| Eurovision Song Contest 1994 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Date and venue | |
| Final |
|
| Venue | Point Theatre Dublin, Ireland |
| Organisation | |
| Organiser | European Broadcasting Union (EBU) |
| Scrutineer | Christian Clausen |
| Production | |
| Host broadcaster | Radio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ) |
| Director | Patrick Cowap |
| Executive producer | Moya Doherty |
| Musical director | Noel Kelehan |
| Presenters | Cynthia Ní Mhurchú Gerry Ryan |
| Participants | |
| Number of entries | 25 |
| Debuting countries | |
| Non-returning countries | |
| |
| Vote | |
| Voting system | Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 point(s) to their 10 favourite songs |
| Winning song |  Ireland"Rock 'n' Roll Kids" |
| 1993 ← Eurovision Song Contest →1995 Event page at eurovision.tv  | |
TheEurovision Song Contest 1994 was the 39th edition of theEurovision Song Contest, held on 30 April 1994 at thePoint Theatre inDublin, Ireland, and presented byCynthia Ní Mhurchú andGerry Ryan. It was organised by theEuropean Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcasterRadio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ), who staged the event after winning the1993 contest forIreland with the song "In Your Eyes" byNiamh Kavanagh. It was the first time that any country had hosted two successive editions of the contest, following the previous year's contest held inMillstreet.
Broadcasters from twenty-five countries participated in the contest, which for the first time featured arelegation system to reduce the number of interested participants. Seven new countries participated in the event, with entries fromEstonia,Hungary,Lithuania,Poland,Romania,Russia andSlovakia featuring for the first time. However,Belgium,Denmark,Israel,Luxembourg,Slovenia andTurkey were unable to compete due to the new relegation rules as the lowest-scoring countries at the previous event, whereasItaly decided against participating by choice.
For the third time in a row,Ireland won the contest with the song "Rock 'n' Roll Kids", written byBrendan Graham and performed byPaul Harrington andCharlie McGettigan. Never before had a country won three times in a row in the history of the contest; at the same time, it was also a record sixth win, cementing Ireland as the country with the most wins in Eurovision history up till that point.Poland,Germany,Hungary, andMalta 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 ofRiverdance. Originally aseven-minute performance oftraditional Irish andmodern music,choral singing andIrish dancing featured 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 dancersJean Butler andMichael Flatley.
The 1994 contest took place inDublin, Ireland, following the country's victory at the1993 edition with the song "In Your Eyes", performed byNiamh Kavanagh. It was the fifth time that Ireland had hosted the contest, following the1971,1981 and1988 events also held in Dublin, and the previous year's event held inMillstreet.[1] Ireland thus became the first country to host two successive contests.[2][3]
The selected venue was thePoint Theatre, a concert and events venue located among theDublin Docklands and originally built as a train depot and warehouse to serve thenearby port. Opened as a music venue in 1988, it was closed for redevelopment and expansion in 2008 and is now known as the3Arena.[3][4] At the time of the contest, the arena could seat around 3,200 audience members.[3]
 | This section contains numerous links to pages onforeign language Wikipedias. They are shown asred links with the language codes in [small blue letters] in brackets. Click on the language code to see the page in that language. |
| Eurovision Song Contest 1994 – Participation summaries by country | |
|---|---|
Twenty-five countries were permitted to participate in the contest. As the number of countries interested in participating in the contest grew, and following the use of aqualifying round in the previous year's event, arelegation system was introduced to the contest for the first time, which would prevent the lowest-scoring countries from the previous year's event from participating in the subsequent contest.[3][5] In the summer of 1993 theEuropean Broadcasting Union (EBU) confirmed that the seven lowest-scoring countries in the 1993 event would be barred from entering the 1994 contest, to make way for seven countries which would participate for the first time.[3] As a result,Belgium,Cyprus,Denmark,Israel,Luxembourg,Slovenia, andTurkey were unable to enter the contest, and in the contest's largest single expansion of new participating countries since the first edition in1956,Estonia,Hungary,Lithuania,Poland,Romania,Russia, andSlovakia made their début appearances.