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 (EBU) and host broadcaster Eesti Televisioon (ETV), 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 (and only) time that 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 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 (last place), despite being one of the favourites.
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, 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 (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.
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:
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 (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).
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 approached 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 (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.
Draw for the running order took place on 9 November 2001.
Results.
! scope="col" | Draw
! scope="col" | Country
! scope="col" | Artist
! scope="col" | Song
! scope="col" | Language 
! scope="col" | Place
! scope="col" | Points
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 01
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 02
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 03
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 04
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 05