Eurovision Song Contest 2003 Totally Explained

Everything about The Eurovision Song Contest 2003 totally explained

The Eurovision Song Contest 2003 was the forty-eighth Eurovision Song Contest, held at the Skonto Hall in Riga, Latvia on May 24, 2003. The hosts were Marie N and Renārs Kaupers. Sertab Erener, the Turkish entrant, won the contest with "Every Way That I Can", scoring 167 points. The winning songwriters were Erener and Demir Demirkan. Belgium and Russia were second and third respectively, within three points of Turkey's score.
The 2003 contest was the last to take place over one evening; in 2004 a semi-final system was introduced. Twenty-six countries competed, at the time the biggest field in the contest's history. Six countries that sat out the 2002 contest returned from relegation, and were joined by Ukraine, making its debut. The 2003 contest's start-list was the last to be influenced by the relegation rule.
The pre-contest favourites, Russia's t.A.T.u, attracted much media attention. Among the other noteworthy contestants were Alf Poier, an outspoken comedian representing Austria; Ich Troje, who attempted to represent two countries; and F.L.Y., a trio of musical veterans representing the host country. Jemini, representing the United Kingdom, finished the contest without a point, the first British entrants to do so.

Hosting

Latvia won the 2002 Eurovision Song Contest on 25 May 2002, represented by Marie N performing "I Wanna". It was Latvia's first victory, and meant that LTV would host the 2003 contest. Arvids Babris, head of the Latvian delegation at the 2002 contest, said that although LTV's funds were limited, the broadcaster would host the 2003 event; later, the Latvian government pledged €2.3 million for the event. The Skonto Hall in Riga, which seats 5,000 spectators, was chosen to host the contest. Babris was appointed as its producer. In December 2002, LTV announced that the contest would be hosted by Marie N, alongside Renars Kaupers, the lead singer of Brainstorm, the Latvian representatives at the 2000 contest. In March 2003, Danish newspaper B.T. reported that the contest could be moved as it was running behind schedule; the general director of LTV, Uldis Grava, replied, saying: "We [Grava,Bjorn Erichsen of Danmarks Radio and Werner Rumphorst of the EBU] talked about co-operation and about programme exchanges, and neither of them said a single word that would indicate any doubts, lack of trust or accusation." Swedish public broadcaster Sveriges Television produced the contest for the second year running (with Sven Stojanovic as director), and Swedish lighting company Spectra+, having supplied the 2000 and 2002 contests, were involved for the third time. The contest's tagline was "Magical Rendez-vous". An official CD of the contest was released, on the EMI/CMC label.

Participation

Twenty-four countries participated in the 2002 contest in Tallinn; of these, fourteen were expected to compete in 2003. The bottom ten in Tallinn would be relegated, to allow countries to compete for the first time. In reality, only five countries were relegated—nineteen countries that entered in 2002 competed in Riga. The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYR Macedonia), Finland, Switzerland, Lithuania and Denmark were forced to sit out the contest. The nineteen qualifiers were joined by the six countries that had sat out the 2002 contest: Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Portugal. The twenty-sixth contestant was Ukraine, making its debut at the contest. Originally, Serbia and Montenegro, Albania and Belarus had planned 2003 debuts, but the EBU's late changes to the relegation procedure meant that they couldn't compete. All three nations made their debuts in 2004. RTBF was the Belgian broadcaster at the forty-eighth contest, marking the first Walloon entry since 2000. Twenty-six entries was the highest number in the contest's history at that point; it remains the most to have competed in a Eurovision final. The draw for the running order took place in December 2002 in Riga: Iceland would open the contest and Slovenia would complete it.

