as designer, and
Noel Kelehan John William "Noel" Kelehan (26 December 1935 – 6 February 2012) was an Irish people, Irish musician, Conductor (music), conductor of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and musical director of RTÉ, Radio Telefís Éireann. He retired as conductor ...
served as musical director, leading the
RTÉ Concert Orchestra The RTÉ Concert Orchestra is a professional radio orchestra in Ireland and is part of RTÉ, the national broadcaster. Since its formation as the Radio Éireann Light Orchestra in 1948, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra has grown from a small studio-bas ...
. A separate musical director could be nominated by each country to lead the orchestra during their performance, with the host musical director also available to conduct for those countries which did not nominate their own conductor. On behalf of the contest organisers, the
European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; , UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are member states of the Council of Europe, members of the ...
(EBU), the event was overseen by Christian Clausen as
scrutineer A scrutineer (also called a poll-watcher or a challenger in the United States) is a person who observes any process that requires rigorous oversight. Scrutineers are responsible for preventing corruption and detecting genuine mistakes and problem ...
. Each participating broadcaster submitted one song, which was required to be no longer than three minutes in duration and performed in the language, or one of the languages, of the country which it represented. A maximum of six performers were allowed on stage during each country's performance, and all participants were required to have reached the age of 16 in the year of the contest. Each entry could utilise all or part of the live orchestra and could use instrumental-only
backing track A backing track is an audio recording on audiotape, CD or a digital recording medium or a MIDI recording of synthesized instruments, sometimes of purely rhythmic accompaniment, often of a rhythm section or other accompaniment parts that live m ...
s; however, any backing tracks used could only include the sound of instruments featured on stage being mimed by the performers. Following the confirmation of the twenty-five competing countries, the draw to determine the running order was held on 16 November 1993 at the Point Theatre and was conducted by Niamh Kavanagh and
Fionnuala Sweeney Fionnuala Sweeney ( , ; born 1965) is an Irish anchorwoman and reporter. Based at CNN's headquarters in Atlanta and at CNN London, Fionnuala was also the solo host of the Eurovision Song Contest 1993 from Millstreet, County Cork. Early life an ...
. The results of the 1994 contest were determined through the same scoring system as had first been introduced in : each country awarded twelve points to its favourite entry, followed by ten points to its second favourite, and then awarded points in decreasing value from eight to one for the remaining songs which featured in the country's top ten, with countries unable to vote for their own entry. The points awarded by each country were determined by an assembled jury of sixteen individuals, which was required to be split evenly between members of the public and music professionals, between men and women, and by age. Each jury member voted in secret and awarded between one and ten votes to each participating song, excluding that from their own country and with no abstentions permitted. The votes of each member were collected following the country's performance and then tallied by the non-voting jury chairperson to determine the points to be awarded. In any cases where two or more songs in the top ten received the same number of votes, a show of hands by all jury members was used to determine the final placing. With the Point Theatre situated on the banks of the
River Liffey The River Liffey (Irish language, Irish: ''An Life'', historically ''An Ruirthe(a)ch'') is a river in eastern Ireland that ultimately flows through the centre of Dublin to its mouth within Dublin Bay. Its major Tributary, tributaries include t ...
, rivers were an integral part of the overall creative vision for the show and were a key theme of the opening and interval acts as well as the stage design. Paula Farrell's design, which was four times the size of the stage constructed for the Millstreet contest, provided a scene of a futuristic Dublin at night, featuring representations of skyscrapers which incorporated video screens and lighting effects and underfloor lighting representing the Liffey and
Dublin Bay Dublin Bay () is a C-shaped inlet of the Irish Sea on the east coast of Ireland. The bay is about 10 kilometres wide along its north–south base, and 7 km in length to its apex at the centre of the city of Dublin; stretching from Howth He ...
. On either side of the stage podium-lined platforms were used by the presenters in-between songs and during the voting segment. Rehearsals at the contest venue began on 25 April 1994. Each participating delegation took part in two technical rehearsals in the week approaching the contest, with countries rehearsing in the order in which they would perform. In each country's first rehearsal, held on 25 and 26 April, the delegations were provided with a 15-minute stage-call to prepare the stage and to brief the orchestra, followed by a 25-minute rehearsal. This was then followed by an opportunity to review footage of the rehearsal on video screens and to conduct a 20-minute press conference. The second rehearsals on 27 and 28 April consisted of a 10-minute stage-call and a 20-minute rehearsal. Three dress rehearsals were held with all artists, two in the afternoon and evening of 29 April and one final rehearsal in the afternoon of 30 April, with an audience present at the evening rehearsal on 29 April. The competing delegations were additionally invited to a welcome
reception Reception is a noun form of ''receiving'', or ''to receive'' something, such as art, experience, information, people, products, or vehicles. It may refer to: Astrology * Reception (astrology), when a planet is located in a sign ruled by another p ...
during the week of the event, held on the evening of 25 April in the Dining Hall of
Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...
. During the final dress rehearsal on 30 April, the Polish entrant
Edyta Górniak Edyta Anna Górniak (; born 14 November 1972) is a Polish pop singer. Górniak started as a musical theatre actress in 1990. She performed in the most popular musical in Polish history, the Tony Award-nominated ''Metro (musical), Metro''. Some ...
performed the second half of her song "
To nie ja! "To nie ja!" (; "It wasn't me!"; often rendered without the exclamation mark) was the entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1994, performed in Polish by Edyta Górniak. This marked Poland's debut at the contest, and consequently the first time th ...
" in English. As this rehearsal was also heard by the juries this constituted a break of the contest rules. Although discussions were held on whether to sanction or disqualify the country, Poland was ultimately allowed to compete.


