| Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eurovision Song Contest 2002 | ||||
| Participating broadcaster | Televisión Española (TVE) | |||
| Country |  Spain | |||
| Selection process | Operación Triunfo 2001: Gala Eurovisión | |||
| Selection date | 11 March 2002 | |||
| Competing entry | ||||
| Song | "Europe's Living a Celebration" | |||
| Artist | Rosa | |||
| Songwriters |
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| Placement | ||||
| Final result | 7th, 81 points | |||
| Participation chronology | ||||
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Spain was represented at theEurovision Song Contest 2002 with the song "Europe's Living a Celebration", written by Toni Ten and Xasqui Ten, and performed byRosa. The Spanish participating broadcaster,Televisión Española (TVE), selected its entry through thefirst series of the reality television music competitionOperación 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.
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.
Prior to the 2002 contest,Televisión Española (TVE) had participated in theEurovision Song Contest representing Spain forty-one times since its first entry in1961. It has won the contest on two occasions: in1968 with the song "La, la, la" performed byMassiel and in1969 with the song "Vivo cantando" performed bySalomé, the latter having won in a four-way tie withFrance, theNetherlands, and theUnited Kingdom. It has also finished second four times, with "En un mundo nuevo" byKarina in1971, "Eres tú" byMocedades in1973, "Su canción" byBetty Missiego in1979, and "Vuelve conmigo" byAnabel Conde in1995. In2001, it placed sixth with the song "Dile que la quiero" performed byDavid Civera.[1][dead link]
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 finalEurocanción, 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 titledOperación Triunfo (original series ofStar Academy) to select both the artist and song that would represent Spain.[2]
The Spanish entry for the 2002 Eurovision Song Contest was selected throughOperación Triunfo, a Spanish reality television music competition consisting of training sixteen contestants in a boarding academy in order to find new singing talent. Thefirst series, also known asOperación Triunfo2001, took place from 22 October 2001 to 11 February 2002 at the Mediapark Studios inSant Just Desvern (Barcelona), hosted by Carlos Lozano. The competition was broadcast onLa Primera andTVE 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 | Episode of elimination | Place finished (Overall ranking) |
|---|---|---|
| Rosa | Gala Final | 1st |
| Bisbal | 2nd | |
| Bustamante | 3rd | |
| Chenoa | Gala Final | 4th |
| Manu [es] | 5th | |
| Verónica | 6th | |
| Nuria | Gala 13 | 7th |
| Gisela | Gala 12 | 8th |
| Naím | Gala 11 | 9th |
| Àlex | Gala 5 / Gala 10 | 10th |
| Alejandro [es] | Gala 8 | 11th |
| Juan [es] | Gala 7 | 12th |
| Natalia | Gala 6 | 13th |
| Javián | Gala 4 | 14th |
| Mireia [es] | Gala 3 | 15th |
| Geno [es] | Gala 2 | 16th |
The song selection round ofGala 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 ofVale Music),José Luis Uribarri (television presenter and director, commentator of the Eurovision Song Contest for TVE),Marcos Llunas (singer and composer, representedSpain in 1997), 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 wasLenny Kravitz, while the guest performer in the second show wasOperación Triunfo2001 contestantNatalia.[6][7]
| 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 |
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The final ofGala Eurovisión took place on 11 March 2002. The winner, "Europe's Living a Celebration" performed byRosa, 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 thePet Shop Boys and the eliminated contestants ofOperación Triunfo2001.[8][9]
| 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 |
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 fromGreece and before the entry fromCroatia.[10][11] At the contest, Rosa was joined on stage by five backing vocalists who were contestants fromOperación Triunfo2001:David Bisbal,David Bustamante,Chenoa,Gisela (who would go on to representAndorra in 2008) andGeno [es], and placed seventh at the conclusion of the final scoring 81 points.[12]
In Spain, the show was broadcast onLa Primera with commentary byJosé Luis Uribarri and onRadio 1 with commentary byNieves Herrero and José María de Juana.[13][14][15]
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.[16] TVE appointedAnne 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.[citation needed]
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