Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2002

Spain was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 with the song "Europe's Living a Celebration", written by Toni Ten and Xasqui Ten, and performed by Rosa. The Spanish participating broadcaster, Televisión Española (TVE), selected its entry through the first series of the reality television music competition Operación Triunfo. Three artists and songs ultimately qualified to compete in the final of the competition's Eurovision selection show where a public televote exclusively selected "Europe's Living a Celebration" performed by Rosa as the winner, receiving 49.9% of the votes.

Eurovision Song Contest 2002
Participating broadcasterTelevisión Española (TVE)
Country Spain
National selection
Selection processOperación Triunfo 2001
Selection date(s)11 March 2002
Selected artist(s)Rosa
Selected song"Europe's Living a Celebration"
Selected songwriter(s)
  • Toni Ten
  • Xasqui Ten
Finals performance
Final result7th, 81 points
Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2001 2002 2003►

As a member of the "Big Four", Spain automatically qualified to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest. Performing in position 5, Spain placed seventh out of the 24 participating countries with 81 points.

Background

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Prior to the 2002 contest, Televisión Española (TVE) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Spain forty-one times since its first entry in 1961.[1] It has won the contest on two occasions: in 1968 with the song "La, la, la" performed by Massiel and in 1969 with the song "Vivo cantando" performed by Salomé, the latter having won in a four-way tie with France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. It has also finished second four times, with "En un mundo nuevo" by Karina in 1971, "Eres tú" by Mocedades in 1973, "Su canción" by Betty Missiego in 1979, and "Vuelve conmigo" by Anabel Conde in 1995. In 2001, it placed sixth with the song "Dile que la quiero" performed by David Civera.

As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, TVE organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. In 2000 and 2001, TVE organised the national final Eurocanción, which featured a competition among several artists and songs. For their 2002 entry, TVE announced in July 2001 that they would organise a reality television singing competition titled Operación Triunfo (similar in format to Big Brother and The Bus) to select both the artist and song that would represent Spain.[2]

Before Eurovision

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Operación Triunfo 2001

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The Spanish entry for the 2002 Eurovision Song Contest was selected through Operación Triunfo, a Spanish reality television music competition consisting of training sixteen contestants in a boarding academy in order to find new singing talent. The first series, also known as Operación Triunfo 2001, took place from 22 October 2001 to 11 February 2002 at the Mediapark Studios in Sant Just Desvern (Barcelona), hosted by Carlos Lozano. The competition was broadcast on La Primera and TVE Internacional. The top three contestants qualified to compete in the Eurovision selection show, Gala Eurovisión, which consisted of three shows on 25 February, 4 March and 11 March 2002. Each contestant performed three candidate songs and the winner was decided exclusively through a public televote. The competing songs and the allocations were announced on 21 February 2002.[3]

  Contestant qualified to "Gala Eurovisión"

Contestant Age Residence Episode of elimination Place finished
(Overall ranking)
Rosa 20 Granada Gala Final 1st
Bisbal 22 Almería 2nd
Bustamante 19 San Vicente de la Barquera 3rd
Chenoa 26 Palma Gala Final 4th
Manu 26 Seville 5th
Verónica 23 Elche 6th
Nuria 22 Nerja Gala 13 7th
Gisela 22 Barcelona Gala 12 8th
Naím 21 Premià de Mar Gala 11 9th
Àlex 20 Vilassar de Mar Gala 5 / Gala 10 10th
Alejandro 23 Valencia Gala 8 11th
Juan 28 Madrid Gala 7 12th
Natalia 18 Sanlúcar de Barrameda Gala 6 13th
Javián 27 Dos Hermanas Gala 4 14th
Mireia 19 Vila-seca Gala 3 15th
Geno 19 Gran Canaria Gala 2 16th

Shows

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Song selection

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The song selection round of Gala Eurovisión consisted of two rounds of voting. In the first round which took place on 25 February 2002, an in-studio jury eliminated one song per contestant.[4] The six members of the in-studio jury were Pilar Tabares (music director of TVE), Narcís Rebollo (CEO of Vale Music), José Luis Uribarri (television presenter and director, commentator of the Eurovision Song Contest for Spain), Marcos Llunas (singer and composer, represented Spain in the 1997 contest), Juan Luis Ayllón Piquero (Eurovision expert) and Daniel Aragay Esteban (Eurovision expert). In the second round which took place on 4 March 2002, a public televote eliminated an additional song per contestant.[5] In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the guest performer in the first show was Lenny Kravitz, while the guest performer in the second show was Operación Triunfo 2001 contestant Natalia.[6][7]