[3][5][6] Estonia, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia had all previously participated in the 1993 qualifying roundKvalifikacija za Millstreet.[7] Belgium thus failed to participate in the contest for the first time, leavingGermany andSwitzerland as the only countries to have competed in every edition of the contest so far.[3] Later in 1993Italy's broadcasterRAI subsequently announced that it would not participate in the event, likely due to a lack of interest in the event among the Italian public and concerns within the broadcaster at the costs of staging the contest in the event that Italy won;[8][9] this led to Cyprus being readmitted as the relegated country with the best result at the 1993 contest.[3]
Four performers who had competed in previous editions of contests featured among the participating artists at this year's event:Marie Bergman, representingSweden withRoger Pontare, had been a member of the groupFamily Four that had represented the country in the1971 and1972 contests; Cyprus'sEvridiki made a second appearance in the contest, following her entry at the1992 event;Sigga returned to the contest forIceland for a third time, having previously competed as part ofStjórnin in1990 andHeart 2 Heart in 1992; andElisabeth Andreasson, competing in this event withJan Werner Danielsen forNorway, also participated for the third time, having been a member of the groupChips, which represented Sweden in1982, andBobbysocks!, which had represented Norway and were the winners of the1985 contest.[10] A number of artists which had previously competed in the contest also returned as backing performers:Rhonda Heath, who was a member of the groupSilver Convention that had represented Germany in the1977 contest, performed as a backing singer for the German entryMekado;[11] andEyjólfur Kristjánsson [is], who represented Iceland at the1991 contest alongsideStefán Hilmarsson [is], returned as a backing singer for Sigga.[12] Additionally, having supportedMalta'sWilliam Mangion as backing performers in the previous year's event,Moira Stafrace and Christopher Scicluna returned to the Eurovision stage as the country's entrants at this year's contest.[13]
| Country | Broadcaster | Artist | Song | Language | Songwriter(s) | Conductor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Austria | ORF | Petra Frey | "Für den Frieden der Welt" | German | Hermann Weindorf [de] | |
 Bosnia and Herzegovina | RTVBiH | Alma andDejan [sr] | "Ostani kraj mene" | Bosnian | Sinan Alimanović | |
 Croatia | HRT | Tony Cetinski | "Nek' ti bude ljubav sva" | Croatian |
| Miljenko Prohaska |
 Cyprus | CyBC | Evridiki | "Ime anthropos ki ego"(Είμαι άνθρωπος κι εγώ) | Greek | George Theofanous | George Theofanous |
 Estonia | ETV | Silvi Vrait | "Nagu merelaine" | Estonian | Urmas Lattikas | |
 Finland | YLE | CatCat [fi] | "Bye Bye Baby" | Finnish |
| Olli Ahvenlahti |
 France | France Télévision | Nina Morato | "Je suis un vrai garçon" | French |
| Alain Goraguer |
 Germany | MDR[a] | Mekado [de] | "Wir geben 'ne Party" | German | Norbert Daum | |
 Greece | ERT | Kostas Bigalis andthe Sea Lovers [nl] | "To trehandiri (Diri Diri)"(Το τρεχαντήρι (Ντίρι Ντίρι)) | Greek | Kostas Bigalis | Noel Kelehan |
 Hungary | MTV | Friderika | "Kinek mondjam el vétkeimet?" | Hungarian | Szilveszter Jenei | Péter Wolf [hu] |
 Iceland | RÚV | Sigga | "Nætur" | Icelandic | Frank McNamara | |
| Ireland | RTÉ | Paul Harrington andCharlie McGettigan | "Rock 'n' Roll Kids" | English | Brendan Graham | No conductor |
 Lithuania | LRT | Ovidijus Vyšniauskas [lt] | "Lopšinė mylimai" | Lithuanian |
| Tomas Leiburas |
 Malta | PBS | Moira Stafrace andChristopher Scicluna | "More Than Love" | English |
| Anthony Chircop |
 Netherlands | NOS | Willeke Alberti | "Waar is de zon" | Dutch | Harry van Hoof | |
 Norway | NRK | Elisabeth Andreasson andJan Werner Danielsen | "Duett" | Norwegian | Pete Knutsen [no] | |
 Poland | TVP | Edyta Górniak | "To nie ja!" | Polish | Noel Kelehan | |
 Portugal | RTP | Sara | "Chamar a música" | Portuguese |
| Thilo Krasmann [pt] |
 Romania | TVR | Dan Bittman | "Dincolo de nori" | Romanian |
| Noel Kelehan |
 Russia | RTR | Youddiph | "Vechny strannik"[b](Вечный странник) | Russian | Lev Zemlinski | |
 Slovakia | STV | Martin Ďurinda andTublatanka | "Nekonečná pieseň" | Slovak |
| Vladimír Valovič |
 Spain | TVE | Alejandro Abad | "Ella no es ella" | Spanish | Alejandro Abad | Josep Llobell |
 Sweden | SVT | Marie Bergman andRoger Pontare | "Stjärnorna" | Swedish |
| Anders Berglund |
