Topic: Eurovision Song Contest 1994, Dublin, Ireland

[ijm123]

EUROVISION SONG CONTEST 1994, DUBLIN, IRELAND

For the first time ever the Contest was held in the same country on consecutive years.  The contest welcomed 7 new nations, the biggest influx of debut countries since the inaugural event.  Having missed out in the qualifying round the previous year Hungary, Estonia, Romania & Slovakia all made their debuts and were joined by Russia, Lithuania & Poland.  Elisabeth Andreassen was back again. Having been half of Chips for Sweden in 1982 and half of Bobbysocks for Norway in 1985, she was again back for Norway this time with Jan Werner Danielsen.  Evridiki tried again for Cyprus and just as she had 2 years earlier she finished 11th.  Sigga had ditched her fellow member of Stjornin and Heart2Heart and came back on her own.  Marie Bergman had been a memeber of Family Four for Sweden in 1971 and 1972.  She returned 22 years after her last appearance this time with Roger Pontare who himself would return to the contest 6 years later.  Half of the Bosnian duo, Alma Cardzic, was making the first of 2 appearances.  Much was made of the age of the Dutch singer before the contest, she was 59, but whether it was her age or her song which gave her the poor result remains open to debate.  A major advancement was made with the giving of votes this year as for the first time video links were used to speak to the spokespeople.  The voting itself was incredibly one-sided, although after the first 3 sets of votes (Sweden, Finland & Ireland) it looked as though Hungary would run away with the title as they had scored 12 from each jury (the first (and only) time that any country had received the top marks from the first 3  juries).  Ireland soon took the lead and never relinquished it.  The song was seen by some commentators as a gentle attempt not to win, the jurors disagreed and it soon became the first song to score more than 200 points.  Poland, on their debut, finished a distant 2nd but still had the best debut result ever.  Hungary faded slightly but still finished 4th.  At the other end of the spectrum for the debut makers, Lithuania became the 2nd country after Portugal in 1964 to score 0 on their debut.  Estonia fared little better scoring just 2, thanks to the Greek jury (who incidentally were the only country not to vote for Ireland....they actually ignored all of the top 4 entries)

Results

1.(3) 226 points - Ireland - Rock N' Roll Kids - Paul Harrington & Charlie McGettigan
2.(24) 166 points - Poland - To Nie Ja - Edyta Gorniak
3.(14) 128 points - Germany - Wir geben 'ne Party - MeKaDo
4.(22) 122 points - Hungary - Kinek mondjam el vétkeimet - Friderika
5.(12) 97 points - Malta - More Than Love - Moira & Chris
6.(17) 76 points - Norway - Duett - Elisabeth Andreassen & Jan Werner Danielsen
7.(25) 74 points - France - Je suis un vrai garçon - Nina Morato
8.(8 ) 73 points - Portugal - Chamar a musica - Sara Tavares
9.(23) 70 points - Russia - Vyechniy stranik - Youddiph
10.(6) 63 points - United Kingdom - Lonely Symphony - Frances Ruffelle
11.(4) 51 points - Cyprus - Ime anthropos ke ego - Evridiki
12.(5) 49 points - Iceland - Nætur - Sigga
13.(1) 48 points - Sweden - Stjärnorna - Marie Bergman & Roger Pontare
14.(19) 44 points - Greece - To trehadiri - Costas Bigalis & The Sea Lovers
15.(18) 39 points - Bosnia & Herzegovina - Ostani kraj mene - Alma & Dejan
16.(7) 27 points - Croatia - Nek' ti bude ljubav sva - Tony Cetinski
17.(20) 19 points - Austria - Für den Frieden der Welt - Petra Frey
18.(21) 17 points - Spain - Ella no es ella - Alejandro Abad
19.(9) 15 points - Switzerland - Sto pregando - Duilio
(15) 15 points - Slovakia - Nekonecna piesen - Tublatanka
21.(11) 14 points - Romania - Dincolo de nori - Dan Bittman
22.(2) 11 points - Finland - Bye Bye Baby - CatCat
23.(13) 4 points - Netherlands - Waar is de zon - Willeke Alberti
24.(10) 2 points - Estonia - Nagu merelaine - Silvi Vrait
25.(16) 0 points - Lithuania - Lopsine mylimai - Oyvidijus Vysniauskas

[ijm123]

[My Star]

The best Irish winner - BY FAR

[Remy]

The best Irish winner?

I think it's a good song, but I like the winners in 1987, 1993 and 1996 a lot more.
This is a very strong year in my opinion and several countries could have won this edition.