First Round – 25 February 2002
Draw Artist Song Songwriter(s) Result
1 Bustamante "Urgente" Javi Mota, Lidia Guevara, Sergio Medrano Eliminated
2 Bisbal "El alma en pie" José Abraham Advanced
3 Rosa "Un sueño especial" Toni Ten, Xasqui Ten Advanced
4 Bustamante "Más de mil noches" Jesús María Pérez, Amaya Martínez Advanced
5 Rosa "Hay que vivir" Rubén Blades Eliminated
6 Bisbal "Corazón Latino" Jordi Cubino Advanced
7 Bustamante "La magia del corazón" David DeMaría, Pablo Pinilla, David Santisteban Advanced
8 Rosa "Europe's Living a Celebration" Toni Ten, Xasqui Ten Advanced
9 Bisbal "Miénteme" José Gaviria, Ossa Bernardo, Ximena Muñoz Eliminated
Second Round – 4 March 2002
Draw Artist Song Televote Result
1 Bisbal "El alma en pie" 18% Eliminated
2 Bustamante "Más de mil noches" 35% Eliminated
3 Rosa "Un sueño especial" 30% Eliminated
4 Bisbal "Corazón Latino" 82% Advanced
5 Bustamante "La magia del corazón" 65% Advanced
6 Rosa "Europe's Living a Celebration" 70% Advanced

Final

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The final of Gala Eurovisión took place on 11 March 2002. The winner, "Europe's Living a Celebration" performed by Rosa, was selected exclusively through a public televote which ran between 4 and 11 March 2002. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, guest performers included the Pet Shop Boys and the eliminated contestants of Operación Triunfo 2001.[8][9]

Final – 11 March 2002
Draw Artist Song Televote Place
1 Bustamante "La magia del corazón" 17.3% 3
2 Bisbal "Corazón latino" 32.8% 2
3 Rosa "Europe's Living a Celebration" 49.9% 1

At Eurovision

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As a member of the "Big Four", Spain automatically qualified to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 on 25 May 2002. During the allocation draw on 9 November 2001, Spain was drawn to perform in position 5, following the entry from Greece and before the entry from Croatia.[10][11] At the contest, Rosa was joined on stage by five backing vocalists who were contestants from Operación Triunfo 2001 David Bisbal, David Bustamante, Chenoa, Gisela (who would go on to represent Andorra in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008) and Geno Machado, and Spain placed seventh at the conclusion of the final scoring 81 points.[12]

In Spain, the show was broadcast on La Primera with commentary by José Luis Uribarri and on Radio 1 with commentary by Nieves Herrero and José María de Juana.[13][14][15] TVE appointed Anne Igartiburu as its spokesperson to announce the Spanish votes during the final; the Spanish votes consisted of 50 percent public televoting and 50 percent from a jury deliberation.

Voting

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Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Spain and awarded by Spain in the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Latvia in the contest.

References

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  1. ^ "Spain Country Profile". EBU. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
  2. ^ Bakker, Sietse (29 July 2001). "Spanish national final just like Big Brother". Esctoday. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  3. ^ Vliet, Wouter van (21 February 2002). "Spanish songs to compete". Esctoday. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  4. ^ "GALA: 11/03/2002" (in Spanish). Telefónica. 11 March 2002. Retrieved 22 November 2008.
  5. ^ "Rosa, Bisbal y Bustamante interpretarán las 9 canciones candidatas a representarnos en Eurovisión". Vertele (in Spanish). 23 February 2002. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  6. ^ Operación Triunfo 2001: 1ª gala para la elección de la canción de Eurovisión 2002 | RTVE Play (in Spanish), 22 October 2018, retrieved 25 October 2023
  7. ^ "Lunes 4/3/2002". portalmix.com (in Spanish). 2 April 2002. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  8. ^ Bakker, Sietse (11 March 2002). "Last meters to run before all songs are available". Esctoday. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  9. ^ "Lunes 11/3/2002". portalmix.com (in Spanish). 11 March 2002. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  10. ^ "Tallinn 2002–Eurovision Song Contest". European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Archived from the original on 2 January 2021. Retrieved 14 March 2021.
  11. ^ "Rules of the Eurovision Song Contest 2002" (PDF). European Broadcasting Union (EBU). 28 September 2001. Retrieved 30 August 2022 – via myledbury.co.uk.
  12. ^ "Final of Tallinn 2002". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 8 April 2021. Retrieved 8 April 2021.
  13. ^ "Samedi 25 mai". TV8 (in French). Zofingen, Switzerland: Ringier. 23 May 2002. pp. 15–20. Retrieved 6 December 2022 – via Scriptorium Digital Library.
  14. ^ "Televisión". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 25 May 2002. p. 8. Retrieved 6 December 2022.
  15. ^ "El festival, en directo por RNE". ABD (in Spanish). 23 May 2002. Archived from the original on 6 December 2022. Retrieved 6 December 2022.
  16. ^ a b "Results of the Final of Tallinn 2002". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 8 April 2021. Retrieved 8 April 2021.