Contest overview

The contest took place on 30 April 1994 at 20:00 ( IST) and lasted 3 hours and 3 minutes. The show was presented by the Irish journalist and television presenter
Cynthia Ní Mhurchú Cynthia Ní Mhurchú (; born 1966) is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician, barrister and former radio host with (RTÉ) who has served as a Member of the European Parliament for the South constituency since July 2024. She presented Eurovision Song ...
and the Irish radio and television presenter
Gerry Ryan Gerard Ryan (4 June 1956 – 30 April 2010) was an Irish people, Irish presenter of radio and television employed by Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ). He presented ''The Gerry Ryan Show'' on radio station RTÉ 2fm each weekday morning from 1 ...
. Ní Mhurchú and Ryan had been considered as hosts for the 1993 event before the eventual choice of
Fionnuala Sweeney Fionnuala Sweeney ( , ; born 1965) is an Irish anchorwoman and reporter. Based at CNN's headquarters in Atlanta and at CNN London, Fionnuala was also the solo host of the Eurovision Song Contest 1993 from Millstreet, County Cork. Early life an ...
. The contest was opened with a segment by the
Galway Galway ( ; , ) is a City status in Ireland, city in (and the county town of) County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay. It is the most populous settlement in the province of Connacht, the List of settleme ...
-based arts and theatre company
Macnas Mácnas (pronounced mock-ness) is (Irish language, Irish for 'frolicking') is a Performance art, performance Theatre company, company based at the Fisheries Field in Galway, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Its public performances are noted for b ...
, featuring a mixture of pre-recorded and live footage of a replica
Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9 ...
longship Longships, a type of specialised Viking ship, Scandinavian warships, have a long history in Scandinavia, with their existence being archaeologically proven and documented from at least the fourth century BC. Originally invented and used by th ...
on the
river Liffey The River Liffey (Irish language, Irish: ''An Life'', historically ''An Ruirthe(a)ch'') is a river in eastern Ireland that ultimately flows through the centre of Dublin to its mouth within Dublin Bay. Its major Tributary, tributaries include t ...
, and dancers, flag-bearers and performers in
caricature A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, ...
masks of notable Irish personalities in various locations in central Dublin and in the Point Theatre. The interval act, "
Riverdance ''Riverdance'' is a theatrical show that consists mainly of traditional Irish music and dance. With a score composed by Bill Whelan, it originated as an interval act during the Eurovision Song Contest 1994, featuring Irish dancing champions J ...
", was a seven-minute composition by the Irish composer
Bill Whelan William Michael Joseph Whelan (born 22 May 1950) is an Irish composer and musician. He is best known for composing a piece for the interval of the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest. The result, "Riverdance", was a seven-minute piece of original mus ...
, and took inspiration from "Timedance", the interval act from the also held in Dublin. "Riverdance" featured a mix of traditional Irish and modern music by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra,
choral singing A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...
from the Celtic ensemble
Anúna Anúna (stylized in all caps) is a vocal ensemble formed in Ireland in 1987 by Irish composer Michael McGlynn under the name An Uaithne. Taking the current name in 1991,AllMusic Biography/ref> the group has recorded 18 albums and achieved a ...
, and
Irish dancing Irish dance refers to the traditional dance forms that originate in Ireland, including both solo and group dance forms, for Social dance, social, Competitive dance, competitive, and performative dance, performance purposes. Irish dance has evolv ...
led by the Irish-American dancers
Jean Butler Jean Butler (born March 14, 1971) is an American stepdancer, Irish dancer, choreographer, and actress. She is best known for originating the principal female role in the Irish dance theatrical production ''Riverdance''. In January 2020 it was a ...
and
Michael Flatley Michael Ryan Flatley (born July 16, 1958) is an American former professional performer and choreographer of Irish dance. Flatley is credited with reinventing traditional Irish dance by incorporating new rhythms, syncopation, and upper body movem ...
. The trophy awarded to the winners, entitled "Wavelength", was designed by the Irish sculptor Grace Weir of the Temple Bar Gallery, and was presented by the previous year's winning artist
Niamh Kavanagh Niamh Kavanagh ( ; born 13 February 1968) is an Irish singer who sang the winning entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 1993. The 1993 Eurovision Song Contest was held in Millstreet, County Cork, Ireland. She sang "In Your Eyes" to clinch t ...
. The winner was represented by the song " Rock 'n' Roll Kids", written by
Brendan Graham Brendan Graham (born 12 February 1945) is an Irish songwriter and novelist. Among songs he has written are " Rock 'n' Roll Kids" (1994) and " The Voice" (1996), both of which won the Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland in their respective year ...
and performed by Paul Harrington and
Charlie McGettigan Charles Joseph McGettigan (born 7 December 1950, Ballyshannon, County Donegal) is an Irish people, Irish singer. He lived in 2009 in Drumshanbo, County Leitrim. Career Performing with Paul Harrington (musician), Paul Harrington, he won the Eu ...
. This marked Ireland's sixth contest wina new contest recordand also gave the country its third win in a rowthe first time a country had won three successive contests. "Rock 'n' Roll Kids" became the highest scoring winner in Eurovision history to date with 226 points, and was the first song to receive over 200 points. It was also the first time that a song had won without using the orchestra. Harrington and McGettigan additionally became the oldest winning performers and the first winning male duo. First-time participating countries Poland, Hungary and Russia all finished in the top ten, placing second, fourth and ninth respectively, while conversely the four other débuting countries all placed within the bottom seven entries, with Lithuania scoring ''
nul points The winner of the Eurovision Song Contest is determined by a positional voting system. The most recent version of the system was implemented in the . Each participating country awards two sets of 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points, based on th ...
'' with its first ever entry. Poland achieved the most successful début performance of any country in the contest's history at the time, and its second-place finish in this event remains the country's best ever Eurovision placing.


