Eurovision 1995: When Norway won a song contest with an instrumental and the UK learned that rapping is best left for Christmas presents

The strain on RTE's budget in hosting three world-class spectacular shows in a row was beginning to show. Whereas the 1994 stage was a funky cityscape, the 1995 set was a lot gloomier, giving the production a rather dreary air which the more sombre songs in the line-up couldn't lift. Creativity thrives in a vacuum, however, especially when that vacuum is on the budget sheet. Where there wasn't a set, clever lighting was brought into play, various pieces of twisted metal was lowered from the ceiling to act as backdrops for each act and the cunning set designer even found the resources to make the stage fold in on itself at the start of the show to create the performance area. It looked effective, but it was obvious money was in short supply and heaven knows what Eurovision 1996 would have looked like had it been held in Ireland as well.

But that was a problem which never looked likely the instant the voting began.

Your _____ ______ 1995 facts

Winner 1995: Secret Garden perform Nocturne for Norway

(a) There must be something about years ending in '5'. Just as they had triumphed in 1985, Norway took the 1995 Eurovision Song Contest trophy with the song Nocturne. Not that you'd believe it, but this haunting Celtic tune (you can't really call it a song) was written by Rolf Lovland, the same man who wrote the extra-jaunty La Det Swinge a decade earlier. Impressive as it is to have written two Eurovision trophy scoopers, Rolf is also the man behind the 21st Century's equivalent of My Way. You Raise Me Up was first performed by Secret Garden, the group who won the 1995 ESC Crown in 2002, with lyrics by Brendan Graham, the man who inflicted Rock 'n' Roll Kids on an undeserving world. It has since been covered by more than 125 acts and the number is set to rise. That probably earns them a bit more beer money than their Eurovision triumphs.

But back to 1995. Rolf had formed Secret Garden with the Irish violinist Fionnuala Sherry and the act is very much seen as a duo. For the Contest, the pair were joined by Norwegian vocalist Gunnhild Tvinnereim, who sang the 24 words the song contained. Some of those 24 words were at the beginning and the rest after a very, very long violin solo by Fionnuala. To put that in context, if ABBA's Waterloo had just 24 words in it, the song would have finished at the line: "The history book on..." and never even reached the chorus.

Whether you think Nocture is a song or not is a point for discussion (do let us know what you think in the comments section) but the Celtic-sounding tune with an Irish violinist was enough to break Ireland's stranglehold on the trophy, even though the Norwegians had to pretend to be a culture a-brimming with Irish tunes in order to win a Song Contest. In a year where the votes were spread around willy-nilly, Secret Garden won with a fairly low 148 points - although there were just 23 countries taking part in 1995, two fewer than the previous three Contests.

The new-age seeds sown by Amina in 1991 bore fruit in 1995 and this was the sound which would dominate the following Contest in Oslo and continue to have a presence at Eurovision well into the 21st Century.

"When? When? When is the bingo?" At least we think that's what she's singing.

(b) Shock news in 1995. Spain finished second. This was their first top three placing in 11 years and their first silver since Betty Missiegio's near miss in 1979. The dramatic performance by Anabel Conde was, for a long time, voted the best ever at the Contest as the gradually burgeoning influence of the internet saw a whole community of Eurovision fans across the continent seeing it as an ideal way to conduct polls about anything (and everything) related to the competition. Boom Bang a Blog had to be honest and confess that there is little in Vuelve Conmigo which ticks my boxes, except the chorus does sound like a crowd of disgruntled pensioners down the community centre demanding to know when the bingo is going to start.

Swarthy and Swedish won bronze in 1995

(c) After a few duff years, the Swedes return to form in 1995 and have never strayed too far from the bookies' favourites list ever since. Jan Johansen won that year's Melodifestivalen with bit-miserable Se Pa Mej and was already at number one in his homeland when he stepped on to the stage at The Point. For a while, the voting was neck and neck between the old rivals of Sweden and Norway, with Secret Garden pulling well clear at the close of the voting to see Jan finish on 100, 19 behind Anabel from Spain.

This was a watershed year for the Waterloo nation. From this point on, the selection of the Swedish song was heralded with much excitement by the media in Sweden, with a real sense of the public getting behind each and every selection. Although there was an outcry that Jan was beaten by Norway - the Swedes didn't take this defeat too well - that didn't stop Sweden trying their utmost each and every year to find a song which could win the competition.

Sacre Bleu! Something a bit funky from the French.

(d) Whenever I hear Il Me Donne Rendezvous, I am always reminded of the theme music to Absolutely Fabulous. Lord knows why, as they're really not that similar.

It was up to one lady to put the fun back into the rather dull proceedings of Eurovision 1995 and that was Nathalie Santamaria who, believe it or not, was the lady representing France. For the seventh successive year, France finished in the Top 10 and this smashing performance rightfully got a huge response from the crowd. It did well to fight its way near the front and wind up fourth - it would be almost a decade before France found its way to the Top Five again.

Aud Wilken embarks on the quirkiest train ride in history

(e) Probably my favourite song of 1995 saw an impressive three of the four Scandinavian nations taking part finish in the top five. In fifth place was Aud Wilken with Fra Mols til Skagen. It's all about a train journey between the Danish destinations of Mols and Skagen and is delivered in such an unusual fashion for a Eurovision song, you'd expect the juries to sweep straight past it, noses in the air and harumphing away in self-important fashion. But harumph they didn't. In fact, they lapped up this great little song, the like of which has not been heard at the Contest since. It's a real shame as I absolutely love it. Wonder what Aud's up to now?

