Eurovision Song Contest 1995

The Eurovision Song Contest 1995 was the 40th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 13 May 1995 at the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland, and presented by Mary Kennedy. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (RTÉ), who staged the event after winning the for with the song "Rock 'n' Roll Kids" by Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan. It was the third consecutive contest to be held in Ireland – the first and only time in the history of the event that a country has hosted three editions in a row – and the second consecutive edition to be held in the Point Theatre in Dublin.

Broadcasters from twenty-three countries participated in the contest; , , , the , , , and were relegated as the lowest-scoring countries in the previous edition, getting replaced by , , , , and , returning after being relegated following the .

The winner was with the song "", composed by Rolf Løvland, written by Petter Skavlan and performed by Secret Garden. , , , and rounded out the top five, with Spain achieving its best result since . and also achieved their best results so far, placing sixth and seventh respectively, while finished in last place for the fourth time.

Location

thumb|200px|[[Point Theatre, Dublin – host venue of the 1995 contest (pictured following redevelopment)]]

The 1995 contest took place in Dublin, Ireland, following the country's victory at the with the song "Rock 'n' Roll Kids", performed by Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan. It was the sixth time that Ireland had hosted the contest, having previously staged the event in , , , and , with all previous events held in Dublin except the 1993 contest which was held in Millstreet. Ireland thus became the first, and as of 2026 the only country to have hosted three successive contests.

The selected venue was the Point Theatre, a concert and events venue located amongst the Dublin Docklands which had originally been built as a train depot to serve the nearby port. Opened as a music venue in 1988, it was closed for redevelopment and expansion in 2008 and is now known as the 3Arena. Having previously hosted the 1994 contest, Dublin became the first city to host two consecutive Eurovision Song Contests, with the Point Theatre also serving as the host venue for the second year in a row. Additionally, several artists who had previously participated in the event as main vocalists returned as backing vocalists at this year's event: Stefán Hilmarsson and returned to the contest as backing singers for the Icelandic entrant Bo Halldórsson, with Stefán having previously represented as a member of Beathoven and both Stefán and Eyjólfur having represented as a duo; Gary Lux, who had previously represented , as a member of the group Westend, and as a solo artist and , supported Stella Jones at this year's event; and José María Guzmán, who represented as part of the group Cadillac, was among Anabel Conde's backing singers.

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders sticky-header"

|+ Eurovision Song Contest 1995 participants

! scope="col" | Country

! scope="col" | Broadcaster

! scope="col" | Artist

! scope="col" | Song

! scope="col" | Language

! scope="col" | Songwriter(s)

! scope="col" | Conductor

! scope="row" |

| ORF

| Stella Jones

| ""

| German

| Michael Kienzl

! scope="row" |

| RTBF

| ""

| French

! scope="row" |

| RTVBiH

| Davor Popović

| ""

| Bosnian

| Sinan Alimanović

! scope="row" |

| HRT

| Magazin and Lidija

| ""

| Croatian

! scope="row" |

| CyBC

| Alexandros Panayi

| "" ()

| Greek

| Alexandros Panayi

| George Theofanous

! scope="row" |

| DR

| Aud Wilken

| ""

| Danish

| Frede Ewert

! scope="row" |

| ""

| French

| Michel Bernholc

! scope="row" |

| MDR

| ""

| German

| Cheyenne Stone

! scope="row" |

| ERT

| Elina Konstantopoulou

| "" ()

| Greek

| Haris Andreadis

! scope="row" |

| MTV

| ""

| Hungarian

| Miklós Malek

! scope="row" |

| RÚV

| Bo Halldórsson

| ""

| Icelandic

| Frank McNamara

! scope="row" |

| RTÉ

| "Dreamin'

| English

| Noel Kelehan

! scope="row" |

| IBA

| Liora

| "Amen" ()

| Hebrew

| Gadi Goldman

! scope="row" |

| PBS

| "Keep Me in Mind"

| English

| Ray Agius

! scope="row" |

| NRK

| Secret Garden

| ""

| Norwegian

| Geir Langslet

! scope="row" |

| TVP

| Justyna

| ""

| Polish

| Noel Kelehan

! scope="row" |

| RTP

| Tó Cruz

| ""

