ESC 1995 Turkish Entry -Arzu Ece - Sev

The Eurovision Song Contest 1995 was the 40th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 13 May 1995 in the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. The presenter was Mary Kennedy. 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.

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.[1]

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, Slovenia, 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 first two juries voted, Norway and Sweden both shared first place. Denmark and Spain trailed the two countries, but 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.

The stage was designed by Alan Farquharson who also designed the Millstreet 93 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.

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.

Incidentally, since this contest and for the next thirteen years, no country won more than once, and from 2001 to 2008, all years ended in a country winning for the first time. It wasn't until 2009 with Alexander Rybak achieing victory for Norway that this streak ended.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Ireland. The presenter was

[Thessaliniki15]

Ce qui me manque le plus, c'est le Temps et le Temps est toute la journée!

[Thessaliniki15]

Ce qui me manque le plus, c'est le temps et le Temps est toute la journée!

[Thessaliniki15]

What I miss most is the Time and the Time is all day!

[Thessaliniki15]

O que tenho mais saudades é do Tempo e Tempo é todos os Dias!

[Umbeakos]

I don't like Turks, but this song was my second place in this ESC!

[ockteby]

Bu mükemmel.

frank