I like: Poland, Germany, Hungary, Ireland of course, Portugal, Norway, Russia and Iceland.
Estonia, Croatia & Austria are underrated.

[Martial]

well Brendan Graham is a genius.. I have three Irish esc winners as personal winners as well and this is one of them. Definitely above all the very typical europop ballads that scream use violin and go mad.. this is extremely simple and effective, and it has very 60s rock'n'roll nostalgia sound without shouting them out.. and the vocals oh my god.. no doubts, this is a big big big esc winner

[ijm123]

well Brendan Graham is a genius.. I have three Irish esc winners as personal winners as well and this is one of them. Definitely above all the very typical europop ballads that scream use violin and go mad.. this is extremely simple and effective, and it has very 60s rock'n'roll nostalgia sound without shouting them out.. and the vocals oh my god.. no doubts, this is a big big big esc winner

The vocals were absolutely wonderful - and I'm sure that the simplicity of it all and the fact that it was just the piano, the guitar and the 2 voices was what attracted the jurors to vote for it.  I personally prefer a couple of other songs but there's no doubt this wasn't the horror winner that some ESC fans paint it as.

[Martial]

agreed with ijm
think about it
you're a national jury, you know ireland won twice, and twice with ballads.. you must think "nope im not voting for ireland's ballad this year" and this one went as 3rd, a place easily forgotten, and it not just won but with 226pts!! a huge score for its time. That means the juries must have gone "oh my god this isn't the usual irish ballad, this is great music" apart from Greece which gave 10pts to Finland (who went as #2) and 12pts to Cyprus (who went as #4) but ignored Ireland, every single country came to the same conclusion, it had to be Ireland 1994.

[ijm123]

agreed with ijm
think about it
you're a national jury, you know ireland won twice, and twice with ballads.. you must think "nope im not voting for ireland's ballad this year" and this one went as 3rd, a place easily forgotten, and it not just won but with 226pts!! a huge score for its time. That means the juries must have gone "oh my god this isn't the usual irish ballad, this is great music" apart from Greece which gave 10pts to Finland (who went as #2) and 12pts to Cyprus (who went as #4) but ignored Ireland, every single country came to the same conclusion, it had to be Ireland 1994.

Also note that the Greek jury also ignored the Polish, German & Hungarian entries that came 2nd, 3rd & 4th....but that 10 points to Finland was just weird.  I mean the song is OK but the performance was terrible - and what were they wearing?

[Martial]

Also note that the Greek jury also ignored the Polish, German & Hungarian entries that came 2nd, 3rd & 4th....but that 10 points to Finland was just weird.  I mean the song is OK but the performance was terrible - and what were they wearing?

lol to be fair, I have Finland above Germany and Poland that year, Germany being my last of 1994 as well! But yes the Greek jury was insane and definitely biased (12 to Cyprus.. 10 to a song without a chance!).. I love the Finnish song, Cat Cat is hilarious, I love their underpants LOL

[ijm123]

lol to be fair, I have Finland above Germany and Poland that year, Germany being my last of 1994 as well! But yes the Greek jury was insane and definitely biased (12 to Cyprus.. 10 to a song without a chance!).. I love the Finnish song, Cat Cat is hilarious, I love their underpants LOL

Somebody else that hates Germany 94 - I thought I was the only one who couldn't stand the cheap & nasty piece of rubbish....it's right at the bottom of my list too with only the horrific Greek entry below it

[Martial]

ah to be fair I don't hate Greece 94, it's at the same level as Croatia 1994, male singing a tiny bit upbeat lil nothingness. Sure is irrelevant but I can't have it last. Only Germany 1994 is insanely awful. But Poland, Portugal and Norway are quite bad too and very overrated when Finland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovakia and Romania were all very very very underrated!!

[ijm123]

ah to be fair I don't hate Greece 94, it's at the same level as Croatia 1994, male singing a tiny bit upbeat lil nothingness. Sure is irrelevant but I can't have it last. Only Germany 1994 is insanely awful. But Poland, Portugal and Norway are quite bad too and very overrated when Finland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovakia and Romania were all very very very underrated!!

I find Greece 94 terribly annoying - it really irritates me when I listen to it.  I agree about Portugal - never seen the attraction in that incredibly dull song.  Also agree about Slovakia & Romania being underrated.  Surely the most underrated in 94 was Estonia though - such a wonderfully happy song.  Perhaps it was a little old-fashioned for the 94 juries