Russia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 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 Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

. The Russian entry was selected internally by the Russian broadcaster Russian Public Television (ORT).

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

represented Russia with the song "Northern Girl", which placed 10th and scored 55 points at the contest.

Before Eurovision

Internal selection

On 17 January 2002, ORT announced a submission period for interested artists and composers to submit their entries until 26 February 2002. The broadcaster received 11,742 submissions at the conclusion of the deadline, including entries from

Arkady Ukupnik Arkady Semyonovich Ukupnik (russian: Арка́дий Семёнович Уку́пник; born February 18, 1953, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Khmelnytskyi Oblast, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

Diana Gurtskaya Diana Gudaevna Gurtskaya ( ka, დიანა ღურწკაია, russian: Диана Гудаевна Гурцкая, born 2 July 1978) is a famous Russian pop singer well-known in the countries of the former Soviet Union. Diana was born ...

and

Vitas Vitaliy Vladasovich Grachev (russian: Виталий Владасович Грачёв; uk, Віталій Владасович Грачов, Vitaliy Vladasovych Hrachov; born 19 February 1979), known professionally as Vitas ( rus, Вит� ...

. 25 entries were shortlisted from the received submissions and a jury panel selected the Russian entry. The jury consisted of

Konstantin Ernst Konstantin Lvovich Ernst (russian: Константин Львович Эрнст; born 6 February 1961) is a Russian media manager, producer and TV host. He is currently the CEO of Channel One Russia. Biography Early years and education His ...

(general manager of C1R), Aleksandr Fifeman (general producer of ORT), Marina Danielyan (service manager of ORT), Ilya Bachurin (music director of ORT),

Valdis Pelšs Valdis Eyzhenovich (Yevgenyevich) Pelsh, lv, Valdis Pelšs (Russian language, rus. Валдис Евгеньевич Пельш, born 5 June 1967 in Riga) is a Latvian-born USSR, Soviet and Russian television presenter, television director, telev ...

(television presenter and entertainment director of ORT),

Lev Leshchenko Lev Valerianovich Leshchenko (russian: link=no, Лев Валерьянович Лещенко; born 1 February 1942), is a Russian singer, who is best known for his rendition of "Den Pobedy" and the 1980 Summer Olympics closing ceremony theme ...

(singer),

Oleg Gazmanov Oleg (russian: Олег), Oleh ( uk, Олег), or Aleh ( be, Алег) is an East Slavic given name. The name is very common in Russia, Ukraine and Belаrus. It derives from the Old Norse ''Helgi'' ( Helge), meaning "holy", "sacred", or "blesse ...

(singer), Ilya Reznik (lyricist) and Igor Matvienko (composer and producer). On 4 March 2002, C1R announced during a press conference that they had internally selected

to represent Russia in Tallinn with the song "Northern Girl". Prime Minister's selection as the Russian representative was decided upon by the jury panel from two entries considered: "Northern Girl" performed by Prime Minister and "All My Love" performed by

Kristina Orbakaitė Kristina Edmundovna Orbakaitе (, lt, Kristina Orbakaitė, born 25 May 1971), is a Russian-Lithuanian singer and actress. Her parents are Russian pop star Alla Pugacheva and Lithuanian circus performer Mykolas Orbakas. Biography Kristina Orba ...

. "Northern Girl" was composed by

Kim Breitburg Kim Alexandrovich Breitburg (russian: link=no, Ким Александрович Брейтбург, 10 February 1955, Lvov, Ukrainian SSR, USSR) is a Russian composer, singer, keyboardist, author of more than 600 songs, 5 art rock suites and ...

, with lyrics by

Karen Kavaleryan Karen Kavaleryan ( hy, Կարեն Կավալերյան; russian: Каре́н Кавалеря́н; born June 5, 1961 in Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union) is a Russian-Armenian lyricist. He currently holds the record (with Sharon Vaughn and Ra ...

, Evgeniy Fridlyand and Irina Antonyan. The song was presented to the public on 13 April 2002 through the release of the official music video, directed by Sergey Kalvarsky.

At Eurovision

Russia performed 7th at the 2002 Contest, following

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

and preceding

. Premier Ministr anglicized their band name and appeared in the contest as Prime Minister. After the voting concluded, Russia scored 55 points and placed 10th. The voting spokesperson for Russia was Arina Sharapova.

Voting

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 2002

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 ...