An edited down version of the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 in Tallinn with a scoreboard using today’s technology. Nothing but a fun lockdown project.

This edit will give a flavour of the evening (25th May) with Terry Wogan’s commentary.

And so finally, I’ve reached the end (in terms of our progress through the Contest) of the project. Twentytwo Contests edited and visualised in a (hopefully) complementary way that helps tell the story of some classic races with some classic commentary. I’ve had fun, but I’m also due a break.

ETV winning the right to host in 2002 threw up the inevitable question of money and technical knowhow. The reliable Dutch offered, and Malta too…the keenest members of the group. Although, no surprise they were mentioned, with others, in allegations of jury vote rigging again. No wonder there was a sudden uptick in 50/50 vote split this year! In the end, the Estonian government saw the opportunity to show off the new Saku Suurhall (and Estonia) and so stepped in. As did SVT, YLE and Norwegian company, VizRT.

The collaboration at Tallinn forged a new model that would keep Eurovision growing throughout its time visiting new broadcasters. ETV wasn’t born in 1992 though, it had pedigree going back to 1955, but the show had taken a new form in 2000 and well, ETV hadn’t done anything quite on this scale. I know some of you will be pleased to see the inside of a 10,500seater hall again :), but most importantly the era of richer broadcasters stepping in and hosting on their own soil seemed to be over.

Let’s be clear: this isn’t the classic ending I’d hoped for – even though the race is very close. I almost think chopping off the top two off makes for a more interesting race. ‘I Wanna’ does have the elements of a modern winner, and really is the first to discover that a good ‘act’ can do a song wonders, especially now, with the cameras unable to show shots of the orchestra. It’s a winner without substance I suppose, and I think that also goes for Malta and Estonia…note how similar they ‘feel’ in my recap at the end. Jessica Garlick has the performance of the night, blighted with a poor running order position, she ably made her way up the board to a credible fourth (yes joint third, I know).

DESIGN AND THE BOARD
So this is the first board to use VizRT – the very software I’ve made all my boards in and I guess what I mean by ‘today’s technology’. They were keen to show they were involved, and it’s around this time that British broadcasters started using Viz.

We didn’t get a reordering scoreboard this year, but we did get a cartoon mouse. Where’s Eurocat (1990) when you need him?! This is the first show to have a theme, and the theme wasn’t that well executed to my mind, but it did ram the Estonian story into something so obtuse that it didn’t seem like Estonian history was the theme? I hope that makes sense. The board seemed cleverer than it looked though, it was certainly counting back (putting the UK fourth), and even highlighted which countries were relegated, even though it proved to be incorrect.

The logo was great and someone had made an svg of it on Wiki, and so I lifted and animated it. Not sure where the pebbles come into the rest of the story! The logo came with an elegant use of Gill Sans, a typically British typeface from 1926. I had to reverse the error the designers made by picking the rather pedestrian Trebuchet MS instead. Unpopular contests tend not to have great recordings available, and that typeface doesn’t perform well under rigorous VHS degradation. Most people will know it as core Microsoft font, used in XP.

I had the idea of each board being a slightly difference formation of colours, but then realised (as you’ve probably noticed with the song lower thirds) that you can’t read much with such strong background colours being divided behind close arranged text. So I opted for in between the stones.

TRANSFER NEWS (source: Wiki)
REL’D for this year from the bottom end of the 2001 scoreboard: ICE, NED, NOR, POL, IRE(!)
BACK automatically (rel’d in 2000): AUT, BEL, CYP, FIN, FYROM, ROM and SUI.
NOT BACK: Money trouble: POR.

NED were next in line for a place due to POR stepping out, but had got the same points as relegated Latvia in ‘01. Take the last two contests, and Latvia had the higher score…so they made it through. If you want to get ahead, get a hat.

INTERVAL ACT
A classic dance interval act, starting right from an asteroid hit. Choreographed by Teet Kask.

CREDITS
@Mosè M for the comp’d vid with Wogan, @Schlagerarkivet for the original pics from TVP in Poland. The best video around!
Flags: countryflags.com
All Copyright belongs to ETV, BBC, EBU, LTV

00:00 Intro
04:47 Song supercut
33:55 Interval, voting intro
39:55 The reorder board 2002
1:28:45 Recap, data & reprise
1:34:19 Epilogue