 Switzerland | SRG SSR | Duilio [de;fr] | "Sto pregando" | Italian | Giuseppe Scaramella | Valeriano Chiaravalle [it] |
 United Kingdom | BBC | Frances Ruffelle | "We Will Be Free (Lonely Symphony)" | English |
| Michael Reed |
The Eurovision Song Contest 1994 was produced by the Irish public broadcasterRadio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ).Moya Doherty served as executive producer, Patrick Cowap served as director, Paula Farrell served as designer, andNoel Kelehan served as musical director, leading theRTÉ Concert Orchestra.[6][16][17] A separate musical director could be nominated by each participating delegation to lead the orchestra during its country's performance, with the host musical director also available toconduct for those countries which did not nominate their own conductor.[10] On behalf of the contest organisers, theEuropean Broadcasting Union (EBU), the event was overseen by Christian Clausen asscrutineer.[6][18][19]
Each participating broadcaster submitted one song, which was required to be no longer than three minutes in duration and performed in the language, or one of the languages, of the country which it represented.[20][21] A maximum of six performers were allowed on stage during each country's performance, and all participants were required to have reached the age of 16 in the year of the contest.[20][22] Each entry could utilise all or part of the live orchestra and could use instrumental-onlybacking tracks; however, any backing tracks used could only include the sound of instruments featured on stage beingmimed by the performers.[22][23]
Following the confirmation of the twenty-five competing countries, the draw to determine the running order was held on 16 November 1993 at the Point Theatre and was conducted by Niamh Kavanagh andFionnuala Sweeney.[3][24][25]
The results of the 1994 contest were determined through the same scoring system as had first been introduced in1975: each country awarded twelve points to its favourite entry, followed by ten points to its second favourite, and then awarded points in decreasing value from eight to one for the remaining songs which featured in the country's top ten, with countries unable to vote for their own entry.[26] The points awarded by each country were determined by an assembled jury of sixteen individuals, which was required to be split evenly between members of the public and music professionals, between men and women, and by age. Each jury member voted in secret and awarded between one and ten votes to each participating song, excluding that from their own country and with no abstentions permitted. The votes of each member were collected following the country's performance and then tallied by the non-voting jury chairperson to determine the points to be awarded. In any cases where two or more songs in the top ten received the same number of votes, a show of hands by all jury members was used to determine the final placing.[27][28]
With the Point Theatre situated on the banks of theRiver Liffey, rivers were an integral part of the overall creative vision for the show and were a key theme of the opening and interval acts as well as the stage design.[29] Paula Farrell's design, which was four times the size of the stage constructed for the Millstreet contest, provided a scene of a futuristic Dublin at night, featuring representations of skyscrapers which incorporated video screens and lighting effects and underfloor lighting representing the Liffey andDublin Bay. On either side of the stage podium-lined platforms were used by the presenters in-between songs and during the voting segment.[30][31][32][33]
Rehearsals at the contest venue began on 25 April 1994. Each participating delegation took part in two technical rehearsals in the week approaching the contest, with countries rehearsing in the order in which they would perform. In each country's first rehearsal, held on 25 and 26 April, the delegations were provided with a 15-minute stage-call to prepare the stage and to brief the orchestra, followed by a 25-minute rehearsal. This was then followed by an opportunity to review footage of the rehearsal on video screens and to conduct a 20-minute press conference. The second rehearsals on 27 and 28 April consisted of a 10-minute stage-call and a 20-minute rehearsal. Three dress rehearsals were held with all artists, two in the afternoon and evening of 29 April and one final rehearsal in the afternoon of 30 April, with an audience present at the evening rehearsal on 29 April. The competing delegations were additionally invited to a welcomereception during the week of the event, held on the evening of 25 April in the Dining Hall ofTrinity College Dublin.[3]
