The Eurovision Song Contest 2002 was the 47th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 25 May 2002 at the Saku Suurhall in Tallinn, Estonia, and presented by Annely Peebo and Marko Matvere. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (ETV), who staged the event after winning the for with the song "Everybody" by Tanel Padar, Dave Benton and 2XL. It was the first Eurovision Song Contest held in one of the former Soviet republics.

Broadcasters from 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.

The winner was Latvia 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 the event in their 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 European Broadcasting Union (EBU) had originally set the total number of participants to 22, but when it increased that number to 24, it granted and , which had finished 16th and 17th in , the opportunity to enter. Portuguese broadcaster (RTP) declined to enter the contest due to internal problems. This allowed eventual winner , 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.

Broadcasters from 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 , and , who represented with , provided backing vocals for the same country.

+ Eurovision Song Contest 2002 participants Country Broadcaster Artist Song Language Songwriter(s) ORF Manuel Ortega "Say a Word" English VRT "Sister" English PBSBiH Maja "" () Serbian, English HRT Vesna Pisarović "Everything I Want" English Milana Vlaović CyBC One "Gimme" English George Theofanous DR Malene "Tell Me Who You Are" English Michael Ronson ETV Sahlene "Runaway" English YLE Laura "Addicted to You" English Sandrine François "" French NDR Corinna May "I Can't Live Without Music" English ERT Michalis Rakintzis "S.A.G.A.P.O." English Michalis Rakintzis IBA Sarit Hadad "Light a Candle" Hebrew, English LTV Marie N "I Wanna" English LRT Aivaras "Happy You" English Aivaras Stepukonis MRT Karolina "" () Macedonian PBS Ira Losco "7th Wonder" English TVR Monica Anghel and Marcel Pavel "Tell Me Why" English ORT Prime Minister "Northern Girl" English RTVSLO Sestre "" Slovene TVE Rosa "Europe's Living a Celebration" Spanish SVT Afro-dite "Never Let It Go" English SRG SSR Francine Jordi "" French Francine Lehmann TRT and Group Safir "" Turkish, English BBC Jessica Garlick "Come Back" English Martyn Baylay

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

The contest was held on 25 May 2002 at 22:00 EEST (21:00 CEST) and was won by Latvia. The table below outlines the participating countries, the order in which they performed, the competing artists and songs, and the results of the voting.

Latvia won with 176 points. Malta came second with 164 points, with Estonia, United Kingdom, France, Cyprus, Spain, Sweden, Romania and Russia completing the top ten. Finland, Germany, Switzerland, Lithuania and Denmark occupied the bottom five positions.

+ Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 Country Artist Song Points Place 1 One "Gimme" 85 6 2 "Come Back" 111 3 3 "Say a Word" 26 18 4 "S.A.G.A.P.O." 27 17 5 Rosa "Europe's Living a Celebration" 81 7 6 "Everything I Want" 44 11 7 Prime Minister "Northern Girl" 55 10 8 Sahlene "Runaway" 111 3 9 Karolina "" 25 19 10 "Light a Candle" 37 12 11 "" 15 22 12 Afro-dite "Never Let It Go" 72 8 13 Laura "Addicted to You" 24 20 14 Malene "Tell Me Who You Are" 7 24 15 Maja "" 33 13 16 Sergio and the Ladies "Sister" 33 13 17 "" 104 5 18 "I Can't Live Without Music" 17 21 19 and Group Safir "" 29 16 20 "7th Wonder" 164 2 21 and Marcel Pavel "Tell Me Why" 71 9 22 Sestre "" 33 13 23 "I Wanna" 176 1 24 Aivaras "Happy You" 12 23

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.

+ Detailed voting results of the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 scope="col" style="vertical-align:bottom" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" rowspan="24" Cyprus 85 3 12 6 10 6 4 1 4 3 12 8 4 8 4 United Kingdom 111 12 7 6 4 5 6 2 8 6 7 6 1 8 2 10 8 5 8 Austria 26 1 1 7 5 12 Greece 27 12 1 8 6 Spain 81 7 2 4 6 6 12 7 6 12 12 7 Croatia 44 6 6 5 5 5 2 3 12 Russia 55 5 2 10 1 3 8 10 10 6 Estonia 111 7 3 5 3 6 2 12 10 8 10 4 4 8 2 2 6 12 7 Macedonia 25 3 4 1 5 12 Israel 37 5 1 5 1 2 10 5 5 3 Switzerland 15 5 3 2 3 1 1 Sweden 72 1 4 1 8 3 7 10 12 1 4 7 4 10 Finland 24 2 5 1 10 3 3 Denmark 7 4 1 1 1 Bosnia and Herzegovina 33 7 3 7 3 6 2 3 2 Belgium 33 4 1 7 3 4 2 10 2 France 104 10 3 8 3 7 10 8 12 5 8 10 6 4 3 2 5 Germany 17 1 2 2 1 3 3 4 1 Turkey 29 4 3 8 7 7 Malta 164 10 12 8 6 10 12 5 7 10 10 4 4 2 12 4 7 6 10 5 10 7 3 Romania 71 8 8 5 12 12 8 4 1 7 6 Slovenia 33 6 2 7 8 2 2 1 5 Latvia 176 4 8 10 10 12 2 10 12 7 12 8 5 6 7 5 8 8 12 6 7 5 12 Lithuania 12 4 2 6

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

N. Contestant Nation(s) giving 12 points 5 , , , , 3 , , , , 2 , , , 1

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.

+ Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) ORF ORF 1 Andi Knoll FM4 Stermann & Grissemann VRT TV1 André Vermeulen and Bart Peeters Radio 2 Filip Pletinckx and Radio Donna RTBF Jean-Pierre Hautier RTVFBiH FTV1 HRT HRT 1 Ante Batinović CyBC Evi Papamichail DR DR1 Keld Heick ETV Marko Reikop YLE YLE TV2 Maria Guzenina and YLE FST YLE Radio Suomi Iris Mattila and YLE Radio Vega France 3 Marc-Olivier Fogiel and Dave ARD Peter Urban LTV LRT LRT PBS TVM John Bundy TVR ORT RTVSLO SLO 1 TVE José Luis Uribarri RNE Radio 1 Nieves Herrero and José María de Juana SVT SVT1 and Christer Björkman SR SR P4 Carolina Norén and Björn Kjellman SRG SSR SF 2 Sandra Studer TSR 1 Phil Mundwiller TSI 1 Jonathan Tedesco TRT TRT 1 BBC BBC One Terry Wogan BBC Choice Jenny Eclair and Max Flint BBC Radio 2 Ken Bruce