| Portuguese

! scope="row" |

| ORT

| Philipp Kirkorov

| "" ()

| Russian

! scope="row" |

| RTVSLO

| Darja Švajger

| ""

| Slovene

| Jože Privšek

! scope="row" |

| TVE

| Anabel Conde

| ""

| Spanish

! scope="row" |

| SVT

| Jan Johansen

| ""

| Swedish

| Anders Berglund

! scope="row" |

| TRT

| Arzu Ece

| ""

| Turkish

| Melih Kibar

! scope="row" |

| BBC

| Love City Groove

| "Love City Groove"

| English

| Mike Dixon

Production and format

The Eurovision Song Contest 1995 was produced by the Irish public broadcaster (RTÉ). John McHugh served as executive producer, John Comiskey served as director, Alan Farquharson served as designer, and Noel Kelehan served as musical director, leading the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. RTÉ was reported to have spent IR£2.3 million on staging the contest, with the Northern Ireland Tourist Board and the National Lottery among the contest's sponsors. Through the partnership with the National Lottery, around 1,000 places in the audience were filled by members of the public who had won tickets by playing scratchcards.

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. 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. Each entry could utilise all or part of the live orchestra and could use instrumental-only backing tracks, however any backing tracks used could only include the sound of instruments featured on stage being mimed by the performers.

Following the confirmation of the twenty-three competing countries, the draw to determine the running order was held on 9 December 1994.

The results of the 1995 contest were determined through the same scoring system as had first been introduced in : 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. 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.

Rehearsals in the contest venue for the competing acts began on 8 May 1995. Each country had two technical rehearsals in the week approaching the contest, with countries rehearsing in the order in which they would perform. The first rehearsals took place on 8 and 9 May, with each country allowed 40 minutes total on stage, with an opportunity to review recordings with producers and to consult on suggested changes afterwards, followed by a 20 minute press conference. Each country's second rehearsals took place on 10 and 11 May, with 30 minutes total on stage. Three dress rehearsals were held with all artists, two held in the afternoon and evening of 12 May and one final rehearsal in the afternoon of 13 May. An audience was present for the second dress rehearsal in the evening of 12 May, with this rehearsal also recorded for use as a production stand-by in case of problems during the live contest. The competing delegations were additionally invited to a welcome reception during the week in the build-up to the event, organised by Irish Ferries and hosted at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham on the evening of 8 May.

Contest overview

thumb|right|250px|[[Rolf Løvland and Fionnuala Sherry, the winning artists of the 1995 Eurovision Song Contest as Secret Garden]]

The contest took place on 13 May 1995 at 20:00 (IST) and lasted 2 hours and 51 minutes. Kennedy would go on to perform at Eurovision again as a contestant, representing Ireland in the . The trophy awarded to the winners was designed by Kevin O'Dwyer, and was presented by the previous year's winning artists Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan.

The winner was represented by the song "", composed by Rolf Løvland, written by Petter Skavlan and performed by Secret Garden. This was Norway's second contest win, following the victory by Bobbysocks! ten years previously at the with "", which was also written by Rolf Løvland; Løvland thus became one of four individuals to have won the contest more than once as an artist or songwriter up to that point in time, alongside Willy van Hemert, Yves Dessca and Johnny Logan. The group Secret Garden consisted principally of Norwegian composer and pianist Løvland and Irish violinist Fionnuala Sherry and was formed after the pair had met at the 1994 contest, where Sherry was a member of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and Løvland was in attendance as composer of . For their performance during the contest they were joined by instrumentalists Hans Fredrik Jacobsen and Åsa Jinder and singer . "" was a largely instrumental piece featuring only 24 words in total, with brief vocals only at the start and end of the song performed by Tvinnereim. The 1995 contest was the last edition of the contest where the top three songs were all performed in a language other than English until the .

