Tag: Niamh Kavanagh

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.

Eurovision 1993

Yesterday the 38th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest was held on 15 May 1993 at the Green Glens Arena in Millstreet, Ireland. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Radio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ), and presented by Fionnuala Sweeney, the contest was held in Ireland following the country’s victory at the 1992 contest with the song Why Me? by Linda Martin.

Twenty-five countries participated in the contest – the largest event yet held. Twenty-two of the twenty-three countries that had participated in the previous year’s event returned, with Yugoslavia prevented from competing following the closure of its national broadcaster and the placement of sanctions against the country as a response to the Yugoslav Wars. In response to an increased interest in participation from former Eastern Bloc countries following the collapse of communist regimes, three spaces in the event were allocated to first-time participating countries, which would be determined through a qualifying competition. Held in April 1993 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, Kvalifikacija za Millstreet featured entries from seven countries and resulted in the entries from the former Yugoslav republics of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia progressing to the contest in Millstreet.

For the second year in a row, the winner was Ireland with the song In Your Eyes, written by Jimmy Walsh and performed by Niamh Kavanagh. The United Kingdom, Switzerland, France, and Norway completed the top five, with the United Kingdom achieving their second consecutive runner-up placing. Ireland achieved their fifth victory in the contest, matching the overall record held by France and Luxembourg, and joined Israel, Luxembourg and Spain as countries with wins in successive contests.