Eurovision Song Contest 1995



The Eurovision Song Contest 1995 was the 40th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 13 May 1995 in the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. The presenter was Mary Kennedy. This year's competition was the last with only one host until 18 years later in 2013 in Malmö, Sweden. This contest broke the chain of victories that Ireland enjoyed in 1992, 1993, and 1994. This was Ireland's 3rd year in succession to host the contest - and to mark the 40th show, it was opened with a 4-minute retrospective showing images from the contest's history. The Norwegian group Secret Garden was the winner of this contest with the mostly instrumental song, "Nocturne". Incidentally, Secret Garden's violinist was Fionnuala Sherry, who is Irish.

Two of Ireland's winners attended the contest; Dana, who was Ireland's first winner, winning the contest in 1970 with "All Kinds of Everything", and Mr Eurovision himself, Johnny Logan, winning the contest as a singer in 1980 and 1987 ("What's Another Year?" and "Hold me Now" respectively), and also for writing Linda Martin's 1992 winning song "Why Me?". It was his birthday that night, but according to host Kennedy, "He wouldn't say which one!" Nonetheless, the audience sang "Happy Birthday" for him, assisted by the orchestra.

After winning the 1994 contest, RTÉ were worried about whether they could afford to host a third consecutive contest in 1995. The BBC had offered to take on the responsibility of hosting the contest, and had even proposed that the contest be staged as a joint production in Belfast, capital of Northern Ireland. In the end RTÉ decided to stage the contest on its own. However they did ask the EBU that, should Ireland win once more, that they would not be expected to host the event for a fourth year in a row.

The favourite to win the contest, according to bookmakers, was Sweden with the pop-ballad "Se på mig". Other countries in contention for the win were Croatia, Denmark, Israel, Spain, and the eventual winner, Norway. The winning song was something new at Eurovision in that it contained only 24 words accompanied by long violin solos. The United Kingdom contributed a modern rap number, while the previous year’s runner-up, Poland, went for something that completely contrasted with their début entry.

After the voting was completed, Norway was the winner with 148 points, followed by Spain's "Vuelve conmigo" with 119 points, and Sweden gaining 100 points.

The stage was designed by Alan Farquharson who also designed the set of the 1993 contest that took place in Millstreet, Ireland. Although it was quite dark and often gloomy in appearance, it did form the basis for a spectacular opening whereby a giant screen rotated to reveal the presenter who descended a stairway which ultimately disappeared to allow for the arrow shaped stage to come together amid fireworks. The interval act consisted of several well known Irish performers including Clannad, Brian Kennedy (who would go on to actually represent Ireland 11 years later as well as collaborate with the winning group) and was composed by leading musician Michael O'Suilleabhan.

The EBU decreased the number of participants back to 23 to make sure the show wouldn't last longer than 3 hours. 5 of the 6 countries that were relegated the previous year came back to the contest, Luxembourg decided to stop participating completely and Italy withdrew voluntarily, as in 1994.

There was much speculation in Ireland as to whether RTÉ had deliberately chosen a song perceived as not having a good chance of winning in order to avoid hosting the contest for a fourth time in a row - although this was never verified. This rumour did, however inspire a popular episode of Father Ted. In any event, RTÉ ended up hosting the contest once again in 1997.

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

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

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.

Television

 * - Artur Orzech (TVP1)
 * - Pat Kenny (RTÉ1)
 * - Horst Senker (Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen)
 * - Ismeta Dervoz-Krvavac (TVBiH)
 * - Annette Groth (NRK)
 * - Vadim Dolgachev (Ostankino Channel 1)
 * - Jakob Frímann Magnússon (Sjónvarpið)
 * - Ernst Grissemann (ORF1)
 * - José Luis Uribarri (TVE1)
 * - Bülend Özveren (TRT 1)
 * - Aleksandar "Aco" Kostadinov (HRT 1)
 * - Olivier Minne (France 2)
 * - István Vágó (MTV1)
 * - Jean-Pierre Hautier (RTBF La Une), André Vermeulen (BRTN TV1)
 * - Terry Wogan (BBC1)
 * - Ana do Carmo (Canal 1)
 * - Neophytos Taliotis (RIK 1)
 * - Pernilla Månsson & Kåge Gimtell (TV2)
 * - Jørgen de Mylius (DR TV)
 * - Damjana Golavšek (SLO1)
 * - No commentator
 * - Enzo Gusman (TVM)
 * - Dafni Bokota (ET1)
 * (non participating country) - Jüri Pihel (Eesti Televisioon)
 * (non participating country) - Vlado Janevski (MTV 1)
 * (non participating country) - Erkki Pohjanheimo & Olli Ahvenlahti (YLE TV1)
 * (non participating country) - Paul de Leeuw (Nederland 3)
 * (non participating country) - Heinz Margot (SF DRS), Jean-Marc Richard (TSR), Joanne Holder (TSI)
 * (non participating country) - Mladen Popović (RTS 3K)

