The Eurovision Song Contest 1994 was the 39th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, 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.
For the third time in a row, Ireland won the contest with the song "Rock 'n' Roll Kids", written by Brendan Graham and performed by Paul Harrington and Charlie 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 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 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 dancers Jean Butler and Michael Flatley.
Results[]
Country in gold is the winning entry and the country in silver is the host country.
| Rank | Country | EBU member station | Artist | Song | Conductor | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Ireland | RTÉ | Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan | "Rock 'n' Roll Kids" | No conductor | 226 |
| 02 | Poland | TVP | Edyta Górniak | "To nie ja!" | Noel Kelehan | 166 |
| 03 | Germany | ARD/MDR | Mekado | "Wir geben 'ne Party" | Norbert Daum | 128 |
| 04 | Hungary | MTV | Friderika | "Kinek mondjam el vétkeimet?" | Péter Wolf | 122 |
| 05 | Malta | PBS | Moira Stafrace and Christopher Scicluna | "More than Love" | Anthony Chircop | 97 |
| 06 | Norway | NRK | Elisabeth Andreasson and Jan Werner Danielsen | "Duett" | Pete Knutsen | 76 |
| 07 | France | France Télévision | Nina Morato | "Je suis un vrai garçon" | Alain Goraguer | 74 |
| 08 | Portugal | RTP | Sara | "Chamar a música" | Thilo Krasmann | 73 |
| 09 | Russia | RTR | Youddiph | "Vechny strannik"(Вечный странник) (on-screen captions used the English title "Eternal Wanderer") |
Lev Zemlinski | 70 |
| 10 | United Kingdom | BBC | Frances Ruffelle | "We Will Be Free (Lonely Symphony)" | Michael Reed | 63 |
| 11 | Cyprus | CyBC | Evridiki | "Ime anthropos ki ego" (Είμαι άνθρωπος κι εγώ) | George Theofanous | 51 |
| 12 | Iceland | RÚV | Sigga | "Nætur" | Frank McNamara | 49 |
| 13 | Sweden | SVT | Marie Bergman and Roger Pontare | "Stjärnorna" | Anders Berglund | 48 |
| 14 | Greece | ERT | Kostas Bigalis and the Sea Lovers | "To trehandiri (Diri Diri)" (Το τρεχαντήρι (Ντίρι Ντίρι)) | Noel Kelehan | 44 |
| 15 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | RTVBiH | Alma and Dejan | "Ostani kraj mene" | Sinan Alimanović | 39 |
| 16 | Croatia | HRT | Tony Cetinski | "Nek' ti bude ljubav sva" | Miljenko Prohaska | 27 |
| 17 | Austria | ORF | Petra Frey | "Für den Frieden der Welt" | Hermann Weindorf | 19 |
| 18 | Spain | TVE | Alejandro Abad | "Ella no es ella" | Josep Llobell | 17 |
| 19 | Switzerland | SRG SSR | Duilio | "Sto pregando" | Valeriano Chiaravalle | 15 |
| Slovakia | STV | Martin Ďurinda and Tublatanka | "Nekonečná pieseň" | Vladimír Valovič | 15 | |
| 21 | Romania | TVR | Dan Bittman | "Dincolo de nori" | Noel Kelehan | 14 |
| 22 | Finland | YLE | CatCat | "Bye Bye Baby" | Olli Ahvenlahti | 11 |
| 23 | Netherlands | NOS | Willeke Alberti | "Waar is de zon" | Harry van Hoof | 4 |
| 24 | Estonia | ETV | Silvi Vrait | "Nagu merelaine" | Urmas Lattikas | 2 |
| 25 | Lithuania | LRT | Ovidijus Vyšniauskas | "Lopšinė mylimai" | Tomas Leiburas | 0 |
Broadcast[]
Participating countries[]
| Country | Broadcaster(s) | Commentator(s) | Spokesperson |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | ORF 1 | Ernst Grissemann | Tilia Herold |
| FM4 | Stermann & Grissemann | ||
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | TVBiH | Unknown | Diana Grković-Foretić |
| Croatia | HRT 1 | Aleksandar Kostadinov | Helga Vlahović |
| Cyprus | RIK 2, Trito Programma | Evi Papamichael | Anna Partelidou |
| Estonia | ETV, STV1 | Unknown | Urve Tiidus |
| Finland | TV1 | Erkki Pohjanheimo, Kirsi-Maria Niemi | Solveig Herlin |
| Riksradion | Unknown | ||
| France | France 2 | Patrice Laffont | Laurent Romejko |
| Germany | Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen | Jan Hofer | Carmen Nebel |
| Greece | ET1 | Dafni Bokota | Fotini Giannoulatou |
| ERA 1 | Giorgos Mitropoulos | ||
| Hungary | MTV 2 | István Vágó | Iván Bradányi |
| Iceland | Sjónvarpið, Rás 2 | Jakob Frímann Magnússon | Sigríður Arnardóttir |
| Ireland | RTÉ 1 | Pat Kenny | Eileen Dunne |
| RTÉ Radio 1 | Larry Gogan | ||
| Lithuania | LTV | Unknown | Gitana Lapinskaitė |
| Malta | TVM | Unknown | John Demanuele |
| Netherlands | Nederland 3 | Willem van Beusekom | Joop van Os |
| Norway | NRK Fjernsynet, NRK P1 | Jostein Pedersen | Sverre Christophersen |
| Poland | TVP1 | Artur Orzech | Jan Chojnacki |
| Portugal | RTP Canal 1 | Eládio Clímaco | Isabel Bahia |
| Romania | TVR 1 | Gabriela Cristela | Cristina Țopescu |
| Russia | RTR | Sergey Antipov | Irina Klenskaya |
| Slovakia | STV2 | Unknown | Juraj Čurný |
| Spain | La Primera | José Luis Uribarri | María Ángeles Balañac |
| Sweden | Kanal 1 | Pekka Heino | Marianne Anderberg |
| SR P3, SR P4 | Claes-Johan Larsson, Lisa Syrén | ||
| Switzerland (German) | SF DRS | Bernard Thurnheer | Sandra Studer |
| Switzerland (French) | TSR Chaîne nationale | Jean-Marc Richard | |
| Switzerland (Italian) | TSI Canale nazionale | Wilma Gilardi | |
| United Kingdom | BBC1, BBC WSTV | Terry Wogan | Colin Berry |
| BBC Radio 2 | Ken Bruce |
Non-participating countries[]
| Country | Broadcaster(s) | Commentator(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Australia | SBS TV | Unknown |
| Belgium (Dutch) | TV2 | André Vermeulen |
| Belgium (French) | RTBF1 | Jean-Pierre Hautier |
| Denmark | DR TV | Jørgen de Mylius |
| Faroe Islands | SVF | Jørgen de Mylius |
| Greenland | KNR | Jørgen de Mylius |
| Israel | Channel 1 | No commentator |
| Jordan | JTV2 | Unknown |
| Slovenia | SLO 1 | Damjana Golavšek |
| Val 202 | Unknown | |
| Turkey | TRT 1 | Unknown |
| Yugoslavia | RTS 3K | Unknown |
Broadcast notes[]
- Australia - SBS TV aired the show deferred on 1 May 1994 at 20:30 AEST.
- Jordan - JTV2 aired the show delayed on 23 May 1994 at 22:20 EEST.