National selections

Austria, having failed to finish in the top five at Eurovision since 1989, selected comedian Alf Poier to represent them in a televised national final on 14 March 2003. Poier beat former Eurovision contestant Petra Frey into second place. He described his song, "Weil der Mensch zählt" ("Because people matter"), as "a hymn to individualism and against collectivism". Ireland, back from relegation, used a reality series, You're A Star, to select their entry. The winner was Mickey Harte; his Eurovision song reached number one on the Irish Singles Chart. Spain also used a reality series; Beth, a runner-up of Operación Triunfo was chosen. Ich Troje tried to represent Poland and Germany with different songs: they won the Polish final on 27 January with "Keine Grenzen-Żadnych granic" ("No borders"; performed in Polish, German and Russian), but lost in Germany. The German contestant was Lou. A member of the Belgian group, Urban Trad, was expelled from the group after it was reported that she'd been a member of a far-right political group—this was later denied by the group as the reason for her absence.
In Latvia, three former Eirodziesma contestants won the right to represent the host country as F.L.Y., performing "Hello From Mars". Sweden's Melodifestivalen took place on 15 March at the Globe Arena in Stockholm; Fame won the right to represent the country in Riga. Estonia chose Claire's Birthday as their representative—the band later changed their name to Ruffus. Among the contestants to be chosen internally (without a televised selection) were t.A.T.u from Russia: the self-styled "lesbian" duo had already scored a chart-topper throughout Europe with "All the Things She Said", and quickly became favourites to win the contest.
Twelve languages were represented at the contest: eleven real and one constructed. Belgium's "Sanomi" was described by its composer as "a danceable folk pearl sung in an imaginary and thus universal language". Most of the entries included lyrics in English.

Individual entries

"Eurovision Week"

Full preparations for the 2003 contest began on 18 May 2003 at the Skonto Hall. There were rehearsals, press conferences and participants were also involved in an Internet chat. The first performer to rehearse was Birgitta Haukdal from Iceland, on 19 May; she was also first at the Press Centre and on the web chat. t.A.T.u.'s first rehearsal dominated proceedings on 20 May—the band were supposed to rehearse the day before, but had turned up a day late, claiming that Yulia Volkova was suffering from a sore throat. The group were booed by journalists at the Press Centre. Sarah Yuen from the EBU said "They are the bad girls of pop…we shouldn’t have expected them to come here and be nice and pleasant." With the entrants' press conferences and web chats completed, two dress rehearsals were held on 23 May, in front of an estimated 12,000 people. The organisers of the contest held a press conference; one of the issues complained about was the lack of invitations for the after-party. The final dress rehearsal was held on 24 May, the day of the contest. A simulation of the voting procedure was also held, in which the presenters linked up with all twenty-six countries by satellite for the first time.

Show

The Eurovision Song Contest 2003 began at 22:00 EEST (19:00 UTC) on Saturday 24 May 2003. Among the 6,000 spectators were several Latvian government ministers. In between the entries, "touristy" film clips of the contestants were shown. Elton John spoke to the presenters from Vienna and two astronauts—Ed Lu and Yuri Malenchenko—gave their greetings from the International Space Station. Alf Poier performed "Weil der Mensch zählt" flanked by stuffed farmyard animals. The Turkish entry, "Everyway That I Can" performed by Sertab Erener, featured a "mix of rhythm and belly dance". Romania's Nicola was joined by dancers holding cardboard vinyl records. By contrast, Jostein Hasselgård performed the Norwegian entry at a piano, without any movement from his backing singers. Malta's performer, Lynn Chircop, threw a flower into the audience during her performance of "To Dream Again". Before the voting began, short clips of the songs were played, in reverse order, beginning with the final song. The interval act featured Renars Kaupers' band, Brainstorm, and Marie N performing in a filmed sequence.

