🔴 1994 Eurovision Song Contest from Dublin Full Show (English Commentary by Terry Wogan)

Date: Saturday, 30 April 1994 - ESC 1994 - 39th edition
Venue: Point Theatre, Dublin, Ireland
Presentation: Cynthia Ní Mhurchu & Gerry Ryan
Number of countries: 25

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. As of 2019, it was the last time the contest was held in April. The presenters were Cynthia Ní Mhurchú and Gerry Ryan. The pair hosted the evening in French, English and Irish. Ireland won the contest for the third time in a row, when Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan were the winners 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, and also the second time Ireland won on home soil. 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.

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.

The interval act was the first-ever performance of the Irish dancing spectacular Riverdance, featuring Michael Flatley and Jean Butler.

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 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 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 seven lowest-placed countries from the preceding year's contest would not participate. Because Italy and Luxembourg withdrew voluntarily, the bottom 5 of the 1993 Contest were relegated. This meant that Belgium, Denmark, Israel, Slovenia and Turkey did not participate this year opening spaces for the new countries. This contest also saw Luxembourg withdraw from Eurovision indefinitely.

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 until 2007 (the winner in 1956 was Switzerland's second song of the night).

Starter List:

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