During the final dress rehearsal on 30 April, the Polish entrantEdyta Górniak performed the second half of her song "To nie ja!" in English. As this rehearsal was also heard by the juries this constituted a break of the contest rules. Although discussions were held on whether to sanction or disqualify the country, Poland was ultimately allowed to compete.[6][10][30]
The contest took place on 30 April 1994 at 20:00 (IST) and lasted 3 hours and 3 minutes. The show was presented by the Irish journalist and television presenterCynthia Ní Mhurchú and the Irish radio and television presenterGerry Ryan.[6][10] Ní Mhurchú and Ryan had been considered as hosts for the 1993 event before the eventual choice ofFionnuala Sweeney.[34]
The contest was opened with a segment by theGalway-based arts and theatre companyMacnas, featuring a mixture of pre-recorded and live footage of a replicaVikinglongship on theriver Liffey, and dancers, flag-bearers and performers incaricature masks of notable Irish personalities in various locations in central Dublin and in the Point Theatre.[3][35][36][37] The interval act, "Riverdance", was a seven-minute composition by the Irish composerBill Whelan, and took inspiration from "Timedance", the interval act from the1981 contest also held in Dublin.[38] "Riverdance" featured a mix oftraditional Irish andmodern music by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra,choral singing from the Celtic ensembleAnúna, andIrish dancing led by the Irish-American dancersJean Butler andMichael Flatley.[39][40] The trophy awarded to the winners, entitled "Wavelength", was designed by the Irish sculptorGrace Weir of theTemple Bar Gallery, and was presented by the previous year's winning artistNiamh Kavanagh.[35][41][42]
The winner wasIreland represented by the song "Rock 'n' Roll Kids", written byBrendan Graham and performed byPaul Harrington andCharlie McGettigan.[43] This marked Ireland's sixth contest win – a new contest record – and also gave the country its third win in a row – the first time a country had won three successive contests.[1][5][27] "Rock 'n' Roll Kids" became the highest scoring winner in Eurovision history to date with 226 points, and was the first song to receive over 200 points. It was also the first time that a song had won without using the orchestra. Harrington and McGettigan additionally became the oldest winning performers and the first winning male duo.[5][27][30] First-time participating countries Poland, Hungary and Russia all finished in the top ten, placing second, fourth and ninth respectively, while conversely the four other débuting countries all placed within the bottom seven entries, with Lithuania scoringnul points with its first ever entry.[44][45] Poland achieved the most successful début performance of any country in the contest's history at the time, and its second-place finish in this event remains as of 2025[update] the country's best ever Eurovision placing.[2][46]
| R/O | Country | Artist | Song | Points | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sweden | Marie Bergman andRoger Pontare | "Stjärnorna" | 48 | 13 |
| 2 | Finland | CatCat | "Bye Bye Baby" | 11 | 22 |
| 3 | Ireland | Paul Harrington andCharlie McGettigan | "Rock 'n' Roll Kids" | 226 | 1 |
| 4 | Cyprus | Evridiki | "Ime anthropos ki ego" | 51 | 11 |
| 5 | Iceland | Sigga | "Nætur" | 49 | 12 |
| 6 | United Kingdom | Frances Ruffelle | "We Will Be Free (Lonely Symphony)" | 63 | 10 |
| 7 | Croatia | Tony Cetinski | "Nek' ti bude ljubav sva" | 27 | 16 |
| 8 | Portugal | Sara | "Chamar a música" | 73 | 8 |
| 9 | Switzerland | Duilio | "Sto pregando" | 15 | 19 |
| 10 | Estonia | Silvi Vrait | "Nagu merelaine" | 2 | 24 |
| 11 | Romania | Dan Bittman | "Dincolo de nori" | 14 | 21 |
| 12 | Malta | Moira Stafrace andChristopher Scicluna | "More than Love" | 97 | 5 |
| 13 | Netherlands | Willeke Alberti | "Waar is de zon" | 4 | 23 |
| 14 | Germany | Mekado | "Wir geben 'ne Party" | 128 | 3 |
| 15 | Slovakia | Martin Ďurinda andTublatanka | "Nekonečná pieseň" | 15 | 19 |
| 16 | Lithuania | Ovidijus Vyšniauskas | "Lopšinė mylimai" | 0 | 25 |
| 17 | Norway | Elisabeth Andreasson andJan Werner Danielsen | "Duett" | 76 | 6 |
| 18 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | Alma and Dejan | "Ostani kraj mene" | 39 | 15 |
| 19 | Greece | Kostas Bigalis and the Sea Lovers | "To trehandiri (Diri Diri)" | 44 | 14 |
| 20 | Austria | Petra Frey | "Für den Frieden der Welt" | 19 | 17 |
| 21 | Spain | Alejandro Abad | "Ella no es ella" | 17 | 18 |
| 22 | Hungary | Friderika | "Kinek mondjam el vétkeimet?" | 122 | 4 |