Radio

 * - TBC (Polskie Radio Program I)
 * - Larry Gogan (RTÉ Radio 1)
 * - Peter Urban (Deutschlandfunk/NDR Radio 2)
 * - N/A
 * - N/A
 * - TBC (Voice of Russia)
 * - N/A
 * - Stermann & Grissemann (FM4)
 * - N/A
 * - Canan Kumbasar (TRT Radyo 3)
 * - Draginja Balaš (HR 2)
 * - N/A
 * - TBC (Rádió Kossuth)
 * - Stéphane Dupont & Patrick Duhamel (RTBF La Première), Julien Put & Michel Follet (BRTN Radio 2)
 * - Ken Bruce (BBC Radio 2)
 * - N/A
 * - Pavlos Pavlou (CyBC Radio 2)
 * - Claes-Johan Larsson & Lisa Syrén (SR P3)
 * - Ole Jacobsen (DR P3)
 * - N/A
 * - Danny Rup (Reshet Gimel)
 * - N/A
 * - Giorgos Mitropoulos (ERA ERT1)
 * (Non participating country) - Aki Sirkesalo & Kati Bergman (Yle Radio Suomi)

Spokespersons

 * - Jan Chojnacki
 * - Eileen Dunne
 * - Carmen Nebel
 * - Diana Grković-Foretić
 * - Sverre Christophersen
 * - Marina Danielian
 * - Áslaug Dóra Eyjólfsdóttir
 * - Tilia Herold
 * - Belén Fernández de Henestrosa
 * - Ömer Önder
 * - Danijela Trbović
 * - Thierry Beccaro
 * - Katalin Bogyay
 * - Marie-Françoise Renson "Soda"
 * - Colin Berry
 * - Serenella Andrade
 * - Andreas Iakovidis
 * - Björn Hedman
 * - Bent Henius
 * - Miša Molk
 * - Daniel Pe'er (co-presenter of the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest)
 * - Stephanie Farrugia
 * - Fotini Giannoulatou

National jury members

 * 🇵🇱 Poland - Andrzej Marzec (music producer), Małgorzata Gelo, Marek Bieliński (composer), Ewa Zychowicz, Irena Santor (singer), Marek Łańcucki, Edyta Górniak (singer, Polish entrant and runner-up of Eurovision Song Contest 1994), Mariusz Jagoda, Janusz Rzeszewski, Justyna Kucharska, Czesław Niemen (singer and composer), Mirosława Zamojska, Janusz Stokłosa (composer, pianist, co-author of Metro (musical) and Tony Award nominee), Agnieszka Jakołcewicz, Robert Janson (composer, leader of Varius Manx), Wiesława Siudara
 * 🇮🇪 Ireland – Joe Delaney
 * 🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina – Ismeta Krvavac, Dijana Grković-Foretić
 * 🇪🇸 Spain – Ángel Lacalle (journalist), María Kosty (actress), Roberto Antolín (bullfighter), Sara Salazar (singer), Valentín Paredes (actor), Pilar Socorro (journalist at RNE), Lucio Blázquez (restaurant manager), Cuca García de Vinuesa (communication expert), Alejandro Abad (singer and composer, Spanish entrant at Eurovision Song Contest 1994), Marily Coll (fashion designer), Arturo Beltrán (businessman), Silvia Abascal (actress), Enrique Cosano (Eurovision fan), Agustina López de los Mozos (businesswoman), Justo Molinero (journalist and music critic), Verónica Magaz (student)
 * 🇭🇷 Croatia – Ksenija Urličić
 * 🇬🇧 United Kingdom – Daniel Beach
 * 🇵🇹 Portugal – Anabela, Luís Filipe, Vasco da Câmara Pereira
 * 🇬🇷 Greece – Grigoris Lambrianidis, Stamatis Mazaris, Lida Halkiadaki, Takis Antoniadis, Agni Hatzikotaki, Antonis Papaioannou, Andreas Hatziapostolou, Angeliki Segditsa, Filia Anastasiadou, Evangelia Vagopoulou, Filippos Varanakis, Anastasia Doulfi, Fotini Theologou, Kostas Kapiris, Panos Kourmouzis, Stavros Moles