Eurovision Song Contest 2002


The Eurovision Song Contest 2002 was the 47th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Tallinn, Estonia, following Tanel Padar, Dave Benton & 2XL's win at the 2001 contest in Copenhagen, Denmark with the song "Everybody". It was the first time Estonia had hosted the contest - 8 years after the country made its debut. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union and host broadcaster Eesti Televisioon, the contest was held at the Saku Suurhall, with the final on 25 May 2002. The live show was hosted by Annely Peebo and Marko Matvere.
It was the first Eurovision Song Contest held in a Baltic state country, in a former Soviet republic and in a Finno-Ugric language-speaking country.
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 that Ireland and Norway were relegated from the contest. was also set to sit out this year, but when annonced 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.
The winner was Latvia with the song "I Wanna", performed by Marie N who wrote it with Marats Samauskis. This was Latvia's first victory in the contest, after only 3 years of participation. Malta, United Kingdom, Estonia and France rounded out the top five. Malta achieved their best result in their Eurovision history. Further down the table, Denmark finished twenty-fourth, despite being one of the favourites.

Location

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, east of Stockholm in Sweden, and west of Saint Petersburg in Russia. Founded in 1248 but the earliest human settlements date back to 3000 years BC, making it one of the oldest capital cities of Northern Europe. Due to its important strategic location the city soon became a major trade hub, especially between the 14th to 16th century when it grew to be a key centre of commerce within the Hanseatic League. 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 Estonian broadcaster ETV would be able to host the contest, citing a lack of a suitable venue and budgetary concerns; however, worries were put to rest when a combination of fundraising activities and the Estonian Government enabled them to host the event.
The Saku Suurhall was 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.

Format

Slogan

For the first time, a slogan 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.

Postcards

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. The various fairy tales were as following, listed in appearance order:
  1. – Aladdin
  2. – The Ugly Duckling
  3. – The Three Bears
  4. – Hansel and Gretel
  5. – Frankenstein
  6. – The Three Brothers
  7. – The Goldfish
  8. – Sleeping Beauty
  9. – The Missing Princess
  10. – Thumbelina
  11. – Cinderella
  12. – The Magic Carpet
  13. – The Three Little Pigs
  14. – The Little Mermaid
  15. – The Frog Prince
  16. – Bluebeard
  17. – The Princess Who Would Not Smile
  18. – Pinocchio
  19. – Ali Baba & The 40 Thieves
  20. – Beauty & The Beast
  21. – The Pied Piper
  22. – Snow White
  23. – Little Red Riding Hood
  24. – Puss In Boots

    Voting

Half of the participating countries organized a televote where the top 10 songs received the points, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 12, but Macedonia, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Bosnia and Herzegovina used juries, while Cyprus, Greece, Spain, Croatia, Finland, Malta, Slovenia and Lithuania used a 50-50 mix of both televoting and jury votes.
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. This was used as it had become apparent that the public vote favoured songs in the later part of the running order in comparison to the songs nearer to the start - particularly in the preceding 2001 contest. At this contest the broadcaster decided to reverse the song recaps - starting instead with the last performed song and finishing with the first performed song.

Incidents

Commentator remarks

Controversy erupted during the competition over remarks by commentators on Swedish and Belgian TV, both of whom told the audience not to vote for the Israeli entry "Light a candle" by Sarit Hadad. The song received zero points from the Swedish audience but earned two from the Belgians, finishing 12th overall.

Allegation of vote swapping

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

Participating countries

A total of 24 countries competed in the 2002 contest, which included the top 17 countries from the previous year's contest, alongside the seven returning countries which had been relegated from competing in the 2001 contest. These countries replaced the bottom 6 countries from the 2001 contest, which were relegated from taking part in this year's contest.
The total participants had originally been 22, but when the European Broadcasting Union increased their participation number for the contest to 24 this granted Israel and Portugal the opportunity to enter. Portugal declined to enter the contest due to internal problems in the Portuguese broadcaster RTP. This allowed Latvia to enter.
Draw for the running order took place on 9 November 2001.

Returning artists

Results

Countries in bold were allowed to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003.
DrawCountryArtistSongLanguagePlacePoints
01'One"Gimme"English685
02'Jessica Garlick"Come Back"English3111
03'Manuel Ortega"Say a Word"English1826
04'Michalis Rakintzis"S.A.G.A.P.O."English1727
05'Rosa"Europe's Living a Celebration"Spanish, English781
06'Vesna Pisarović"Everything I Want"English1144
07'Prime Minister"Northern Girl"English1055
08'Sahlene"Runaway"English3111
09Karolina"Od nas zavisi" Macedonian1925
10'Sarit Hadad"Light a Candle"Hebrew, English1237
11Francine Jordi"Dans le jardin de mon âme"French2215
12'Afro-dite"Never Let It Go"English872
13Laura"Addicted to You"English2024
14Malene Mortensen"Tell Me Who You Are"English247
15'Maja"Na jastuku za dvoje" Serbian, English1333
16'Sergio & The Ladies"Sister"English1333
17'Sandrine François"Il faut du temps"French5104
18'Corinna May"I Can't Live Without Music"English2117
19'Buket Bengisu & Group Safir"Leylaklar Soldu Kalbinde"Turkish, English1629
20'Ira Losco"7th Wonder"English2164
21'Monica Anghel & Marcel Pavel"Tell Me Why"English971
22'Sestre"Samo ljubezen"Slovene1333
23Marie N"I Wanna"English1176
24Aivaras"Happy You"English2312

Score sheet

12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final:
N.ContestantVoting nation
5Latvia,,,,
3Malta,,
3Spain,,
2Cyprus,
2Estonia,
2Romania,
1Austria
1Croatia
1France
1Macedonia
1Greece
1Sweden
1United Kingdom

Marcel Bezençon Awards

For the first time, the Marcel Bezençon Awards were handed out to the best competing songs in the final. Founded by Christer Björkman and Richard Herrey, the awards are named after the creator of the annual competition, Marcel Bezençon. The awards are divided into 3 categories; Press Award; Artistic Award; and Fan Award.
CategoryCountrySongPerformerFinal resultPoints
Artists Award"Never Let It Go"Afro-dite8th72
Fan Award
"Addicted to You"Laura Voutilainen20th24
Press Award"Il faut du temps"Sandrine François5th104

International broadcasting

As had been the case every year since the mid-1980s, the contest was broadcast in Australia on SBS-TV with the BBC commentary. Within a few years, the contest would grow to be so popular in Australia, it would warrant SBS sending its own commentators - and eventually to become an active participant.

Other involved countries

; : After the breakup of Yugoslavia, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia last participated in 1992. Radio Television of Serbia broadcast the show. Originally, first time as Serbia and Montenegro had planned debuts, but the EBU's late changes to the relegation procedure meant that they could not compete. They made their debut in 2004.

Comentators and spokespersons

Spokespersons

Television

Participating countries
Participating countries
Some participating countries did not provide radio broadcasts for the event; the ones who did are listed below.
Eurovision Song Contest: Tallinn 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