{| class="sortable wikitable plainrowheaders"

|+ Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1995

! scope="col" |

! scope="col" | Country

! scope="col" | Artist

! scope="col" | Song

! scope="col" class="unsortable" | Points

! scope="col" | Place

! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 1

| Justyna

| ""

| 15

| 18

! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 2

| "Dreamin'

| 44

| 14

! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 3

| Stone & Stone

| ""

| 1

| 23

! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 4

| ""

| 14

| 19

|- style="font-weight:bold; background:gold;"

! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 5

| Secret Garden

| ""

| 148

| 1

! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 6

| ""

| 17

! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 7

| ""

| 31

| 15

! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 8

| ""

| 67

| 13

! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 9

| ""

| 119

| 2

! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 10

| ""

| 21

| 16

! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 11

| Magazin and Lidija

| ""

| 91

| 6

! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 12

| ""

| 94

| 4

! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 13

| ""

| 3

| 22

! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 14

| ""

| 8

| 20

! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 15

| Love City Groove

| "Love City Groove"

| 76

| 10

! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 16

| ""

| 5

| 21

! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 17

| ""

| 79

| 9

! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 18

| ""

| 100

| 3

! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 19

| ""

| 92

| 5

! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 20

| ""

| 84

| 7

! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 21

| Liora

| "Amen"

| 81

| 8

! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 22

| "Keep Me in Mind"

| 76

| 10

! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 23

| ""

| 68

| 12

Spokespersons

Each participating broadcaster appointed a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing, in English or French, the votes for its respective country. Spokespersons at the 1995 contest are listed below.

Eileen Dunne
Carmen Nebel
Diana Grković-Foretić
Marina Danielian
Áslaug Dóra Eyjólfsdóttir
Belén Fernández de Henestrosa
Thierry Beccaro
Katalin Bogyay
Marie-Françoise Renson
Colin Berry
Serenella Andrade
Andreas Iakovidis
Björn Hedman
Miša Molk
Daniel Pe'er
Stephanie Farrugia
Fotini Giannoulatou

Detailed voting results

Jury voting was used to determine the points awarded by all countries. 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. The detailed breakdown of the points awarded by each country is listed in the tables below.

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"

|+ Detailed voting results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1995

! colspan="2" |

! scope="col"

! rowspan="23"

! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Poland

| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 15 || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || || || || 4 || || 6 || || || || || || 1 || || || 1 || || || || || || || 3

! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Ireland

| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 44 || || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || 1 || 5 || 1 || 5 || 3 || || 3 || 5 || || 1 || || || || || || 10 || 1 || 5 || || || 4

! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Germany

| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 1 || || || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || 1 ||

! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Bosnia and Herzegovina

| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 14 || || || || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || || || || || || 3 || 8 || || || || || || || || 3 || || || ||

|- style="background:gold;"

! scope="row" style="text-align:left; font-weight:bold; background:gold;" | Norway

| style="text-align:right; font-weight:bold;" | 148 || 12 || 10 || 4 || 1 || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || 12 || 12 || || 4 || 12 || || 10 || 6 || 5 || 4 || 12 || 7 || || 2 || 7 || 10 || 6 || 12

! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Russia

| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 17 || || || || || 10 || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || || || || || 6 || || || || || || 1 || || || || || ||

! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Iceland

| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 31 || || 6 || || || 2 || 3 || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || 4 || || || || 2 || || || || || || 6 || 8 || || || ||

! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Austria

| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 67 || 2 || || || || 3 || || || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || 6 || 4 || || 8 || 4 || 10 || 5 || 2 || || 4 || 10 || || 2 || || 7

! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Spain

| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 119 || 8 || 2 || 6 || 8 || || || 5 || || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || 8 || 10 || 7 || 2 || 12 || 8 || 7 || 10 || || || || 12 || 8 || 6

! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Turkey

| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 21 || || || || || || || || || 2 || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || 5 || || || 1 || 2 || || || || || 3 || 1 || 7 ||

! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Croatia

| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 91 || || 3 || || 10 || 7 || || 10 || || 12 || 7 || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || || || || || 4 || 5 || || || 12 || 4 || 12 || 5

! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | France

| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 94 || 7 || 5 || 8 || || 6 || || 8 || 10 || || 2 || 3 || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || 10 || 6 || 1 || || 2 || 3 || 6 || 8 || 7 || || 2

! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Hungary

| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 3 || || || || || || 2 || || || 1 || || || || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || || || || || || || || || ||

! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Belgium

| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 8 || || || || || || || || 1 || 7 || || || || || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || || || || || || || || ||

! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | United Kingdom

| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 76 || 5 || 1 || || 4 || || 1 || || 12 || || || || 12 || 7 || 7 || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || 10 || || 5 || 7 || || 5 || ||

! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Portugal

| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 5 || || || || || || || || || || || || 4 || || || || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || || || || || || || 1

! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Cyprus

| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 79 || 1 || || 3 || || 5 || 4 || 2 || || 5 || || 1 || || 12 || 8 || 3 || || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || 8 || 5 || 4 || 6 || 4 || 8

! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Sweden

| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 100 || 10 || 12 || 12 || 2 || 8 || 6 || 4 || 8 || || 1 || || 3 || || || 6 || 8 || 4 || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || 12 || 1 || || 3 ||

! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Denmark

| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 92 || 3 || 7 || 7 || 3 || 12 || 10 || 7 || 7 || || 6 || || || 3 || 3 || || 6 || || 12 || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || 6 || || ||

! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Slovenia

| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 84 || 4 || 8 || 5 || 6 || || 7 || 1 || 3 || || || 2 || || 8 || || 10 || 5 || 3 || 7 || || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || 3 || 2 || 10

! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Israel

| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 81 || || || 10 || 7 || || 8 || || 6 || || || 4 || || 5 || 4 || 12 || || 8 || 2 || || 10 || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || 5 ||

! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Malta

| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 76 || || 4 || 2 || 12 || || || || 2 || 10 || 10 || 12 || 6 || || || 7 || || 6 || 1 || 4 || || || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | ||

! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Greece

| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 68 || 6 || || || || || || || 5 || 8 || || 7 || 5 || || 2 || || 3 || 12 || || || 2 || 8 || 10 || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" |

12 points

The below table summarises how the maximum 12 points were awarded from one country to another. The winning country is shown in bold. Norway received the maximum score of 12 points from six of the voting countries, with Croatia and Sweden each receiving three sets of 12 points, Denmark, Malta, Spain and the United Kingdom receiving two sets each, and Cyprus, Greece and Israel each receiving one maximum score. Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders sticky-header"

|+ Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries

! scope="col" | Country

! scope="col" | Broadcaster

! scope="col" | Channel(s)

! scope="col" | Commentator(s)

! scope="col" |

! scope="rowgroup" rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="2" | ORF

| ORF 1

| Ernst Grissemann

| style="text-align:center" |

| FM4

| Stermann & Grissemann

| style="text-align:center" |

! scope="rowgroup" rowspan="2" |

| RTBF

| RTBF1

| Jean-Pierre Hautier

| style="text-align:center" |

| BRTN

| TV1

| André Vermeulen

| style="text-align:center" |

! scope="row" |

| RTVBiH

| TVBiH

| style="text-align:center" |

! scope="row" |

| HRT

| HRT 1

| Aleksandar Kostadinov

| style="text-align:center" |

! scope="row" |

| CyBC

| RIK 1

| Neofytos Taliotis

| style="text-align:center" |

! scope="row" |

| DR

| DR TV, DR P3

| Jørgen de Mylius

| style="text-align:center" |

! scope="row" |

| France 2

| Olivier Minne

| style="text-align:center" |

! scope="row" |

| ARD

| Horst Senker

| style="text-align:center" |

! scope="row" |

| MTV

| MTV2

| István Vágó

| style="text-align:center" |

! scope="row" |

| RÚV

| Jakob Frímann Magnússon

| style="text-align:center" |

! scope="rowgroup" rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="2" | RTÉ

| RTÉ 1

| Pat Kenny

| style="text-align:center" |

| RTÉ Radio 1

| Larry Gogan

| style="text-align:center" |

! scope="rowgroup" rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="2" | NRK

| Annette Groth

| style="text-align:center" |

| NRK P1

| style="text-align:center" |

! scope="row" |

| TVP

| TVP1

| Artur Orzech

| style="text-align:center" |

! scope="row" |

| RTP

Eurovision Song Contest 1995

Location

Production and format

Contest overview<span class="anchor" id="Results"></span><span class="anchor" id="Participants and results"></span>

Spokespersons

Detailed voting results<span class="anchor" id="Scoreboard"></span>

12 points