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. 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. Paul Harrington & Charlie McGettigan from Ireland were the winners of this Eurovision with a song written by Brendan Graham, Rock 'n' Roll Kids.
With broadcast technology continuing to improve, the 1994 contest was the first to use satellite links during the voting sequence in which each spokesperson could be seen on screen announcing their results directly from their home countries.
Due to the fact that so many countries wished to participate in the 1994 contest, the European Broadcasting Union decided to adopt a relegation system, meaning the bottom 7 countries in 1993 would be barred from participating in 1994 to make room for the debuting countries. Estonia, Lithuania, Russia, Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia made their debut. This initially meant that Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Israel, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Turkey were to be relegated. However, Italy and Luxembourg both withdrew voluntarily, allowing Cyprus to participate.[1] Luxembourg would eventually make its return in 2024.
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 the only time so far, that the contest had been won by the same country in three consecutive years. This was broken in the next year, when Secret Garden won for Norway.
The biggest success story to come out of the 1994 contest was the interval act Riverdance, which would go on to become a worldwide phenomenon as a full-length stage show. The biggest commercial success of the 1994 contest was not one of the songs, but the interval act.
Voting[]
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.
Participants[]
Countries relegated in 1995 are highlighted in pink/red.
| Draw | Country | Artist | Song | Language | Translation | Place | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 |  Sweden
|
Marie Bergman & Roger Pontare | Stjärnorna | Swedish | The stars | 13 | 48 |
| 02 |  Finland
|
CatCat | Bye Bye Baby | Finnish | -- | 22 | 11 |
| 03 |  Ireland
|
Paul Harrington & Charlie McGettigan | Rock 'n' Roll Kids | English | 1 | 226 | |
| 04 |  Cyprus
|
Evridiki | Íme ánthropos ki egó | Greek | I'm human too | 11 | 51 |
| 05 |  Iceland
|
Sigga | Nætur | Icelandic | Nights | 12 | 49 |
| 06 |  United Kingdom
|
Frances Ruffelle | Lonely Symphony (We Will Be Free) | English | -- | 10 | 63 |
| 07 |  Croatia
|
Tony Cetinski | Nek' ti bude ljubav sva | Croatian | You may have all the love | 16 | 27 |
| 08 |  Portugal
|
Sara Tavares | Chamar a música | Portuguese | Calling the music | 8 | 73 |
| 09 |  Switzerland
|
Duilio | Sto pregando | Italian | I'm praying | 19 | 15 |
| 10 |  Estonia
|
Silvi Vrait | Nagu merelaine | Estonian | Like a sea wave | 24 | 2 |
| 11 |  Romania
|
Dan Bittman | Dincolo de nori | Romanian | Beyond the clouds | 21 | 14 |
| 12 |  Malta
|
Chris and Moira | More than Love | English | -- | 5 | 97 |
| 13 |  The Netherlands
|
Willeke Alberti | Waar is de zon? | Dutch | Where is the sun? | 23 | 4 |
| 14 |  Germany
|
Mekado | Wir geben 'ne Party | German | We're giving a party | 3 | 128 |
| 15 |  Slovakia
|
Tublatanka | Nekonečná pieseň | Slovak | Neverending song | 19 | 15 |
| 16 |  Lithuania
|
Ovidijus Vyšniauskas | Lopšinė mylimai | Lithuanian | Lullaby for my beloved | 25 | 0 |
| 17 |  Norway
|
Elisabeth Andreassen & Jan Werner Danielsen | Duett | Norwegian | Duet | 6 | 76 |
| 18 |  Bosnia and Herzegovina
|
Alma Čardžić & Dejan Lazarević | Ostani kraj mene | Bosnian | Stay beside me | 15 | 39 |
| 19 |  Greece
|
Kostas Bigalis & The Sea Lovers | To trehandiri | Greek | The trehandiri | 14 | 44 |
| 20 |  Austria
|
Petra Frey | Für den Frieden der Welt | German | For the peace of the world | 17 | 19 |
| 21 |  Spain
|
Alejandro Abad | Ella no es ella | Spanish | She's not her | 18 | 17 |
| 22 |  Hungary
|
Friderika Bayer | Kinek mondjam el vétkeimet? | Hungarian | Whom can I tell my sins? | 4 | 122 |
| 23 |  Russia
|
Youddiph | Vječnij stranjik | Russian | Eternal wanderer | 9 | 70 |
| 24 |  Poland
|
Edyta Górniak | To nie ja | Polish | That's not me | 2 | 166 |
| 25 |  France
|
Nina Morato | Je suis un vrai garçon | French | I'm a real boy | 7 | 74 |
Trivia[]
- Ireland's entry became the first winner to score over 200 points.
- This was the first time a winning nation staged the contest in consecutive years.
- Co-presenter Gerry Ryan passed away on 30 April 2010, 16 years to the day he hosted the contest.
- Cynthia Ní Mhurchú was elected to the European Parliament in 2024.
- Moya Doherty was the 1994 contest's producer. She would go on to produce the Riverdance stage show with her husband John McColgan.
- Because of relegation rules, this was the first year where Belgium didn't participate in Eurovision.
- Because of the country's four-year absence afterwards, this was the only time the Lithuanian entry would have an orchestral arrangement.
- To nie ja was the 700th song performed at Eurovision.