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, (TVE), selected its entry through the first series of the reality television music competition . 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.

Background

Prior to the 2002 contest, (TVE) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Spain forty-one times since its first entry in . It has won the contest on two occasions: in with the song "La, la, la" performed by Massiel and in with the song "" performed by Salomé, the latter having won in a four-way tie with , the , and the . It has also finished second four times, with "" by Karina in , "" by Mocedades in , "" by Betty Missiego in , and "" by Anabel Conde in . In , 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 (original series of Star Academy) to select both the artist and song that would represent Spain.

Before Eurovision

The Spanish entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 was selected through , 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 , took place from 22 October 2001 to 11 February 2002 at the Mediapark Studios in Sant Just Desvern (Barcelona), hosted by . The competition was broadcast on La Primera and TVE Internacional. The top three contestants qualified to compete in the Eurovision selection show, , 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.

Contestant qualified to "Gala Eurovisión" + Contestant Episode of eviction Place finished(Overall ranking) Rosa Gala Final 1st David Bisbal 2nd David Bustamante 3rd Chenoa Gala Final 4th 5th Verónica 6th Nuria Fergó Gala 13 7th Gisela Gala 12 8th Naím Thomas Gala 11 9th Àlex Casademunt Gala 5 / Gala 10 10th Gala 8 11th Gala 7 12th Natalia Gala 6 13th Javián Gala 4 14th Gala 3 15th Gala 2 16th

– Song selection The song selection round of 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. 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 ), 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. 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 contestant Natalia. + First Round – 25 February 2002 Artist Song Songwriter(s) Result 1 David Bustamante "Urgente" 2 David Bisbal "El alma en pie" José Abraham Advanced 3 Rosa "Un sueño especial" Advanced 4 David Bustamante "Más de mil noches" Advanced 5 Rosa "Hay que vivir" Rubén Blades 6 David Bisbal "Corazón Latino" Jordi Cubino Advanced 7 David Bustamante "La magia del corazón" Advanced 8 Rosa "Europe's Living a Celebration" Advanced 9 David Bisbal "Miénteme"

+ Second Round – 4 March 2002 – David Bisbal Song Televote Place Result 1 "El alma en pie" 18% 2 4 "Corazón Latino" 82% 1 Qualified

+ Second Round – 4 March 2002 – David Bustamante Song Televote Place Result 2 "Más de mil noches" 35% 2 5 "La magia del corazón" 65% 1 Qualified

+ Second Round – 4 March 2002 – Rosa Song Televote Place Result 3 "Un sueño especial" 30% 2 6 "Europe's Living a Celebration" 70% 1 Qualified

– Final The final of 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 , with all the contestants also performing together a medley of past Eurovision songs.

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

Official albums Following the first Eurovision gala, Vale Music released a CD titled featuring the audio of the live performances of the nine competing songs recorded during the gala. The album was the fifth best-selling album on the 2002 annual chart in Spain, selling over 400,000 copies and was certified four times platinum.

Vale Music later released a double CD titled featuring the studio recordings of the nine competing songs, the Eurovision medley performed in the final, and a selection of songs from the galas of . The double CD includes the final and official version of "Europe's Living a Celebration" performed by Rosa with the backing vocals provided by David Bisbal, David Bustamante, Chenoa, Gisela, and , who would accompany her to the international contest; and a first music video for the song on a multimedia track. The album sold over 100,000 copies and was certified platinum.

At Eurovision 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 and before the entry from . At the contest, Rosa was joined on stage by five backing vocalists who were contestants in : David Bisbal, David Bustamante, Chenoa, Gisela, and Geno, and placed seventh at the conclusion of the final scoring 81 points.

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. 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. 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.

Voting 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. 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 Score Country 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

+ Points awarded by Spain Score Country 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

Notes

References