Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2002

Prior to the 2002 contest, (Yle) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Finland thirty-six times since its first entry in 1961. Its best result in the contest achieved in where the song "Tom Tom Tom" performed by Marion Rung placed sixth. As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, Yle organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. The broadcaster confirmed its intentions to participate at the 2002 contest on 18 May 2001. Yle has been selected its entries through national final competitions that have varied in format over the years. Since 1961, a selection show that was often titled highlighted that the purpose of the program was to select a song for Eurovision. Along with its participation confirmation, the broadcaster announced it would select its entry through the selection show. ==Before Eurovision==

2002 2002 was the national final organised by Yle to selecte its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2002. The competition consisted of a final on 26 January 2002, held at the Kaleva Centre in Tampere and hosted by Finnish journalist/presenter Maria Guzenina and Finnish presenter/comedian Simo Frangén. The show was broadcast on Yle TV2 and was watched by 1.28 million viewers in Finland. Competing entries A submission period was opened by Yle which lasted between 6 August 2001 and 9 November 2001. The broadcaster also directly invited record companies to submit entries. 25 entries were shortlisted from the 467 received submissions and a panel of five experts appointed by Yle ultimately selected twelve entries for the competition. The experts were Maria Guzenina (Finnish presenter and journalist at Radio Aino), Tobias Larsson (Swedish Eurovision expert), Jørgen de Mylius (Danish television and radio presenter), Marko Reikop (Estonian presenter) and Niamh White (Irish producer and director). The competing entries were presented on 29 November 2001. Final The final took place on 26 January 2002 where twelve entries competed and the winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, the top six from the twelve competing entries qualified to the second round based on the votes of six regional juries. Each jury group distributed their points as follows: 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 points. In the second round, "Addicted to You" performed by Laura was selected as the winner based on the results from the public vote. 193,085 votes were cast in the second round. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the opening act featured Johnny Logan (who won Eurovision for and ) performing "Hold Me Now". Later, as an interval act, Logan performed "Taking All the Blame". ==At Eurovision==

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the bottom six countries in the competed in the final. On 9 November 2001, a special allocation draw was held which determined the running order and Finland was set to perform in position 13, following the entry from and before the entry from . Laura was accompanied by Maria Ilmoniemi, , Gary Revel Jr. and Marika Tuhkala as backing vocalists. Finland finished in twentieth place with 24 points. The show was televised in Finland on Yle TV2 with commentary in Finnish by Maria Guzenina and Asko Murtomäki as well as on Yle FST with commentary in Swedish by Thomas Lundin. The show was also broadcast via radio with Finnish commentary by Iris Mattila and Tarja Närhi on Yle Radio Suomi and with Swedish commentary on Yle Radio Vega. Voting Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Finland and awarded by Finland in the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to in the contest. Yle appointed Marion Rung (who represented and ) as its spokesperson to announce the Finnish votes during the show. ==References==