Spokespersons

Each participating broadcaster appointed a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing, in English or French, the votes for its respective country. For the first time, the spokespersons were connected to the venue via
satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...
rather than through
telephone line A telephone line or telephone circuit (or just line or circuit industrywide) is a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system. It is designed to reproduce speech of a quality that is understandable. It is the physical wire or oth ...
s, allowing them to appear in vision during the broadcast. Spokespersons at the 1994 contest are listed below. # # Solveig Herlin #
Eileen Dunne Eileen Dunne (born 28 April 1958) is an Irish retired journalist, newsreader and presenter with RTÉ, Ireland's national radio and television station, where she presented the main television news programmes '' Six One News'', '' Nine O'Clock New ...
# Anna Partelidou # Sigríður Arnardóttir # Colin Berry # Helga Vlahović # Isabel Bahia #
Sandra Studer Sandra Studer (born 10 February 1969 in Zürich), also known as Sandra Simó, is a Swiss television presenter and singer. She in the Eurovision Song Contest 1991, where she placed fifth with the song "". She co-hosted the Eurovision Song Conte ...
# Urve Tiidus # # John Demanuele # #
Carmen Nebel Carmen Nebel (born 24 July 1956 in Grimma, then East Germany) is a German television presenter. Nebel majored in German studies, English studies and pedagogy at Humboldt University of Berlin. After completing her degree she began appearing on GDR ...
# Juraj Čurný # Gitana Lapinskaitė # # Diana Grković-Foretić # Fotini Giannoulatou # # María Ángeles Balañac # # Irina Klenskaya # Jan Chojnacki #
Laurent Romejko Laurent Francis Gabriel Romejko (born 27 December 1963) is a French television host. Early life Romejko was born in Meulan-en-Yvelines, Meulan, Yvelines, and is of Polish descent. He graduated from the Ecole Supérieure de Journalisme de Paris ...


Detailed voting results

Jury voting was used to determine the points awarded by all countries. The announcement of the results from each country was conducted in the order in which they performed, with the spokespersons announcing their country's points in English or French in ascending order. The detailed breakdown of the points awarded by each country is listed in the tables below.


12 points

The below table summarises how the maximum 12 points were awarded from one country to another. The winning country is shown in bold. Ireland received the maximum score of 12 points from eight of the voting countries, with Poland receiving five sets of 12 points, Hungary receiving four sets, Germany two sets, and Croatia, Cyprus, Malta, Portugal and Slovakia each receiving one maximum score.


