Eurovision Song Contest 2003

Missing image
ESC2003.jpg

Eurovision Song Contest 2003 logo.

The Eurovision Song Contest 2003 was the 48th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on May 24, 2003 in Riga, Latvia. The presenters were Marie N and Reynars Kaupers. Sertab Erener, the entrant for Turkey, was the winner of this Eurovision with the song "Everyway That I Can".

Much pre-contest publicity was centred around Russian entrant t.A.T.u, who had already had success throughout Europe, due in no small part to the shock value of their professed bisexuality. They cancelled their rehearsal, according to the band due to a sore throat.

Whilst the contest featured its usual collection of dance numbers and power ballads (complete with "truck-driver's" key changes for the last chorus in typical Eurovision style), and entries pulled the usual stunt of attractive dancers gradually removing some clothing throughout the performance, there were several acts that generally stood out from the usual fare.

Alf Poier, the Austrian entry, gave a performance that was a clear attempt to poke fun at the contest's excesses, with a stage act involving cardboard cutout "musicians" (Eurovision entrants are more often than not accompanied mostly or exclusively by a backing tape, despite the presence of musicians on stage), and a tune that went from inanely boppy to outrageously over-the-top percussive, accompanied by similarly manic dancing by Poier. The German lyrics were nonsense about the behaviour of various animals. Clearly Eurovision viewers found the act funny, as he finished sixth.

t.A.T.u themselves, after promising all manner of antics in their performance, were restricted to a brief kiss in front of a crowd who jeered them, possibly because of their behaviour in the week leading up to the contest as well as national rivalry. They notably struggled with their singing throughout the performance.

The Spanish entry, Beth, sang the song "Dime" ("Tell me"). She was chosen by the Spanish people in a TV contest.

Estonia's Ruffus broke completely with Eurovision tradition and performed (with the on-stage band providing virtually all of the instrumentation) a Britpop-style number with meaningful lyrics about the stylistic excesses of the 1980s.

Belgian entry Urban Trad produced a song somewhere in the space between folk and New Age music with on-stage instrumentation including the piano-accordion, bagpipes, and the recorder, and lyrics in "an imaginary language" delivered without substantial artifice. The sounds and rhythm of the song's "language" bore a vague resemblance to Finnish.

Erener's song clearly showed her nationality with a striking violin hook in typically Turkish pop style, emphasised with attractive dancers accompanying her performing a bellydance.

In the end, voting came down to a three-way race between Russia, Belgium, and Turkey, with the usual pattern of ethnic blocs and quarrels mostly holding sway but with a few surprising exceptions, notably 7 points from Greece to Turkey.

The United Kingdom's act, Jemini, failed to receive a single vote, provoking slight consternation in the UK. Some, such as long-time commentator Terry Wogan, believed that it was due to Britain's decision to back the United States in its attack on Iraq. However, discussion on the BBC's website suggested that many Eurovision enthusiasts attributed it to a mediocre song and to the fact that the female singer was completely out of key in the entire performance.

In interviews following the event, Jemini claimed that there were significant problems with the monitor speakers; hence they couldn't hear themselves or the backing track and so performed badly. Whether this was an excuse, accident or sabotage is probably not worth the hassle of investigation. However, the fact that several other contestants were slightly out of key suggests that there may have been a monitor problem.

Contents

Results

Country	Artist(s)	Song	Place	Points
Austria	Alf Poier	Weil der Mensch zählt	6	101
Belgium	Urban Trad	Sanomi	2	165
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Mija Martina	Ne brini	16	27
Croatia	Claudia Beni	Više nisam tvoja	15	29
Cyprus	Stelios Konstantas	Feeling Alive	20	15
Estonia	Ruffus	Eighties Coming Back	21	14
France	Louisa Baileche	Monts et Merveilles	18	19
Germany	Lou	Let's Get Happy	11	53
Greece	Mando	Never Let You Go	17	25
Iceland	Birgitta Haukdal	Open Your Heart	8	81
Ireland	Mickey Harte	We've Got The World	11	53
Israel	Lior Narkis	Words for Love	19	17
Latvia	F.L.Y	Hello From Mars	24	5
Malta	Lynn Chircop	To Dream Again	25	4
Netherlands	Esther Hart	One More Night	13	45
Norway	Jostein Hasselgård	I'm Not Afraid to Move On	4	123
Poland	Ich Troje	Keine Grenzen - Żadnych Granic	7	90
Portugal	Rita Guerra	Deixa-me Sonhar (Só Mais Uma Vez)	22	13
Romania	Nicola	Don't Break My Heart	10	73
Russia	t.A.T.u.	Ne ver', Ne Bojsia	3	164
Slovenia	Karmen Stavec	Nanana	23	7
Spain	Beth	Dime	8	81
Sweden	Fame	Give Me Your Love	5	107
Turkey	Sertab Erener	Everyway That I Can	1	167
Ukraine	Oleksandar	Hasta la Vista	14	30
United Kingdom	Jemini	Cry Baby	26	0
Venue: Skonto Hall - Riga, Latvia
The table is ordered by the countries names.

First Appearances: Ukraine

Voting Structure

The vast majority of countries use a televote, where the top ten most voted for songs were awarded 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points. In case of technical problems, or where televoting was not practical, a jury awarded the 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points.

Score sheet

				Missing image ESCTurkeyJ.png Image:ESCTurkeyJ.png							Missing image ESCRussiaJ.png Image:ESCRussiaJ.png		Missing image ESCIsraelJ.png Image:ESCIsraelJ.png	Missing image ESCNetherlandsJ.png Image:ESCNetherlandsJ.png	Missing image ESCUnitedKingdomJ.png Image:ESCUnitedKingdomJ.png							Missing image ESCBelgiumJ.png Image:ESCBelgiumJ.png	Missing image ESCEstoniaJ.png Image:ESCEstoniaJ.png		Missing image ESCSwedenJ.png Image:ESCSwedenJ.png	Missing image ESCSloveniaJ.png Image:ESCSloveniaJ.png
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-Herz	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.