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This is the fourth part of a series of articles on the artists performing at the 60th Anniversary show in London, to celebrate the Eurovision Song Contest.
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Rosa López sang Europe’s living a celebration in 2002 coming seventh.

Rosa was born in January 1981 at Láchar, Granada in Spain.

From a young age she sang at weddings, baptisms, communions and celebrations throughout the Granada region. She was very musical and involved in orchestras and groups.

At the turn of the century reality shows were popular, where singers competed against each other to get to the final. This was no exception in Spain and their show was called Operación Triunfo. The first year for this series took place in 2001 and Rosa competed against 15 other young people including names who now are big stars in the country. David Bisbal and David Bustamante were among her competitors.. Over ten million viewers saw her get over a quarter of the votes. The prize was to become the Spanish representative at the next Eurovision Song Contest 2002.

Rosa’s second album Ahora was uptempo and reached the top of the album charts, not only once but twice. In 2004 she spend two weeks in Venezuela, became the face of computer brand Odin and released her third album, Ójala. In 2005 she took time out, only making a few public appearances, but did sing with the Granada Blues Band in Andalusia. This lead to her recording the film title theme for Torrente 3: El protector.

2006 saw Rosa with a new lease of life slimming down by an amazing 40 kilos and developing an up to date image. It was then that she participated in the Spanish version of Strictly Come Dancing and ended up winning. In 2007 she took to the boards as an actor, made many television appearances and then set out of another concert tour.

2008 and 2009 saw the release of her fifth and sixth studio albums. The seventh came out in 2012 and was accompanied by a tour of more than forty venues.

This year she took part in the Spanish version of The Hit, a show for song writers, and added another win to her career.

Rosa’s energy knows no boundaries!

The Eurovision Song Contest 2002 was the forty seventh edition of the event.

The venue was the Saku Suurhall Arena in Tallinn, Estonia

This was built only the year before and is designed to host sporting events and concerts.

The postcards followed the theme of that year a modern fairytale and each one told the story of well known fables with the ending reflecting an Estonian theme.

Twenty four countries participated this year. It was to have been twenty two but an additional two spaces, over and above the regulated number, were allowed by the EBU so that Israel and Portugal could participate. In the end Portugal did not take up the option and the eventual winner came from their replacement, Latvia.

One artist returned to the contest, being Constantinos Christoforou from Cyprus. He had participated on his own in 1996 but this time was part of the group One.

Voting was mainly by televote but five countries used juries and eight used the option of the 50/50 split between televoting and a jury.

Two countries ended up with significantly more votes that any other. In second place came Malta with Ira Losco performing the song 7th Wonder. The douze points were spread right across the scoreboard but Latvia managed to get three of them with six sets of ten points helping. The winning song was performed by Marie N with the memorable I wanna, where she made several minor costume changes, gradually altering from a hat, jacket and trousers to a long red dress.

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