Broadcasts

Each participating broadcaster was required to relay the contest via its networks. Non-participating EBU member broadcasters were also able to relay the contest as "passive participants". Broadcasters were able to send commentators to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language and to relay information about the artists and songs to their television viewers. These commentators were typically sent to the venue to report on the event, and were able to provide commentary from small booths constructed at the back of the venue. Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.


Legacy

Although the winning song had modest success, peaking in the
Irish Singles Chart The Irish Singles Chart is the Republic of Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) and compiled on their behalf by the Official Charts Company. Chart rankings are ...
at number 2 and also entering the
Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...
and
Flemish Flemish may refer to: * Flemish, adjective for Flanders, Belgium * Flemish region, one of the three regions of Belgium *Flemish Community, one of the three constitutionally defined language communities of Belgium * Flemish dialects, a Dutch dialec ...
charts following the contest, it was largely overshadowed by the contest's interval act. The music to "
Riverdance ''Riverdance'' is a theatrical show that consists mainly of traditional Irish music and dance. With a score composed by Bill Whelan, it originated as an interval act during the Eurovision Song Contest 1994, featuring Irish dancing champions J ...
" was subsequently released as a single shortly after the contest and shot straight to number 1 on the Irish charts where it remained for 18 weeks. "Riverdance" remains the second best selling single in Ireland ever, behind
Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, songwriter and pianist. His music and showmanship have had a significant, lasting impact on the music industry, and his songwriting partnership with l ...
's "
Something About the Way You Look Tonight "Something About the Way You Look Tonight" is a song by English musician Elton John, taken from his 25th studio album, ''The Big Picture (Elton John album), The Big Picture''. It was written by John and Bernie Taupin, and produced by Chris Tho ...
"/"
Candle in the Wind 1997 "Candle in the Wind 1997", also known as "Goodbye England's Rose" and "Candle in the Wind '97", is a threnody by English musician Elton John and songwriter Bernie Taupin, a re-written and re-recorded version of their 1973 song " Candle in the ...
". An invite was subsequently given to feature the original seven-minute performance at the ''
Royal Variety Performance The ''Royal Variety Performance'' is a televised variety show held annually in the United Kingdom to raise money for the Royal Variety Charity (of which King Charles III is life-patron). It is attended by senior members of the British royal ...
'' in November 1994 at the
Dominion Theatre The Dominion Theatre is a West End theatre and former cinema on Tottenham Court Road, close to St Giles Circus and Centre Point, in the London Borough of Camden. Planned as primarily a musical theatre, it opened in 1929, but the following ye ...
in London in the presence of
Prince Charles Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and ...
. At the same time preparations were underway to develop the seven-minute performance into a stage show, preparations led by Moya Doherty, who had been the executive producer of Eurovision 1994, and her husband John McColgan. Opening in February 1995 at the Point Theatre and featuring original lead dancers Michael Flatley and Jean Butler, the full-length show ran for an initial run of five weeks, with tickets selling out within three days of going on sale, followed by another sold-out run at the
Hammersmith Apollo The Hammersmith Apollo, currently called the Eventim Apollo for sponsorship reasons, and formerly and still commonly known as the Hammersmith Odeon, is a live entertainment performance venue, originally built as a cinema called the Gaumont Pa ...
in London and in March 1996 its first performance in the United States, at the
Radio City Music Hall Radio City Music Hall (also known as Radio City) is an entertainment venue and Theater (structure), theater at 1260 Sixth Avenue (Manhattan), Avenue of the Americas, within Rockefeller Center, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York C ...
in New York City. It is estimated that ''Riverdance'' has now been seen live by over 27.5 million people at performances worldwide, and that over 10 million
home video Home video is recorded media sold or Video rental shop, rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD and Blu-ray. ...
s of ''Riverdance'' performances have been sold. The relegation system introduced to the contest in this edition continued to be used in various forms for the next ten years and allowed even more new countries to join the event, with , and competing for the first time in , and respectively. However, as the contest continued to develop, and as even more countries began to express an interest in competing, the relegation system proved unable to meet the needs required to allow for an equitable solution for all countries. Ultimately this led to the introduction of a
semi-final A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...
to the contest format in , allowing all interested countries to participate once again, which was eventually expanded to two semi-finals from .


Notes and references


Notes


References


Bibliography

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External links

* {{Eurovision Song Contest
1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...
Music festivals in Ireland 1994 in music 1994 in Irish music 1994 in Irish television 1990s in Dublin (city) April 1994 in Europe Events in Dublin (city) 1990s in Irish music