Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

participated in the

Eurovision Song Contest 1994 The Eurovision Song Contest 1994 was the 39th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Dublin, Ireland, following the country's victory at the with the song "In Your Eyes" by Niamh Kavanagh. It was the first time that any country ...

with the song "Bye Bye Baby" written by Kari Salli and Markku Lentonen. The song was performed by the duo CatCat. The Finnish broadcaster

Yleisradio Yleisradio Oy (Finnish, literally "General Radio Ltd." or "General Broadcast Ltd."; abbr. Yle ; sv, Rundradion Ab, italics=no), translated to English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, founde ...

(Yle) organised the national final ''Euroviisut 1994'' in order to select the Finnish entry for the 1994 contest in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, Ireland. Ten entries were selected to compete in the national final on 5 March 1994 where votes from the public selected "Bye Bye Baby" performed by CatCat as the winner with 25,834 votes. Finland competed in the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 30 April 1994. Performing during the show in position 2, Finland placed twenty-second out of the 25 participating countries, scoring 11 points.

Background

Prior to the 1994 contest, Finland had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest thirty-two times since its first entry in 1961. Finland's best result in the contest achieved in

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...

where the song "

Tom Tom Tom Finland was represented by Marion Rung, with the song "Tom Tom Tom", at the 1973 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 7 April in Luxembourg. Before Eurovision National final The Finnish national final was held on February 3 at Finlandia H ...

" performed by

Marion Rung Marion Rung (born 7 December 1945 in Helsinki) is a Finland, Finnish pop singer. She is known for having represented Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1962 and 1973. Her 1962 Eurovision song placed 7th, and in 1973, she managed to bring F ...

placed sixth. The Finnish national broadcaster,

(Yle), broadcasts the event within Finland and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. Finland's entries for the Eurovision Song Contest have been selected through national final competitions that have varied in format over the years. Since 1961, a selection show that was often titled ''Euroviisukarsinta'' highlighted that the purpose of the program was to select a song for Eurovision. The broadcaster selected the Finnish entry for the 1994 contest again through the ''Euroviisut'' selection show.

Before Eurovision

Euroviisut 1994

''Euroviisut 1994'' was the national final that selected Finland's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1994. The competition consisted of a final on 5 March 1994, held at the

Tampere Hall sv, Tammerforshuset , image = Tampere-talo panorama 2014.jpg , caption = Tampere Hall in June 2014 , former_names = , building_type = , architectural_style = Postmodernism , structural_system = , ...

Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population o ...

and hosted by

Jukka Laaksonen Jukka Laaksonen (born 15 July 1958, in Helsinki) is a Finnish comedian, impressionist and compere. For most of the public he is familiar as one of the regular competitors in popular YLE TV2 sports quiz show ''Se on siinä''. In the show he often ...

, Juha Laitila and Joonas Myllyveräjä. Ten entries selected for the competition from 470 submissions received during a submission period as well as from composers and music publishers directly invited by Yle competed and "Bye Bye Baby" performed by CatCat was selected as the winner based on the results from a public vote, which were revealed by Finland's five telephone regions along with the votes of the venue audience. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the show was opened by Tarja Lunnas, while the interval act featured

Jam and Spoon Jam & Spoon were a German electronic music duo formed in 1991 in Frankfurt. The group consisted of composers and producers Rolf Ellmer (a.k.a. Jam El Mar, classically trained composer) and Markus Löffel (a.k.a. Mark Spoon, DJ). They also worke ...

Kaija Koo Kaija Kokkola (born 10 September 1962), better known by her stage name Kaija Koo, is a Finnish singer. Kokkola began her career when she was 17 years old, as a member of a band Steel City, later known as Kaija Koo Band, until it broke up and Kai ...

and

Plavka Plavka Coleridge ( née Lonich; born March 25, 1974) is an American singer. She is best known for being the singer of the German trance act Jam & Spoon, whose classically infused trance sound dominated the international charts in the mid-1990s ...

. 119,322 votes were cast during the show, which was broadcast on Yle TV1 and watched by 1.17 million viewers in Finland. During the voting, it was discovered that the votes were incorrectly announced but were shortly amended following the competition.

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the bottom six countries in the

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

contest competed in the final on 30 April 1994. Following the allocation draw which determined the running order, Finland was set to perform in position 2, following the entry from

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

and before the entry from

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. The Finnish conductor at the contest was

Olli Ahvenlahti Olli Ahvenlahti (born 6 August 1949, in Helsinki) is a Finnish pianist, composer and conductor. He is of Russian descent. Ahvenlahti succeeded Ossi Runne as the Finnish conductor at the Eurovision Song Contest for the 1990 Contest. In all, he ...

, and Finland finished in twenty-second place with 11 points. The show was televised in Finland on Yle TV1 with commentary by

Erkki Pohjanheimo Erkki Pohjanheimo (born 28 January 1942) is a Finnish television producer and director. Television career Pohjanheimo joined Yleisradio in 1961 as a television cameraman and worked as a cameraman for five years. In 1966 Pohjanheimo was appoint ...

and Kirsi-Maria Niemi. The Finnish spokesperson, who announced the Finnish votes during the final, was Solveig Herlin.

Voting

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Finland and awarded by Finland in the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Hungary in the qualifying round and to Estonia in the final.

References

External links

Finnish National Final 1994
{{Eurovision Song Contest 1994

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1994

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...