Eurovision Song Contest 1995
The Eurovision Song Contest 1995 was the 40th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest and took place in Dublin, Ireland for the second year in a row, following the country's third back-to-back victory at the with the song "Rock 'n' Roll Kids" by Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), the contest was again held at the Point Theatre which was also the venue the year before. It was held on Saturday 13 May 1995 and was presented by Irish newsreader  Mary Kennedy. Twenty-three countries participated in the contest seeing the return of Belgium, Denmark, Israel, Slovenia and Turkey, after being relegated from competing the previous year. Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia and Switzerland were relegated due to their results at the previous edition. Lithuania would not return to the contest for another four years. The winner this year was Norway with the song "Nocturne", performed by Secret Garden, written by Petter Skavlan and composed by band member Rolf Løvland. Spain, Sweden, France and Denmark rounded out the top five, with Spain getting their first top three placing  in more than a decade. Further down the table, Slovenia achieved their best result so far, finishing seventh. Until 2021, this had remained the last time that the top three songs in the final were not performed in English. Location. Ireland hosted the contest for the sixth time after winning the contest for a 3rd consecutive year and is the only country to have hosted multiple contests in succession; three in a row between 1993 and 1995. Dublin was again chosen to be the host city, making it the fifth time that the Eurovision Song Contest was staged in the  Irish capital. For the second consecutive year, the venue for the contest was the Point Theatre located on the North Wall Quay of the River Liffey, amongst the Dublin Docklands. After winning the 1994 contest, RTÉ was 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 the fourth year in a row. Contest overview. 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 ("What's Another Year?" and "Hold Me Now" respectively), and also for writing Linda Martin's 1992 winning song "Why Me?". It was his birthday that night, but according to host Kennedy, "He  wouldn't say which one!" Nonetheless, the audience sang "Happy Birthday" for him, assisted by the orchestra. Heavy favourites to win the contest, according to bookmakers, were Sweden with the pop-ballad "Se på mig" and Slovenia, represented by Darja Švajger‘s entry “Prisluhni mi”. Other countries in contention for the win were Croatia, 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. The stage was designed by Alan Farquharson who also designed the set of the 1993 contest that took place in Millstreet, Ireland. 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 as well as collaborate with the winning group) and was composed by leading musician Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin. 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. Participating countries. Qualification. The European Broadcasting Union decreased the number of participants to 23 to  make sure the show would not last longer than three hours. Countries which had missed the 1994 event were allowed to return, and of the seven countries that had been relegated following the 1993 contest , , , and made their return. Seven countries were subsequently relegated in order to make room for the returning countries, with , , , the , , and forced to sit out as the lowest-placing countries in 1994. With Switzerland's relegation, became the only country of the seven original participants from the in 1956 to have competed in every edition of the contest so far. Conductors. Each performance had a  conductor who directed the orchestra. Scoreboard. Each country had a jury that awarded 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 point(s) for their top ten songs. 12 points. Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final: Spokespersons. The spokespersons announced the score from their respective country's national jury in running order. Broadcasts. Most countries sent commentators to Dublin or commented from their own country, in order to provide coverage of the contest, such as adding insight to the participants.