Voting

Spokespeople (in order of appearance)
Country	pokesperson
Iceland	Eva Maria Jonsdottir
Austria	Dodo Roscic
Ireland	Pamela Flood
Turkey	Meltem Ersan Yazgan
Malta	Sharon Borg
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Ana Vilenica
Portugal	Helena Ramos
Croatia	Davor Mestrovic
Cyprus	Loukas Hamatsos
Germany	Axel Bulthaupt
Russia	Yana Churikova
Spain	Anne Igartiburu
Israel	Michal Zoaretz
Netherlands	Marlayne
United Kingdom	Lorraine Kelly
Ukraine	Lyudmyla Hariv
Greece	Alexis Kostalas
Norway	Roald Øyen
France	Sandrine François
Poland	Maciej Orłoś
Latvia	Girts Licis
Belgium	Corinne Boulangier
Estonia	Ines
Romania	Leonard Miron
Sweden	Kattis Ahlström
Slovenia	Peter Poles

The voting procedure was unchanged from 2002: all participating nations awarded 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 12 points to their ten favourite songs, in ascending order. Countries voted in the same order as they'd performed. Bosnia & Herzegovina and Russia used juries, due to the countries' poor telecommunications. all other countries planned to use a televote. Among the spokespeople were three former Eurovision contestants: Marlayne for the Netherlands, Ines for Estonia, and Sandrine François for France. Kattis Ahlström, co-host of the 2000 contest, announced the Swedish results.
   Iceland were first to vote: they awarded their twelve points to Norway, giving Jostein Hasselgård an early lead. Austria were next, awarding one point to Germany and twelve points to Turkey. The jury in Sarajevo also awarded their twelve points to Turkey. As the Bosnian spokesperson announced the votes, she mistakenly awarded five points to Croatia, rather than Austria. As a result, the votes were announced again from the beginning. Cyprus awarded twelve points to Greece, amidst booing in the hall—Greece reciprocated. The fourteen eventual qualifiers were Turkey, Belgium, Russia, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Poland, Spain, Iceland, Romania, Ireland, Germany, France and the United Kingdom. All the other countries would compete in the semi.
   After the contest, Russian broadcaster Channel One complained that Irish broadcaster RTÉ had used a back-up jury, and that it had cost them victory. A statement by Channel One said "Considering [the] insignificant difference in points between the first and third places, there are grounds to believe that the contest results could be much different for Russia." RTÉ responded by publishing the unused results of the Irish televote, which showed that had the jury not been used, Turkey would still have won.
   The United Kingdom's last-place finish was greeted with much consternation in the British media. Terry Wogan, long-time commentator on the contest for the BBC, said that the UK was suffering from "post-Iraq backlash". The UK's result was their worst-ever at Eurovision; by contrast, Turkey's win was their first. Alf Poier's sixth place was Austria's best result for fourteen years, Poland's seventh place was their best in nine, and Romania's tenth place was one place behind their best-ever result. Belgium's second place was their first top-five finish in seventeen years. Latvia's third-from-bottom finish was their worst Eurovision result in four attempts; it was also the worst placing for a host country since 1992.

Results

Draw	Language	Artist	Song	Translation	Place	Points
1	English	Birgitta Haukdal	Open Your Heart	-	8	81
2	German	Alf Poier	Weil der Mensch zählt	Because the human matters	6	101
3	English	Mickey Joe Harte	We've Got The World	-	11	53
4	English	Sertab Erener	Every Way That I Can	-	1	167
5	English	Lynn Chircop	To Dream Again	-	25	4
6	Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, English	Mija Martina	Ne brini	Don't worry	16	27
7	English, Portuguese	Rita Guerra	Deixa-me sonhar (só mais uma vez)	Let me dream (just once more)	22	13
8	Croatian, English	Claudia Beni	Više nisam tvoja	I'm no longer yours	15	29
9	English	Stelios Konstantas	Feeling Alive	-	20	15
10	English	Lou	Let's Get Happy	-	11	53
11	Russian	t.A.T.u.	Ne Ver', Ne Boysia / Не верь, не бойся	Don't believe, don't fear	3	164
12	Spanish	Beth	Dime	Tell me	8	81
13	English, Hebrew	Lior Narkis	Milim la'ahava	Words for love	19	17
14	English	Esther Hart	One More Night	-	13	45
15	English	Jemini	Cry Baby	-	26	0
16	English	Oleksandr Ponomaryov	Hasta la vista	-	14	30
17	English	Mando	Never Let You Go	-	17	25
18	English	Jostein Hasselgård	I'm Not Afraid To Move On	-	4	123
19	French	Louisa Baileche	Monts et merveilles	Mountains and wonders	18	19
20	German, Polish, Russian	Ich Troje	Keine Grenzen-Żadnych granic	No borders	7	90
21	English	F.L.Y.	Hello From Mars	-	24	5
22	Imaginary	Urban Trad	Sanomi	-	2	165
23	English	Ruffus	Eighties Coming Back	-	21	14
24	English	Nicola	Don't Break My Heart	-	10	73
25	English	Fame	Give Me Your Love	-	5	107
26	English	Karmen Stavec	Nanana	-	23	7

