Eurovision Song Contest 1995

 Secret Garden

Date: May 13, 1995
Venue: Point Theatre, Dublin, Ireland
Presenter: Mary Kennedy
Orchestra: RTÉ Concert orchestra
Conductor: Noel Kelehan
Director: John Comiskey
Scruteneer: Christian Clausen
Host broadcaster: RTÉ
Price presenter: Paul Harrington & Charlie McGettigan
Interval act: Micheal O' Suilleabhain & The Monks From Glenstal Abbey with Lumen
Duration: 2 hours, 51 minutes
Number of entries: 23
Debuting countries: -
Returning countries: Belgium, Denmark, Israel, Slovenia, Turkey
Withdrawing countries: Estonia, Netherlands, Finland, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland
Winning Song: Nocturne - Secret Garden, Norway
Voting system: Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs

Eddie Friel

Entries

01. Poland: Justyna - sama (18th place, 15 points)
02. Ireland: Eddie Friel - Dreamin'(14th place, 44 points)
03. Germany: Stone & Stone - Verliebt in dich (23rd place, 1 points)
04. Bosnia & Herzegovina: Davorin Popović - Dvadeset prvi vijek (19th place, 14 points)
05. Norway: Secret Garden - Nocturne (1st place, 148 points)
06. Russia: Philipp Kirkorov - Kolibelnaya dlya vulkana (17th place, 17 points)
07. Iceland: Bo Halldórsson - Núna (15th place, 31 points)
08. Austria: Stella Jones - Die Welt dreht sich verkehrt (13th place, 67 points)
09. Spain: Anabel Conde - Vuelve Conmigo (2nd place, 119 points)
10. Turkey: Arzu Ece - Sev (16th place, 21 points)
11. Croatia: Magazin & Lidija - Nostalgija (6th place, 91 points)
12. France: Nathalie Santamaria - Il me donne rendez-vous (4th place, 94 points)
13. Hungary: Csaba Szigeti - Új név a régi ház falán (22nd, 3 points)
14. Belgium: Frédéric Etherlinck - La voix est libre (20th place, 8 points)
15. UK: Love City Groove - Love City Groove (10th place, 76 points)
16. Portugal: Tó Cruz - Baunilha e chocolate (21st place, 5 points)
17. Cyprus: Alexandros Panayi - Sti fotia (9th place, 79 points)
18. Sweden: Jan Johansen - Se på mig (3rd place, 100 points)
19. Denmark: Aud Wilken - Fra Mols til Skagen (5th place, 92 points)
20. Slovenia: Darja Švajger - Prisluhni mi (7th place, 84 points)
21. Israel: Liora - Amen (8th place, 81 points)
22. Malta: Mike Spiteri - Keep me in mind (10th place, 76 points)
23. Greece: Elina Konstantopoulou - Pia prosefhi (12th place, 68 points)  

Anabel Conde

The Eurovision Song Contest 1995 was the 40th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on May 13 1995 in the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. The presenter was Mary Kennedy. To date, this year's competition was also the last one with only one host. 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. Nocturne was written by Rolf Løvland

The song is noted for its relative absence of lyrics - with only 24 words being sung in the original Norwegian version and much of the rest of the song being given over to a violin intermezzo performed by Irish musician Fionnuala Sherry.

While no other victorious song has featured so few words, Finland would go on to place 15th in the 1998 Contest with Aava, which contains only six words repeated throughout the song. The previous holder of the record of shortest lyrics in Eurovision history was Belgium and their 1983 entry Rendez-vous, with a total of 11 words.

Jan Johansen

Format

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.

Video montage commemorating the history of the Eurovision Song Contest for its 40th edition was shown at the opening of the contest.

The stage was designed by Alan Farquharson who also designed the Millstreet 1993 set. 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), and was composed by leading musician Michael O'Suilleabhan.

Darja Švajger

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, and also for writing Linda Martin's 1992 winning song Why Me?. It was his birthday that night, but according to host Mary Kennedy, He wouldn't say which one! Nonetheless, the audience sang Happy Birthday for him, assisted by the orchestra.

The favourite to win the contest, according to bookmakers, was Sweden with the pop-ballad Se på mej. Other countries in contention for the win were 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

Aud Wilken

Participating counties

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.

Returing artists

There was only one returning artists in 1995. Arzu Ece was a member of the group Pan, who sang the Turkish entry Bana bana in 1989.