1994 and we are in Ireland….again. The opening ceremony consisted of people wearing large heads of famous Irish people such as Bono, Sinead O’Connor and Bob Geldof and the two presenters looked like they had just stepped off a morning television show.
With seven brand new countries competing for the very first time this was going to be a new type of Eurovision Song Contest and it also screwed up my understanding of geography. I’ve been left wondering which countries were and were not actually in Europe ever since.
The previous year’s winner – Chucky’s mother aka Niamh Kavanagh didn’t make an appearance – she must have been busy trying to keep her evil doll son under control. On with the show.
The United Kingdom’s entry this year was “We Will Be Free (Lonely Symphony)” sung by Frances Ruffelle. I loved this song, it was quite indie and a change from the usual bouncy pop songs. She delivered a perfect indie chick performance on the night and I was very disappointed that it didn’t do any better than finishing tenth.
Frances is still having a very successful stage career and also gave birth to Eliza Doolittle.
Do you know sometimes when you get up early in the morning and you need to go outside but you are still in your underwear? So, what do you do? Simple – put on a long black coat and go outside anyway. This is what the two singers from the Finland entry done but they also decided to take it one step further and dance and sing.
Iceland next and, seriously – is there only one female singer in Iceland other than Bjork? This lady, Sigga, has been in something like the last 20 contests. She didn’t have me fooled though, by flattening her hair and keeping her teeth under wraps, well under wraps for at least 3 seconds anyway – I knew it was her. Good song though
Next up a classic Eurovision entry from Germany. It’s cheesy, it’s bouncy and it’s got dance moves. It’s also got three female singers who haven’t quite managed to work out that their dance moves need to be in time with each other. But they don’t care, they’re going to a party – and from the way one of the girls is dressed it looks like it might be gay biker’s party. Too often we forget the other musicians on the stage so look out at 2:23 for Rod Stewart and Tina Turner’s love child playing the drums. At 2:49 there’s a sex pest playing the keyboard and he gets to say “oh yeah” and then after the German rap interlude he get’s to say “dance” at 3:13. This is proper Eurovision material and I’m glad it came at least third.
The song from Bosnia Herzegovina in this year has to be one of the most scary things I have ever seen. True, I don’t understand the language but my interpretation of the song is that the very creepy looking man has kidnapped Monica from Friends and she is pleading with him to allow her to escape back to Central Perk.
Russia have got it all wrong with their nuclear weapons and their tanks etc. They should learn from this woman. I couldn’t concentrate on the song because I was convinced that her dress was going to take over the world.
It’s a little known fact that before she was an Oscar winning movie star, Sandra Bullock sang the Polish entry in 1994. She sings a nice little ballad dedicated to Morph’s owner – Tony Hart.
Who was going to win? In 1994 I think the real winners were the people behind the interval act – Riverdance. It was simply breathtaking.
As this was the first year that the voting was done via satellite so we could actually see the people awarding the points I thought it would be nice to share a montage of funny voting moments from the contest.
The winning song – “Rock ‘n’ Roll Kids” from Ireland…yes Ireland, A-gain! It is a nice acoustic lullaby type song and I do quite like it. I’m also quite impressed with the musical talents of Frank Gallagher from the television show – Shameless.
Until next time, may the luck of the Irish be with you.
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