I started a new series to remember the fact that Eurovision is 70 years old. 28 of those years I had attended Eurovision at the host city, but unfortunately just 25 years I had press accreditation so I could meet the participating artists and therefor I will focus just on artists from those 25 years.1995 was my first year with accreditation and of course that year stands out in my memory.  23 artists participated that year in Dublin.  I met 22 of them, the 23rd one refused to meet me because I was from South Africa.

8 of the 22 artists were very special and I still cherish them to this day as part of my Eurovision experience. These are the 8 artists from 1995 I will write about.

6th in line is ALEX PANAYI who represented CYPRUS at the Eurovision song contest with STI FOTIA. The song was sung in Greek. I don’t think Alex will remember me but the person responsible for getting me the press accreditation, MUNRO FORBES, who is British and worked at the time  for ITV. He was studying Greek and he introduced me to Alex. Munro then later actually left the UK and went to work for Cyprus TV. His biggest success was organising Junior Eurovision in Cyprus (I forgot the year it was hosted in Cyprus). I ran into ALEX a few more times at further Eurovisions when he either participated or was part of a  delegation for another artist. STI FOTIA was a fan favourite. I liked it because the CD single contained not only the Greek version, but also an English and Italian version. I love versions of Euro songs in several languages.

Featured image – Youtube