Tag: Charlie McGettigan

Eurovision 1995

Tonight the 40th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest was the 40th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 13 May 1995 at the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Radio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ), and presented by Mary Kennedy, the contest was held in Ireland following the country’s victory at the 1994 contest with the song Rock ‘n’ Roll Kids by Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan. It was the third consecutive contest to be held in Ireland – the first and only time in the history of the event that a country has hosted three editions in a row – and the second consecutive edition to be held in the Point Theatre in Dublin.

Twenty-three countries participated in the contest; Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, and Switzerland were relegated as the lowest-scoring countries in the previous edition, getting replaced by Belgium, Denmark, Israel, Slovenia, and Turkey, returning after being relegated following the 1993 edition.

The winner was Norway with the song Nocturne, composed by Rolf Løvland, written by Petter Skavlan and performed by Secret Garden. Spain, Sweden, France, and Denmark rounded out the top five, with Spain achieving their best result since 1979. Croatia and Slovenia also achieved their best results so far, placing sixth and seventh respectively, while Germany finished in last place for the fourth time.

Eurovision 1994

Yesterday the 39th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest was held on 30 April 1994 at the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Radio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ), and presented by Cynthia Ní Mhurchú and Gerry Ryan, the contest was held in 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 two successive editions of the contest, following the previous year’s contest held in Millstreet.

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 Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia and Slovakia featuring for the first time. However, Belgium, Denmark, Israel, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Turkey were unable to compete due to the new relegation rules as the lowest-scoring countries at the previous event, whereas Italy decided against participating by choice.

Ireland won the contest for the third year in a row, represented by the song Rock ‘n’ Roll Kids, written by Brendan Graham and performed by Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan. It was the first – and as of 2023 only – time that a country had won the event on three consecutive occasions, and was a record sixth win for Ireland, confirming it as the contest’s most successful nation at that point by number of wins. Poland, Germany, Hungary and Malta 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. Originally a seven-minute performance of traditional Irish and modern music, choral singing and Irish dancingfeatured 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 and Michael Flatley.