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 Radio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ), who staged the event after winning the 1994 contest for Ireland 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; Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, and Switzerland were relegated as the lowest-scoring countries in the previous edition, getting replaced by Belgium, Denmark, Israel, Slovenia, and Turkey, returning after being relegated following the 1993 edition.

The winner was Norway with the song "Nocturne", composed by Rolf Løvland, written by Petter Skavlan and performed by Secret Garden. Spain, Sweden, France, and Denmark rounded out the top five, with Spain achieving its best result since 1979. Croatia and Slovenia also achieved their best results so far, placing sixth and seventh respectively, while Germany finished in last place for the fourth time.

The 1995 contest took place in Dublin, Ireland, following the country's victory at the 1994 edition 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 1971, 1981, 1988, 1993 and 1994, with all previous events held in Dublin except the 1993 contest which was held in Millstreet. Ireland thus became the first, and as of 2025^[update] 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.

Alternative venues in Galway and Limerick were considered by RTÉ, however Dublin was chosen to stage the contest again as it was judged to have been the more cost-effective location. A proposal by the British broadcaster BBC to host the contest, either by themselves or as a joint production hosted in Belfast, the capital city of Northern Ireland, were also rejected by RTÉ as the Irish broadcaster chose to produce the contest on its own. However, RTÉ did request a rule change to relieve them of the responsibility of producing the contest again should Ireland produce a fourth consecutive winner, which was accepted by the EBU.

Twenty-three countries were permitted to participate in the contest, which was to comprise the sixteen highest-scoring countries in the 1994 contest and returning countries that had been relegated and prevented from participating in the previous year's event. The total line-up was reduced from the twenty-five countries which participated in the 1994 contest to ensure that the event would not last longer than three hours. Of the seven countries which did not participate in 1994, Belgium, Denmark, Israel, Slovenia, and Turkey returned to the contest, while Italy and Luxembourg declined the invitation, which resulted in Austria and Spain, which were originally relegated, being allowed back into the line-up. Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, and Switzerland, as the lowest-scoring countries from the previous year's event, were thus ultimately relegated and were required to miss this event. Switzerland did not participate in the contest for the first time, leaving Germany as the sole country to have participated in every edition of the contest to that point.

The contest featured two representatives who had previously performed in the contest. Arzu Ece had previously represented Turkey in 1989 as a member of the group Pan, and Alexandros Panayi had provided backing vocals for Cyprus in 1989 and in 1991. 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 Eyjólfur Kristjánsson [is] returned to the contest as backing singers for the Icelandic entrant Bo Halldórsson, with Stefán having previously represented Iceland in 1988 as a member of Beathoven and both Stefán and Eyjólfur having represented Iceland in 1991 as a duo; Gary Lux, who had previously represented Austria in 1983, as a member of the group Westend, and as a solo artist in 1985 and 1987, supported Stella Jones at this year's event; and José María Guzmán, who represented Spain in 1986 as part of the group Cadillac, was among Anabel Conde's backing singers.