| 23 | Russia | Youddiph | "Vechny strannik"[b] | 70 | 9 |
| 24 | Poland | Edyta Górniak | "To nie ja!" | 166 | 2 |
| 25 | France | Nina Morato | "Je suis un vrai garçon" | 74 | 7 |
Each participating broadcaster appointed a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing, in English or French, the votes for its respective country.[20] For the first time, the spokespersons were connected to the venue viasatellite rather than throughtelephone lines, allowing them to appear in vision during the broadcast.[2][6][27] Spokespersons at the 1994 contest are listed below.[35]
Sweden – Marianne Anderberg [sv][47] Finland – Solveig Herlin[48] Ireland – Eileen Dunne[49] Cyprus – Anna Partelidou[50] Iceland – Sigríður Arnardóttir United Kingdom – Colin Berry[27] Croatia – Helga Vlahović[51] Portugal – Isabel Bahia Switzerland – Sandra Studer Estonia – Urve Tiidus[52] Romania – Cristina Țopescu [ro] Malta – John Demanuele[53] Netherlands – Joop van Os [nl][54] Germany – Carmen Nebel Slovakia – Juraj Čurný Lithuania – Gitana Lapinskaitė[55] Norway – Sverre Christophersen [no] Bosnia and Herzegovina – Diana Grković-Foretić Greece – Fotini Giannoulatou Austria – Tilia Herold [de] Spain – María Ángeles Balañac Hungary – Iván Bradányi [hu] Russia – Irina Klenskaya Poland – Jan Chojnacki France – Laurent Romejko[56]Jury voting was used to determine the points awarded by all countries.[27] The announcement of the results from each country was conducted in the order in which they performed, with the spokespersons announcing their country's points in English or French in ascending order.[27][35] The detailed breakdown of the points awarded by each country is listed in the tables below.
Total score | Sweden | Finland | Ireland | Cyprus | Iceland | United Kingdom | Croatia | Portugal | Switzerland | Estonia | Romania | Malta | Netherlands | Germany | Slovakia | Lithuania | Norway | Bosnia and Herzegovina | Greece | Austria | Spain | Hungary | Russia | Poland | France | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Contestants | Sweden | 48 | 2 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 5 | 1 | 2 | ||||||||||||||
| Finland | 11 | 1 | 10 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ireland | 226 | 10 | 7 | 8 | 12 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 5 | 12 | 12 | 6 | 10 | 12 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 8 | 8 | |||
| Cyprus | 51 | 10 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 12 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 3 | ||||||||||||||||
| Iceland | 49 | 8 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 4 | |||||||||||||
| United Kingdom | 63 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 3 | ||||||||||
| Croatia | 27 | 10 | 12 | 5 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Portugal | 73 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 12 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 6 | |||||||||||||
| Switzerland | 15 | 8 | 2 | 5 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Estonia | 2 | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Romania | 14 | 6 | 2 | 6 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Malta | 97 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 10 | 1 | 3 | 10 | 7 | 12 | 7 | ||||||||||
| Netherlands | 4 | 4 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Germany | 128 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 10 | 10 | 3 | 12 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 8 | 12 | 7 | 7 | ||||||
| Slovakia | 15 | 12 | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lithuania | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Norway | 76 | 7 | 3 | 10 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 8 | |||||||||
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | 39 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 1 | 10 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Greece | 44 | 2 | 4 | 12 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 2 | ||||||||||||||||
| Austria | 19 | 1 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Spain | 17 | 5 | 2 | 8 | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hungary | 122 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 10 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 10 | 7 | 8 | 3 | 8 | 3 | 12 | 7 | ||||||||
| Russia | 70 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 10 | 1 | |||||||||
| Poland | 166 | 8 | 7 | 1 | 6 | 12 | 8 | 7 | 10 | 12 | 7 | 2 | 8 | 10 | 4 | 12 | 6 | 8 | 12 | 8 | 6 | 12 | |||||
| France | 74 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 2 | 7 | 10 | 6 | |||||||||||||
