Morten Thomassen writes today of the 1995 Eurovision song contest and who came second that year. In 1995 Roy van der Merwe of ESC Covers was also in the audience. ESC Covers google translated this from Norwegian to English.

Then we are going to the year I got to experience my first Norwegian victory in the hall.

Secret Garden’s biggest competitor was Spanish Anabel Conde and it wasn’t until there were 2 juries left that our victory was clear.

Then I saw that we were leading by 25 points, so then young Miss Conde couldn’t catch up,

I spread this information to the other Norwegian fans I was sitting with and you can actually hear some cheering during the broadcast when the penultimate jury from Malta is called out.

Now it must be said that for many fans the song “Vuelve Conmigo” was probably more to their liking than the almost instrumental song from Norway, regardless we ended up with a margin of victory of 29 points.

Anabel must have a great vocal and just the right dramatic performance of her rather dramatic ballad.

Down to the bitter Swedes in third place, our Spanish friend had 19 points and this silver place is the best Spain has had since the 70s, it was also the last podium place until third place this year.

The lady’s full name is Ana Isabel Conde Sanchez and her participation in the ESC was a great start to her career and it was so big that her hometown Fuengirola named a town square in her honor.

In both 2000 and 2010 she tried her hand at the Spanish final without much progress and together with her sister she actually tried to join the Polish final in 2006.

We saw her once more in our beloved competition when she was the chorister for the Andorran entry in 2005, but that country has never been able to reach a final.

She is still active as an artist and who knows, could it have been an idea that she was selected to defend this year’s good position?