15 Famous Artists You Didn't Know Competed In Eurovision

At Eurovision (Interval): Believe it or not, the iconic dance show Riverdance started out as a seven-minute interval act at the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin, Ireland. It was composed by Bill Whelen to showcase Ireland's cultural roots with fiddles, drums, vocals and traditional Irish stepdancing.

Riverdance began with a song portion sung by an Irish chorus group called Anúna. They gave away to a solo dance by Jean Butler who was succeeded by Michael Flatley battling out taps with onstage drummers. Jean returns for a brief dance duet with Flatley and they are joined by a chorus line of Irish dancers to fill the room with a cacophony of taps as the music reaches its climax.

When the show was over, Riverdance received a standing ovation from the theater audience and over 300 million viewers were electrified by the performance as well. It was the start of a major phenomenon beyond Eurovision.

After Eurovision: Riverdance was expanded into a full-length show and premiered in 1995 at the Point Theater in Dublin (the same theater where Riverdance made its Eurovision debut) to the first of many sold out shows. Jean Butler, Michael Flatley, and several of the original Eurovision dancers joined and toured the original production, opening in cities like London and New York City (although Flatley was replaced by another lead dancer Colin Dunne for the American production).

Over the course of its twenty-two year history, Riverdance has played over 11,000 performances in over 450 venues in 42 countries across six continents from Europe to Asia. It has been seen live by twenty-five million people and broadcast to a global audience of three billion people, and sold millions of video and DVD copies of filmed performances. And to imagine it all began at Eurovision.