The below table summarises how the maximum 12 points were awarded from one country to another. The winning country is shown in bold. Ireland received the maximum score of 12 points from eight of the voting countries, with Poland receiving five sets of 12 points, Hungary receiving four sets, Germany two sets, and Croatia, Cyprus, Malta, Portugal and Slovakia each receiving one maximum score.[57][58]
| N. | Contestant | Nation(s) giving 12 points |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | Ireland | Croatia, Germany, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Switzerland |
| 5 | Poland | Austria, Estonia, France, Lithuania, United Kingdom |
| 4 | Hungary | Ireland, Finland, Poland, Sweden |
| 2 | Germany | Hungary, Romania |
| 1 | Croatia | Slovakia |
| Cyprus | Greece | |
| Greece | Cyprus | |
| Malta | Bosnia and Herzegovina | |
| Portugal | Spain | |
| Slovakia | Malta |
Each participating broadcaster was required to relay the contest via its networks. Non-participating EBU member broadcasters were also able to relay the contest as "passive participants".[22] Broadcasters were able to send commentators to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language and to relay information about the artists and songs to their television viewers. These commentators were typically sent to the venue to report on the event, and were able to provide commentary from small booths constructed at the back of the venue.[59][60] Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.
| Country | Broadcaster | Channel(s) | Commentator(s) | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Australia | SBS | SBS TV[f] | [96] | |
 Belgium | BRTN | TV2 | André Vermeulen | [97] |
| Radio 2 | Marc Brillouet [nl] andJulien Put [nl] | [98] | ||
| RTBF | RTBF1 | Jean-Pierre Hautier | [99] | |
 Denmark | DR | DR TV | Jørgen de Mylius | [100] |
 Faroe Islands | SvF | [101] | ||
 Greenland | KNR | KNR[g] | [102] | |
 Israel | IBA | Channel 1 | [103] | |
 Jordan | JRTV | JTV2 | [104] | |
 Slovenia | RTVSLO | SLO 1 | Damjana Golavšek [sl] | [105] |
| Val 202 | [106] | |||
 South Korea | KBS | KBS2[h] | [107] | |
 Turkey | TRT | TRT 1 | [108] | |
 Yugoslavia | RTS | RTS 3K | [109] | |
Although the winning song had modest success, peaking in theIrish Singles Chart at number two and also entering theDutch andFlemish charts following the contest,[110][111] it was largely overshadowed by the contest's interval act. The music to "Riverdance" was subsequently released as a single shortly after the contest and shot straight to number 1 on the Irish charts where it remained for 18 weeks.[112][113] As of 2023,[update] "Riverdance" remains the second best selling single in Ireland ever, behindElton John's "Something About the Way You Look Tonight"/"Candle in the Wind 1997".[113][114] An invite was subsequently given to feature the original seven-minute performance at theRoyal Variety Performance in November 1994 at theDominion Theatre inLondon, in the presence of then-Prince Charles.[115] At the same time, preparations were underway to develop the seven-minute performance into a stage show, led by Moya Doherty, who had been the executive producer of Eurovision 1994, and her husband John McColgan.[116][117] Opening in February 1995 at the Point Theatre and featuring original lead dancers Michael Flatley and Jean Butler, thefull-length show ran for an initial run of five weeks, with tickets selling out within three days of going on sale, followed by another sold-out run at theHammersmith Apollo in London, and in March 1996 came its first performance in the United States, at theRadio City Music Hall inNew York City.[113][118][119] It is estimated thatRiverdance has been seen live by over 27.5 million people at performances worldwide, and that over ten millionhome video copies ofRiverdance have been sold.[116]
The relegation system introduced to the contest in this edition continued to be used in various forms for the next ten years and allowed even more new countries to join the event, withMacedonia,Latvia andUkraine competing for the first time in1998,2000 and2003 respectively.[120][121][122] However, as the contest continued to develop, and as even more countries began to express an interest in competing, the relegation system proved unable to meet the needs required to allow for an equitable solution for all countries. Ultimately this led to the introduction of asemi-final to the contest format in2004, allowing all interested countries to participate once again, which was eventually expanded to two semi-finals from2008.[5][123][124]
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