International song competition
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 2001 contest 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. Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, Macedonia, Romania and Switzerland returned after their relegation from the previous edition. Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway and Poland were relegated due to their poor results in 2001. It was the first (and only) time Ireland and Norway were relegated from the contest. Latvia was also set to sit out this year, but when Portugal 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 the country as Latvia ended up winning the contest with the song "I Wanna", performed by Marie N who wrote it with Marats Samauskis. Malta, United Kingdom, Estonia and France rounded out the top five. Malta achieved their best result in their Eurovision history, coming second. Further down the table, Denmark 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 Estonian broadcaster ETV would be able to host the contest, citing a lack of a suitable venue and budgetary concerns. Due to this, Maltese broadcaster 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.
Participating countries.
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 2001, 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.
Draw for the running order took place on 9 November 2001.
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.
 ;templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" / ;  Winner
Spokespersons.
 ;templatestyles src="Div col/styles.css"/ ;
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:
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.
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 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.
Other awards.
Marcel Bezençon Awards.
For the first time, the Marcel Bezençon Awards, organised by Sweden's then-Head of Delegation and 1992 representative Christer Björkman, and 1984 winner Richard Herrey, honoured songs in the contest. The awards are divided into three categories: the Artistic Award, the Fan Award, and the Press Award. The Fan Award was decided by the combined votes from members of OGAE, an organisation consisting of a network of over 40 Eurovision Song Contest fan clubs across Europe and beyond.
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.
References.
 ;templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" / ;