Score sheet


Iceland		0	7	8	12	0	0	6	5	1	0	0	0	6	0	4	0	12	1	1	3	3	1	0	7	4
Austria	10		0	6	0	5	10	5	4	2	0	8	0	8	8	0	2	8	0	0	4	2	6	0	6	7
Ireland	2	0		5	5	0	7	4	7	0	0	0	0	0	12	1	0	6	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	2
Turkey	3	12	0		4	12	8	10	8	10	0	3	7	12	7	2	7	10	10	2	0	12	0	10	8	10
Malta	0	0	3	0		0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Bosnia & Herzegovina	0	7	0	12	0		0	8	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Portugal	0	0	2	0	0	0		0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	3	0	0	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Croatia	0	5	6	3	0	6	0		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	8
Cyprus	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0		0	0	0	1	0	0	0	12	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Germany	8	1	4	0	3	0	0	0	0		7	4	0	2	4	0	0	0	0	5	2	0	2	1	10	0
Russia	4	8	0	10	1	3	4	12	10	8		6	10	1	0	12	10	2	7	4	12	7	12	7	2	12
Spain	6	0	0	2	0	0	12	7	6	0	6		12	5	0	0	5	0	0	0	0	10	0	5	4	1
Israel	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	1		0	0	0	3	0	8	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Netherlands	0	0	5	0	7	2	0	0	0	0	10	0	2		1	0	0	5	0	0	0	8	0	0	5	0
United Kingdom	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Ukraine	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	8	0	4	0	0		0	0	0	10	5	0	3	0	0	0
Greece	0	0	1	4	0	0	0	0	12	5	1	0	0	0	0	0		0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0
Norway	12	2	12	0	6	0	5	0	0	7	4	0	3	7	6	7	0		3	6	7	6	10	3	12	5
France	0	0	0	0	0	8	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		3	0	0	0	6	0	0
Poland	0	10	0	0	10	0	0	0	0	12	0	5	0	4	2	8	6	4	5		8	5	4	4	3	0
Latvia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		0	5	0	0	0
Belgium	7	4	10	7	0	10	6	0	3	6	3	12	8	10	5	10	8	3	12	12	10		8	8	0	3
Estonia	1	0	8	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		0	0	0
Romania	0	6	0	1	0	7	0	1	2	4	12	10	6	0	0	6	4	1	4	8	0	0	0		1	0
Sweden	5	3	0	0	8	1	3	2	1	3	0	7	5	3	10	5	0	7	2	7	6	4	7	12		6
Slovenia	0	0	0	0	0	4	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
THE TABLE IS ORDERED BY APPEARANCE

12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 point in the final:

N.	To	From
5	Russia	Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Slovenia, Ukraine
4	Turkey	Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Netherlands,
3	Belgium	France, Poland, Spain
3	Norway	Iceland, Ireland, Sweden
2	Iceland	Malta, Norway
2	Spain	Israel, Portugal
1	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Turkey
1	Cyprus	Greece
1	Greece	Cyprus
1	Ireland	United Kingdom
1	Poland	Germany
1	Romania	Russia
1	Sweden	Romania

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