Eurovision 2002: Tallinn

Estonia’s win took the contest somewhere it had never been: a former republic of the Soviet Union.

For a while it was not certain that it would go. The press doubted that Estonian television had either the money or a hall, and both Malta and the Netherlands let it be known that they would host instead. Fundraising and the Estonian government closed the gap, and on 19 June 2001 Tallinn was confirmed.

The venue was the Saku Suurhall, the country’s biggest indoor arena, which had only just been built.

A modern fairytale

For the first time the contest had a slogan. It was “A Modern Fairytale”, and the postcards took it literally: each was a well-known fairy story that ended up somewhere in present-day Estonia, with a moral attached.

Relegated

The bottom five of 2001 were sent down: Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and Poland. For Ireland, the most successful country in the contest’s history, and for Norway, it is the only time that has ever happened.

Seven countries came back from their own year out.

The place Latvia nearly did not get

Latvia had finished joint eighteenth in 2001 and was due to be relegated as well.

Two things saved it. First, the EBU raised the number of entries from 22 to 24, and offered the extra places to Israel and Portugal, sixteenth and seventeenth the year before. Then Portugal’s broadcaster, which had internal troubles, said no.

The spare place went to the next country down. That was a tie, between Latvia and the Netherlands, and Latvia had been given more eight-point scores. Latvia was in.

Reversing the recap

One change came from a suspicion. Songs performed late in the show seemed to do better with the public than songs performed early. So when the songs were recapped before the vote, the clips ran backwards, from the last song to the first.

The result

Latvia won. Marie N, who co-wrote the song, sang “I Wanna” second from last and finished on 176 points, twelve ahead of Malta’s Ira Losco. For Malta, second place was its best result ever.

Estonia, at home, tied for third with the United Kingdom.

Denmark had been among the favourites. It came last, with seven points.

Vote-swapping

Afterwards came an allegation that juries had been trading votes. A Norwegian newspaper reported the head of the French delegation as saying that members of the Cypriot delegation had approached him to propose a swap. Similar claims were made about five other countries.