Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2002

Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2002
Eurovision Song Contest 2002
Participating broadcaster	Televisión Española (TVE)
Country	Spain
Selection process	Operación Triunfo 1: Gala Eurovisión
Selection date	11 March 2002
Competing entry
Song	"Europe's Living a Celebration"
Artist	Rosa
Songwriters	Toni Ten Xasqui Ten
Placement
Final result	7th, 81 points
Participation chronology
◄2001 • 2002 • 2003►

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.

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 the Eurovision Song Contest representing Spain forty-one times since its first entry in 1961. 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.^[1]

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 (original series of Star Academy) to select both the artist and song that would represent Spain.^[2]

The Spanish entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 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 1, 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 original 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"

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 TVE), Marcos Llunas (singer and composer, represented Spain 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 was Lenny Kravitz, while the guest performer in the second show was Operación Triunfo 1 contestant Natalia.^[6][7]

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 other contestants of Operación Triunfo 1,^[8][9] with all the contestants also performing together a medley of past Eurovision songs.^[a]

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 in Operación Triunfo 1: David Bisbal, David Bustamante, Chenoa, Gisela,^[b] and Geno, and 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] The voting sequence was followed in Spain by an average of 14.38 million viewers, which represented an 86.2% share, becoming the most watched space in the country of the entire decade.^[16] The entire show, with an average of 12.7 million viewers and an 80.4% share, is the most watched Eurovision in Spain since reliable audience measurements began to be made in 1992.^[17]

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.^[18] 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.

Points awarded to Spain[18] Score Country 12 points  Belgium  France   Switzerland 10 points 8 points 7 points  Cyprus  Germany  Sweden 6 points  Bosnia and Herzegovina  Croatia  Israel 5 points 4 points  Greece 3 points 2 points  United Kingdom 1 point

Points awarded by Spain[18] Score Country 12 points  Latvia 10 points  Malta 8 points  France 7 points  Slovenia 6 points  Cyprus 5 points  Romania 4 points  Turkey 3 points  Bosnia and Herzegovina 2 points  Germany 1 point  Belgium