Director Marius Bratten | Executive producer Juhan Paadam | |
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Final 25 May 2002 (2002-05-25) Venue Saku Suurhall, Tallinn, Estonia Presenter(s) Annely Peebo
Marko Matvere Executive supervisor Christine Marchal-Ortiz | ||
The Eurovision Song Contest 2002 was the 47th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. The contest took place in Tallinn, Estonia, following Tanel Padar, Dave Benton & 2XL's win at the 2001 contest in Copenhagen, Denmark with the song "Everybody".
Contents
- Location
- Participating countries
- Voting structure
- 12 points
- Marcel Bezenon Awards
- International broadcasting
- Other involved countries
- Spokespersons
- Official album
- References
There had been worries early in the proceedings whether Estonian broadcaster ETV would be able to fund the contest; however, worries were put to rest when a combination of fundraising activities and the Estonian Government enabled them to host the event. 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 aired between the songs, which showed classic fairytales ending in modern Estonian situations.
The final took place on the 25 May 2002 at the Saku Suurhall. Opening the show were the reigning champions; Tanel Padar and Dave Benton, performing a shorter reprise of their winning entry. The hosts for the evening, Annely Peebo and Marko Matvere, gave a performance of "A Little Story in the Music", composed by Raimond Valgre and arranged especially for the event, during the commercial break between the songs from Sweden and Finland.
The contest was won by Latvia, represented by Marie N with the song "I Wanna", which scored a total of 176 points, beating the runner-up Malta by a tight margin of 12 points. The United Kingdom and host country Estonia shared 3rd place with 111 points each, while France finished in 5th place with 104 points.
Despite being one of the favourites to win the contest, Denmark finished last with just 7 points and had to sit out of the following year's contest.
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, 80 km (50 mi) 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 center 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. The Saku Suurhall was chosen as the venue for the contest. It is the largest 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.
Participating countries
A total of 24 countries competed in the 2002 Contest, which included the top 17 countries from the previous years 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 (EBU) 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 (who went on to win the Contest) to enter.
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 "Ligtht a candle" by Sarit Hadad. The song received zero points from the Swedish audience but earned two from the Belgians, finishing 12th overall.
Voting structure
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 televoting household 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. This year saw allegations that the juries in use were guilty of swapping votes between each other(Cyprus, Greece, Russia, Macedonia, Malta and Romania).
12 points
Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final:
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 (Sweden's representative in the 1992 Eurovision Song Contest and current Head of Delegation for Sweden) and Richard Herrey (member of the Herreys, Eurovision Song Contest 1984 winner from Sweden), 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.
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.
Other involved countries
Spokespersons
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.