The PTA Spring Outing took a wrong turn at The Point's stage door

(f) There are some songs which can only exist in Eurovision's protective bubble and Nostalgija is one of them. The first song representing Croatia to make an impact on the scoreboard, this mixture of gentle balladry by the popular group Magazin, joined for one night only be the extremely useful lungs of a lady in red called Lidija, this impressed the juries enough to end the evening in sixth place.

It's just a shame French and Saunders weren't watching while on the lookout for ideas for their next series.

Not quite The Prodigy - but it's a step in the right direction

(g) The album which most of the UK bought in 1995 was Oasis' (What's the Story) Morning Glory. As you can tell, there wasn't anything in the Eurovision line-up that year which resembled any song on Noel and Liam's tracklisting (well, you could perhaps link up Fra Mols Til Skagen with She's Electric if you speeded it up a bit) - but 1995 was the year the BBC decided to give A Song For Europe a kick up the backside and brought in a pre-court case Jonathan King to make it more 'relevant'.

Nobody can deny that JK brought that year's UK national final back into the public eye. The songs were trailed on the radio for weeks beforehand. Former page three model Samantha Fox caused a stir by entering a song under an assumed name and making it through the sift, current popsters Deuce - featuring a future Mrs Ant or Dec - had a brilliant little pop song which only finished third in the heats but reached number 10 in the charts.

My favourite of the eight was One Gift of Love, which finished second and would probably have done a lot better in Dublin, but the surprising, nay overwhelming, victor in A Song For Europe 1995 was the rap outfit Love City Groove with their song of the same name. A great choice for the UK charts (the single reached number seven) and the first UK entry I can remember anyone talking about - and even being played in pubs and clubs (where it didn't sound at all out of place, surprisingly) the sad fact was that this just wasn't the sort of song you could perform with a purely orchestral backing. The RTE musicians did try, but it just didn't work on the night, despite the LCGs getting a massive response from the crowd in such a ballad-heavy year. As one member remembered, when Poland, the first jury to be called, was fronted by a man who didn't look like he'd listen to rap in a decade of Sundays, he decided there and then to get plastered because there was no way they were going to win it.

In a close year, the UK shared 10th place with Malta, earning a respectable 76 points which included the 'douze points' from both Austria and France. When you realise that, in 1995, just 18 points separated 10th and 4th place, that's not too embarrassing a result.

Like he's just stepped out of a salon

(h) It was just the second year at Eurovision for Russia in 1995 and they sent the biggest star they had - and still do. Philipp Kirkorov's performance of Lullaby For a Volcano did spectacularly badly, finishing 17th out of the 23 acts on show. However, it is rumoured that Russian telly did not show the 1995 broadcast live.

It is believed they showed the section with the songs, edited so that Kirkorov's entry was presented last, then did not show the voting sequence, but heavily indicated that Russia had won Eurovision 1995. This song may not have been suitable for Eurovision success, but Kirkorov soon realised which sort of song was and he would return with some rather more impressive tricks up his sleeve at the close of the noughties.

(i) One of my big favourites from 1995 - which deserved to do so much better - came from Austria.

Ooh, now, this is a bit more like it.

I think the saxophonist put some people off.

(j) Another of the favourites which came unstuck on the big night was Slovenia, returning from its relegation year.

Goodness, she's a very serious lady.

This finished seventh, a place the Slovenes are still trying to better.

(k) After their spectacular start in 1994, the Poles came back to Dublin with something radically different.

Quick, put the cat out.

This was the first song on stage. That - and the oddness of Justyna's Sama didn't add up to a spectacular result. Poland followed up its debut silver with 15 points and 18th place.

(l) Although much has been written about the jinx of singing from second spot in the draw, one of the biggest arguments for the 'curse of number two' happened in 1995. Eddie Friel represented Ireland in 1995 with Dreamin', a song which was considered so close to the Julie Felix song Moonlight that there are stories of it only surviving through to the night of the final to spare the blushes of the three-time champions and Contest hosts.

Eddie Friel, the man even the Luck of the Irish can't help.

In the end, spot number two gave Eddie 44 points and 14th place. Bizarrely, I think it's the best song Ireland sent to the song in the '90s and don't understand why the three songs preceding it did so much better.

(m) Somebody has to come last and in 1995 it was Germany, rounding off a pretty abysmal year for the three nations which made up the top three in 1994. Stone and Stone were the husband and wife pairing who had had a big hit back home with the religious-themed verliebt in Dich.


Lots of super fun from Germany, there.

Not quite Wir Geben n' Party, is it?

Our chum and occasional guest blogger Peter Walsh was at The Point during rehearsals for Eurovision 1995 and, as the satellite links were tested for each country to announce their scores, there were a few Denis Norden-friendly moments from France and Russia.

Things went a lot more smoothly on the night itself, as you can see from the close of the voting.

So, Ireland finally had a year off from winning Eurovision. But as you'll see in A Bluffer's Guide to 1996, they didn't like years off very much.