Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

participated in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2002 The Eurovision Song Contest 2002 was the 47th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Tallinn, Estonia, following the country's victory at the with the song "Everybody" by Tanel Padar, Dave Benton and 2XL. Organised by the Euro ...

with the song "Tell Me Who You Are" written by Michael Ronson. The song was performed by

Malene Mortensen Malene Winther Mortensen (born 23 May 1982) is a Danish singer. She entered the Danish music scene in 2001, during the first season of ''Stjerne for en aften'', the Danish edition of '' Star for a Night''. She made it to the finals, with her re ...

. The Danish broadcaster DR organised the national final ''Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2002'' in order to select the Danish entry for the 2002 contest in

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...

, Estonia. Ten songs competed in a televised show where "Vis mig hvem du er" performed by Malene Mortensen was the winner as decided upon through two rounds of jury voting and public voting. The song was later translated from

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

for the Eurovision Song Contest and was titled "Tell Me Who You Are". Denmark competed in the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 25 May 2002. Performing during the show in position 14, Denmark placed twenty-fourth (last) out of the 24 participating countries, scoring 7 points.

Background

Prior to the 2002 contest, Denmark had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest thirty-one times since its first entry in 1957. Denmark had won the contest, to this point, on two occasions: in with the song "

Dansevise "Dansevise" (; ) was the winning song of the Eurovision Song Contest 1963, which took place on 23 March in London. It was performed in Danish by husband and wife duo Grethe and Jørgen Ingmann, representing . This was the first entry performed by ...

" performed by

Grethe Grethe is a given name. Notable people with the name include: *Grethe and Jørgen Ingmann, Danish singers and musicians *Grethe Fossli (born 1954), Norwegian politician for the Labour Party *Grethe Grünberg (born 1988), Estonian ice dancer *Greth ...

and

Jørgen Ingmann Jørgen Ingmann (born Jørgen Ingmann Pedersen; 26 April 1925 – 21 March 2015) was a Danish jazz and pop guitarist from Copenhagen. He was popular in Europe and had a wider international hit in 1961 with his version of "Apache". He and his w ...

, and in with the song "

Fly on the Wings of Love "Fly on the Wings of Love" is a song by Danish pop-rock duo Olsen Brothers, which was the winner of Eurovision Song Contest 2000, performing for in English. The song was performed fourteenth on the night, following 's Serafín Zubiri with " Col ...

" performed by

Olsen Brothers Olsen Brothers ( da, Brødrene Olsen) are a Danish rock/pop music duo, formed by brothers Jørgen (born 15 March 1950) and Niels "Noller" Olsen (born 13 April 1954), both from Odense, who won the Eurovision Song Contest 2000. They formed their f ...

. In the 2001 contest, "Never Ever Let You Go" performed by Rollo and King placed second. The Danish national broadcaster, DR, broadcasts the event within Denmark and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. The broadcaster organised the ''Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2002'' national final in order to select Denmark's entry for the 2002 contest; Denmark has selected all of their Eurovision entries through ''

Dansk Melodi Grand Prix Dansk Melodi Grand Prix (), also known as Melodi Grand Prix or simply DMGP, is an annual music competition organised by the Danish public broadcaster Danmarks Radio (DR) since 1957, which determines the for the Eurovision Song Contest. The fe ...

''.

Before Eurovision

Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2002

''Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2002'' was the 33rd edition of

, the music competition that selects Denmark's entries for the Eurovision Song Contest. The event was held on 9 February 2002 at the Cirkusbygningen in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, hosted by Michael Carøe and

Signe Svendsen Signe Svendsen (born 16 October 1974) is a Danish singer. She took part in Eurovision Song Contest 2001 with the duo formation Rollo & King singing "Never Ever Let You Go" that was runner-up in the competition. She has developed a solo career with ...

and televised on

DR1 DR1 (DR Et) is the flagship television channel of the DR (broadcaster), Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR). It became Denmark's first television station when it began broadcasting in 1951 – at first only for an hour a day three times a we ...

. The national final was watched by 2.082 million viewers in Denmark, making it the most popular show of the week in the country and the most watched edition of Dansk Melodi Grand Prix.

