2002 Eurovision Song Contest

The Eurovision Song Contest 2002 was the 47th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Tallinn, Estonia, following the country's victory at the with the song "Everybody" by Tanel Padar, Dave Benton and 2XL. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (ETV), the contest was held at the Saku Suurhall on 25 May 2002. The contest was presented by Estonian opera singer Annely Peebo and actor Marko Matvere. It was the first Eurovision Song Contest held in one of the former Soviet republics.

Twenty-four countries participated in the contest. , , , , , , and returned after their relegation from the previous edition. , , , , and were relegated due to their poor results in 2001. It was the first (and only) time Ireland and Norway were relegated from the contest. was also set to sit out this year, but when announced their non-participation, due to internal problems at its broadcaster, it left a spot open for Latvia to take, as the country had finished higher the year before than any of the other relegated countries. This would go on to be very fortunate for Latvia as it ended up winning the contest with the song " I Wanna", performed by Marie N, who wrote it alongside Marats Samauskis. , the , , and rounded out the top five. Malta achieved their best result in their Eurovision history, coming second. Further down the table, finished twenty-fourth and last, their worst result up until that point, despite having been declared one of the favourites to win the competition beforehand.

Location

Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki in Finland. Tallinn's Old Town is one of the best preserved and intact medieval cities in Europe and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Venue

Early in the proceedings, media outlets had begun speculating whether (ETV) would be able to host the contest, citing a lack of a suitable venue and budgetary concerns. Due to this, Maltese broadcaster Public Broadcasting Services (PBS) and Dutch broadcaster (NOS) both expressed interest in hosting in the event in respective countries instead of Estonia. However, worries were put to rest when a combination of fundraising activities and the Estonian Government enabled them to host the event.

On 19 June 2001, it was announced that Estonia would still host the 2002 contest. The Saku Suurhall was ultimately chosen as the venue for the contest. It is the largest indoor arena in Estonia, built in 2001 and holds up to 10,000 people. It is named after the Estonian brewery and soft drink company Saku.

Participants

The total number of participants had originally been 22, but when the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) increased the number of participants for the contest to 24, this granted Israel and Portugal, which finished 16th and 17th in , the opportunity to enter. Portugal declined to enter the contest due to internal problems in the Portuguese broadcaster (RTP). This allowed eventual winner Latvia, who finished 18th in 2001, to enter. Despite finishing in joint 18th place with the Netherlands in 2001, tiebreaking rules put Latvia higher due to receiving more sets of 8 points.

A total of 24 countries competed in the 2002 contest, which included the 16 top placing countries from the previous year's contest and Latvia, alongside the seven returning countries, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, Macedonia, Romania, and Switzerland, which had been relegated from competing in the 2001 contest. These seven countries replaced the bottom 5 countries from the 2001 contest - Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, and Poland, all of which were relegated from taking part in this year's contest, as well as Portugal, who decided not to compete. The draw for the running order took place on 9 November 2001.

Several of the performing artists had previously competed in past editions. Constantinos Christoforou, a member of One, had represented ; while Philippos Constantinos, another member of the band, had provided backing vocals for . , a member of representing Belgium, had provided backing vocals for the , , , and ; while , another member of the band, had also provided backing vocals for the Netherlands in 1996. Sahlene representing Estonia, had provided backing vocals for and . Monica Anghel had represented , but failed to progress from the qualifying round. In addition, Christina Argyri, who represented as part of Voice, and , who represented with , provided backing vocals for the same country.

Format

For the first time, a slogan (or theme) was implemented. This year's theme was called 'A Modern Fairytale', which was evident in the postcards shown between the songs, which showed classic fairytales ending in modern Estonian situations.

The postcards continued with the opening theme of "A Modern Fairytale" taking well known fairy tales and translating them into Estonian life through short films, with a moral at the end of each one of them.

Contest overview

Spokespersons

Each participating broadcaster appointed a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing, in English or French, the votes for its respective country.

# Melani Steliou
# Colin Berry
#
#
# Anne Igartiburu
# Duško Ćurlić
# Arina Sharapova
# Ilomai Küttim "Elektra"
# Biljana Debarlieva
#
# Diana Jörg
# Kristin Kaspersen
# Marion Rung
# Signe Svendsen
# Segmedina Srna
#
# Marie Myriam
# Axel Bulthaupt
# Meltem Ersan Yazgan
# Yvette Portelli
# Leonard Miron
# Nuša Derenda
#
# Loreta Tarozaitė

Detailed voting results

According to the EBU rules, every broadcaster was free to make a choice between the full televoting system and the mixed 50-50 system. In exceptional circumstances, where televoting was not possible at all, only a jury was used. In the EBU's rules for the 2002 contest, it was stated; ''In the televoting, households shall not be permitted to vote more than three times''.

At this contest (and the following one) the broadcaster decided to reverse the song recaps - starting instead with the last performed song (24) and finishing with the first performed song (1). This was due to the apparent preference within public vote for songs in the later part of the running order in comparison to the songs nearer to the start.

12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final:

Allegation of vote swapping

This year saw allegations that the juries in certain countries were guilty of swapping votes among each other. According to the Norwegian newspaper ''Dagbladet'', The French Head of Delegation allegedly said that members of the Cypriot delegation had approached him to swap votes. In addition to Cyprus, allegations were also made toward Greece, Russia, Macedonia, Malta and Romania.

Broadcasts

Each participating broadcaster was required to relay live and in full the contest via television. Non-participating EBU member broadcasters were also able to relay the contest as "passive participants"; any passive countries wishing to participate in the following year's event were also required to provide a live broadcast of the contest or a deferred broadcast within 24 hours. Broadcasters were able to send commentators to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language and to relay information about the artists and songs to their viewers. Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators, are shown in the tables below.

Marcel Bezençon Awards

The Marcel Bezençon Awards, a series of awards held concurrently to the main contest, honour and celebrate the participants of the final of that year's Eurovision Song Contest. Named after one of the people influential in the creation of the contest, and created by two former Swedish Eurovision participants, Christer Björkman and Eurovision winner Richard Herrey, the inaugural awards were presented as part of this year's event. Three awards were presented in 2002, with the winner of each award determined by the collective votes of a different group of individuals:
*The Press Award for the best competing song, as determined by the accredited press and media, was awarded to the , "" performed by Sandrine François
*The Artistic Award for the best artistic performance, as determined by previous Eurovision winners, was awarded to the , "Never Let It Go" performed by Afro-dite
*The Fan Award, as determined by members of the international Eurovision fan club OGAE, was awarded to the , " Addicted to You" performed by Laura Voutilainen

The winners each received a hand-blown glass trophy designed by Karin Hammar and created at the , which were handed out backstage prior to the contest proper.

Official album

''Eurovision Song Contest: Tallinn 2002'' (also known as ''Eurovision Song Contest: Estonia 2002'') was the official compilation album of the 2002 contest, put together by the European Broadcasting Union and released by Ariola Records on 18 May 2002. The album featured all 24 songs that entered in the 2002 contest.

Charts

Notes

References

External links

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2002
Music festivals in Estonia
2002 in Estonia
2002 song contests
2000s in Tallinn
Culture in Tallinn
May 2002 in Europe
Events in Tallinn
Music in Tallinn