Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1994

Finland was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1994 with the song "Bye Bye Baby", written by Kari Salli and Markku Lentonen, and performed by the duo CatCat. The Finnish participating broadcaster, Yleisradio (Yle), organised the national final Euroviisut 1994 in order to select its entry for the contest. 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.

Eurovision Song Contest 1994
Participating broadcaster	Yleisradio (Yle)
Country	Finland
National selection
Selection process	Euroviisut 1994
Selection date(s)	5 March 1994
Selected artist(s)	CatCat
Selected song	"Bye Bye Baby"
Selected songwriter(s)	Kari Salli Markku Lentonen
Finals performance
Final result	22nd, 11 points
Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄1993 • 1994 • 1996►

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

Main article: Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest

Prior to the 1994 contest, Yleisradio (Yle) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Finland thirty-two times since its first entry in 1961.^[1] Its best result in the contest achieved in 1973 where the song "Tom Tom Tom" performed by Marion Rung placed sixth.

As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, Yle organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. The broadcaster has been selected its entries 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 its entry for the 1994 contest again through the Euroviisut selection show.^[2]

Before Eurovision

Euroviisut 1994

Euroviisut 1994 was the national final that selected the Finnish entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1994. The competition consisted of a final on 5 March 1994, held at the Tampere Hall in Tampere and hosted by Jukka Laaksonen, Juha Laitila and Joonas Myllyveräjä.^[2] 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.^[3] In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the show was opened by Tarja Lunnas, while the interval act featured Jam and Spoon, Kaija Koo and Plavka.^[4][5] 119,322 votes were cast during the show, which was broadcast on Yle TV1 and watched by 1.17 million viewers in Finland.^[6][7] During the voting, it was discovered that the votes were incorrectly announced but were shortly amended following the competition.^[3][7]

Final – 5 March 1994

Draw	Artist	Song	Songwriter(s)	Televote	Place
1	Tarja Lunnas [fi]	"Kuka tykkää suukoista"	Jari Holm, Seppo Matintalo, Veikko Juntunen [fi]	13,857	4
2	Dario [fi]	"Ateljee"	Darius Witkowski, Timo Puheloinen	6,009	9
3	Sari Sakki	"Jäisit mun luo"	Esa Rimpiläinen	6,809	8
4	Indiana	"Hän lähtee tänään"	Liisa Akimof [fi]	7,738	6
5	Rio [fi]	"Rakkauden tiellä"	Markku Tommila [fi], Hannu Perälä [fi], Timo Niemi	13,633	5
6	Janita	"Enkeli"	Tomi Ervi	14,646	3
7	CatCat	"Bye Bye Baby"	Kari Salli, Markku Lentonen	25,834	1
8	Susanne Sonntag [fi]	"En dans på livets vågor"	Kari Kuusamo [fi], Susanne Sonntag	17,348	2
9	Tauski [fi]	"Seitsemänteen taivaaseen"	Tauski Peltonen	6,003	10
10	Marina Sigrids	"Lyft mig upp"	Clas Holm	7,445	7

Detailed Voting Results

Draw	Song	Audience	Televoting Regions					Total
			Northern Finland	Eastern Finland	Central Finland	Southwestern Finland	Southern Finland
1	"Kuka tykkää suukoista"	63	6,281	4,497	4,930	4,675	5,411	13,857
2	"Ateljee"	23	3,501	4,686	3,481	3,304	3,572	6,009
3	"Jäisit mun luo"	80	3,398	4,730	3,526	3,275	3,800	6,809
4	"Hän lähtee tänään"	213	5,229	4,260	5,023	4,538	5,182	7,738
5	"Rakkauden tiellä"	112	5,180	4,452	5,019	5,537	5,333	13,633
6	"Enkeli"	45	5,621	5,010	5,223	4,328	6,419	14,646
7	"Bye Bye Baby"	140	10,885	6,697	7,026	6,343	6,743	25,834
8	"En dans på livets vågor"	76	6,054	5,368	5,649	5,374	6,917	17,348
9	"Seitsemänteen taivaaseen"	12	3,583	3,486	3,670	3,588	3,670	6,003
10	"Lyft mig upp"	29	4,213	3,508	3,575	3,541	4,579	7,445

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the bottom six countries in the 1993 contest competed in the final on 30 April 1994.^[8] Following the allocation draw which determined the running order, Finland was set to perform in position 2, following the entry from Sweden and before the entry from Ireland. The Finnish conductor at the contest was Olli Ahvenlahti, and Finland finished in twenty-second place with 11 points.^[9]

The show was televised in Finland on Yle TV1 with commentary by Erkki Pohjanheimo and Kirsi-Maria Niemi.^[10] Yle appointed Solveig Herlin as its spokesperson to announce the Finnish votes during the final.

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.^[11]

Points awarded to Finland[12] Score Country 12 points 10 points  Greece 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point  Bosnia and Herzegovina

Points awarded by Finland[12] Score Country 12 points  Hungary 10 points  Cyprus 8 points  Poland 7 points  Ireland 6 points  Malta 5 points  Portugal 4 points  Greece 3 points  Germany 2 points  Bosnia and Herzegovina 1 point  Iceland

References

1. "Finland Country Profile". EBU. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
2. "Euroviisut 1994". kolumbus.fi. Archived from the original on 1 December 2022. Retrieved 28 November 2022.
3. "Suomen Euroviisut - 1994 Bye Bye". yle.fi (in Finnish). 27 October 2002. Archived from the original on 27 October 2002. Retrieved 28 November 2022.
4. Latva, Tony (23 October 2010). "Muistathan: Suomen karsinnat 1994". Viisukuppila (in Finnish). Retrieved 28 November 2022.
5. "Euroviisut 1994 Suomen karsinta". yle.fi (in Finnish). Retrieved 28 November 2022.
6. "Katsojaluvut Suomessa kautta aikojen". Viisukuppila (in Finnish). Retrieved 28 November 2022.
7. "Finnish National Final 1994".
8. "Dublin 1994 – Eurovision Song Contest". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 2 November 2022. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
9. "Final of Dublin 1994". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 17 April 2021. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
10. "Televisio & Radio". Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). 30 April 1994. pp. D11–D12. Retrieved 4 November 2022. (subscription required)
11. "Eurovision Song Contest 1994 – Scoreboard". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
12. "Results of the Final of Dublin 1994". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 17 April 2021. Retrieved 17 April 2021.

External links

• Finnish National Final 1994