#millstreet 1993

Ruth's back! This time with Vrede (Peace), the song that won the Nationaal Songfestival song selection and went to Eurovision in Millstreet. This song finished 6th, a creditable performance - although many think it should have done even better. It's a well-written, slightly humorous song celebrating a host of engineering achievements contrasted with the lack of effort and results in realm of world peace. Yes another peace song in 1993.

It has a a relatively contemporary if conventional club beat and some dramatic horns to start and a little interlude of scratching noises before the bridge. Ruth delivers her message wearing some astonishingly flare black trousers as well low cut jacket with an absolutely massive collar and lapel. She knows her camera angles and there's choreographed hand-ography. And boy can she belt. She's a stellar performer, perhaps only beaten by one other on the night in terms of song delivery.

Yes, the above is a photo and not a video, but you only have to fast-forward to 33:50 in the below video for Ditte

"Første forårsdag" (First Day of Spring) managed to finish fourth of ten entrants in the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix of 1993. It was written by Søren Bundgaard Nielsen perhaps better known as one half of the Danish Band Hot Eyes. As part of the duo with Kirsten Siggaard Andersen, Søren had managed to finish 4th in the 1984 Eurovision Song Contest, 11th in 1985 and 3rd in 1988. He also wrote the Danish song in 1989 again coming 3rd. With two other Dansk Melodi Grand Prix entrants too, Søren has immense pedigree with DMGP and Eurovision.

This song was given to Ditte Højgaard Andersen, a young operatic soprano with no previous (or subsequent) Melodi Grand Prix experience. Ditte hands the song well, with a light and airy voice floating above what can only described as one of the weirdest mix of backing musicians scene on a national final stage.

There's a sax and bongos, both very common in mid-90s pieces. Two other musicians are on percussion, one with a large shaker and the other hitting a block of wood with a xylophone mallet. Then there is the feature instrument. The Akai 1000 EWI - a breath-controlled synth held like a clarinet or saxophone and producing an electronic warble. They are supposed to extremely hard to play well.

It's gentle and evocative of the spring day it's written about, lilting and restful, calm about the longer warmer days to come. A delicate song that the very artificial warble accompanying it fails to derail.

Another technology in its infancy is the steadicam. Here there are two camera teams walking around Ditte making her almost dizzy with their attempts to circle her and keep the cables out of the way. They also manage to film each other on several occasions.

In 1993, the EBU had a problem. The opening up of the post-Soviet Bloc countries and the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia led to many new countries keen to participate in this pan-European festival. Yugoslavia itself may no longer be taking part, but in their place came Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina, the latter still in state of horrifying conflict.

The Velvet revolution had also split the Czechoslovakia in two and Slovakia wanted to take part as well. Romania and Hungary joined from the former Warsaw Pact countries whilst Estonia made its mark as the first country that had been part of the USSR to join the Eurovision family.

This meant there there were 29 countries who entered. This would have made the 1993 Eurovision by far the biggest competition and the running time would have been in excess of four hours. The first remedy for this that the EBU came up with was Kvalifikacija za Millstreet.

This was a pre-qualification competition that took place in Ljubljana, Slovenia on the 3rd April, a month prior to the Eurovision competition itself. The seven new countries took part, and in a very close vote, the three former Yugoslav states, Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina, went through to the final.

Ireland had won in 1992 and so 1993 they had the privilege of hosting - but where. Dublin obviously. Nope Millstreet, county Cork. The town, population in vicinity of 1500, had a venue called the Green Glens Arena, recently refurbished that was mainly used for equestrian events. It also had a local family who owned and ran it who knew an opportunity when they saw it.

Noel C. Duggan offered RTÉ the venue gratis on the day that Linda Martin won in Malmö with "Why Me". RTÉ, never ones to look a gift horse in the mouth, agreed and so Eurovision found itself in the middle of rural Ireland and with a long daily commute from the hotels in Killarney 30km away.

1993 once again set records for the number of competing countries. 25 took part in the main event. With the break up of Yugoslavia and with Eastern Europe also opening up, there were lots of new countries wanting to take part. Yugoslavia may have gone, but seven new countries wanted to take their place. The EBU decided that three of them could take part, but they'd have to have their own play-off final - and thus Kvalifikacija za Millstreet took place prior to the final in Ljubljana in Slovenia.

Estonia, Romania, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia and Bosnia took part with Slovenia, Bosnia and Croatia going through to the main stage in Ireland for the first time.

The stage was a geometric design with a large, featureless, triangular expanse pointing towards one side of the audiences, with the orchestra hidden beneath another of the sides. The lighting was bright in comparison to 1992, aided by what is charitably described as mirrored ceiling, but in long shots looks more like some polished sheet metal with holes. The entire ambiance is of one of less is more. The singular host was Fionnuala Sweeney