We’re going back in time for the Hit of the Day today with one of the best debut entrants ever.

The year is 1994 and Eurovision is back in Ireland for the second year in a row. Eurovision has opened up the former Iron Curtain and Hungary, Russia and Poland are all to debut on the Eurovision stage in the Point Theatre in Dublin. Oh and a little Irish song and dance number planned for the interval act called Riverdance is causing a bit of a stir too.

The former Soviet countries are going down a storm in Dublin during rehearsals with all three tipped to do well. Then in the final dress rehearsal the morning of the live show, drama and controversy strike. Edyta Gorniak, the girl with the big voice from Poland sings the last verse and chorus of her entry To Nie Ja! in English.

At the time there is no free language rule in Eurovision and all hell breaks lose. As the voting juries had been watching the rehearsal via satellite, rival delegations are clamoring to have the Poles disqualified. RTÉ are desperate to avoid the embarrassment of disqualifying one of the brand new former Soviet countries hours before the broadcast. Indeed, RTÉ are very much in danger of losing both Edyta (Song 24) and the French entry Je Suis Un Vrai Garcon (Song 25) as France’s answer to Bjork, Mina Morato is pulling a major strop and threatening to walk for reasons not really understood even by herself.

Finally, EBU scrutineer Christine Marchal-Oritz rules that though Edyta had broken the rules she will be allowed compete without censure. Nina calms down and the 1994 contest ends on a high with two fantastic but contrasting entries leading into the world debut for Riverdance.

Edyta ends up second to the runaway home victors Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan with Rock ‘n’ Roll Kids. But without this last minute controversy, could she have taken ESC to Warsaw in 1995? We’ll never know.

And for an extra special bonus, here’s Nina’s Je Suis Un Vrai Garcon in all it’s Gallic madness!

Georgia’s debut entry in 2007, aww bless them the little Eurovision virgins, was sung by Sopho.

The song was originally titled “My Story”. They came 8th in the semi and 12th out of 24 in the final with 97 points.

This ones for you Alan.

Once again Armenia proving they can do it better than Turkey with this infectious little Bollywood dance number.

When I initially heard this song I wrote it off completely. I was obviously on crazy juice at the time. This was Armenia’s 3rd entry into the Eurovision and their best result so far coming 2nd in their semi and 4th in the final in Belgrade.

Everybody shake those hips and shout “Qélé, Qélé”!

Back in 2004 one country was favourite to win, only to come in 23rd with 7 points. Not the first time it’s happened eh Belgium?

Hard luck Xandee, however while the general European may have shunned you you’re still a cult hit to this day

I think it might have been the Italian curse that caused it to flop, can you spot it?