Format

Ten songs competed in one show where the winner was determined over two rounds of voting. In the first round, the top five songs based on the combination of votes from a public vote and a seven-member jury panel qualified to the superfinal. In the superfinal, the winner was determined again by the votes of the jury and public. Viewers were able to vote via telephone or SMS. The seven-member jury panel was composed of

Keld Heick Keld Heick (born 24 February 1946 in Frederiksberg) is a Danish singer, songwriter and musician. He is best known for his contribution to the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix, where he has submitted over 30 songs. In 1963 Heick formed the band ''Keld & th ...

, Danish Eurovision 1983 entrant

Gry Johansen Gry Johansen-Meilstrup (known as Gry) (born 28 August 1964 in Copenhagen) is a Danish singer who represented her country in Eurovision Song Contest 1983 The Eurovision Song Contest 1983 was the 28th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contes ...

Kaare Norge Kaare Norge (born 1963) is a Danish classical guitarist. In 1991 he became the first classical musician to play at the Roskilde Festival. Although he has recorded a very broad repertory of classical works, well known for his recitals of composers ...

, Sascha Dupont, Carsten Michael Laursen, Sanne Gottlieb and Jesper Degn.

Competing entries

DR opened a submission period between 2 October 2001 and 5 November 2001 for composers to submit their entries. All composers and lyricists were required to be Danish citizens or have Danish residency, while all songs were required to be performed in

. The broadcaster received 662 entries during the submission period. A seven-member selection committee selected ten songs from the entries submitted to the broadcaster, while the artists of the selected entries were chosen by DR in consultation with their composers. The competing songs were announced on 13 December 2001 with their artists being announced on 9 January 2002. Among the artists was Helge Engelbrecht (member of Neighbours) who represented

Denmark in the Eurovision Song Contest 1987 Denmark was represented by Anne-Cathrine Herdorf (supported by the group Bandjo), with the song "En lille melodi", at the 1987 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 9 April in Brussels. "En lille melodi" was chosen as the Danish entry at t ...

as part of Bandjo.

Final

The final took place on 9 February 2002. In the first round of voting the top five advanced to the superfinal based on the votes of a seven-member jury and a public vote. In the superfinal, the winner, "Vis mig hvem du er" performed by

, was selected by the public and jury vote. The telephone voting results of each of Denmark's four regions as well as the SMS and jury voting results in the superfinal were converted to points which were each distributed as follows: 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 points. A total of 160,000 votes were received from the public during the show: 100,000 in the final and 60,000 in the superfinal. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, British Eurovision 1968 and 1973 entrant

Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is an Indian-born British musican, singer, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist who holds both British and Barbadian citizenship. He has total sales of over 21.5 million s ...

, Carmen Flamenco Dancers, Gabrielle and James Sampson performed as the interval acts.

Controversy

The winning song of ''Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2002'', "Vis mig hvem du er", was ranked last by the jury in the second round despite receiving top points from all five public voting groups. Jurors Keld Heick, Sascha Dupont and Sanne Gottlieb publicly criticised the song for its poor lyrics and stated that "the Danes are too easy to fool" over "a great beat" and "a good chorus". Gottlieb also accused the media of favouring Malene Mortensen before the competition due to her being well-known. Subsequently, Mortensen cancelled her scheduled appearance in the programme ''Hit med sangen'' which Dupont also participated in.

Promotion

Malene Mortensen specifically promoted "Vis mig hvem du er" as the Danish Eurovision entry between 15 and 16 February 2002 by performing the song during the Maltese Eurovision national final.

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the bottom six countries in the

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

contest competed in the final. On 9 November 2001, a special allocation draw was held which determined the running order and Denmark was set to perform in position 14, following the entry from the

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

and before the entry from

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

. At the contest, Malene Mortensen performed the

version of "Vis mig hvem du er", titled "Tell Me Who You Are". Denmark finished in twenty-fourth (last) place with 7 points. This was the first time Denmark finished in last place at the Eurovision Song Contest. The show was broadcast on

with commentary by

. The Danish spokesperson, who announced the Danish votes during the final, was

. The contest was watched by a total of 2 million viewers in Denmark.

Voting

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Denmark and awarded by Denmark in the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Malta in the contest.

References

{{Authority control

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2002

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...