Eurovision Song Contest 2003

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

**Eurovision Song Contest 2003**

Date	24 May 2003
Presenters	Marie N, Renārs Kaupers
Host Broadcaster	LTV
Director	Sven Stojanovic
Venue	Skonto Hall, Riga, Latvia
Winning Song	Every Way That I Can (Turkey)
Voting system	Each country awards 1-8, 10, and 12 points to their 10 favourite songs
Number of Songs	26
Countries Making Debut	Ukraine
Nul points	United Kingdom

The Eurovision Song Contest 2003 was the forty-eighth Eurovision Song Contest and was held at the Skonto Hall in Riga, Latvia on May 24, 2003. The hosts of the evening was 2002 contest winner Marie N and Renārs Kaupers, whose band placed third place at the Eurovision Song Contest 2000. This was the second time that a Eurovision contest had been hosted by two former participants, this happening earlier in 1991. Sertab Erener, the entrant for Turkey, was the winner of the event with the song "Every Way That I Can", which earned 167 points. Sertab 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. The song received an explosive reception from the Latvian audience. Erener had changed the song to include a faster tempo, melismas, and sang counter to the rhythm in tandem with the Turkish drums.

The contest featured a usual collection of typical Eurovision-style dance numbers and power ballads with unique performances which allowed several acts to stand 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 cut-out animals playing musical instruments. The second placed Belgian entry Urban Trad produced a song somewhere in the space between folk and New Age music with instrumentation including piano-accordion, bagpipes, the recorder, and lyrics in "an imaginary language", delivered without substantial artifice. Nicola from Romania performed "Don't Break My Heart" which featured back-up dancers who changed costumes several times and played with a huge record player prop. 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, most notably eight points from Cyprus to Turkey, after both countries had ignored each other in the voting for twenty years. Slovenia were the last country to issue votes, and they decided the winner, awarding ten points to Turkey. Belgium finished just two points behind in second. Second favourite before the contest, Beth of Spain managed to end up 8th, due to a disappointing performance. After her rehearsal, her odds of winning across Europe went down considerably. She blamed a sore throat, but although she was third in Spanish Fame Academy Operación Triunfo, she wasn't to do so well in Eurovision. However, the song, Dime (Tell Me) managed to chart all across Europe and she remains one of the most successful people to come from reality TV in Spain.

Pre-contest favourites t.A.T.u., who had already had success throughout Europe, caused many controversies before and after the contest. They cancelled their rehearsal, according to the band due to a sore throat, and even tried to boycott the event. They promised a shocking and erotic performance for the Eurovision final, which led the EBU to worry. During the final performance itself, fortunately nothing 'shocking' happened. After the results were in and Turkey had been declared the winner, the Russian team protested against the final outcome. There were difficulties with the Irish televote and according to EBU rules, a back-up jury would be used in this case. The Irish jury award no points to Russia nor Turkey, but it was later revealed that the televote results would have not given Russia any points ([1]), although they would have finished second ahead of Belgium.

The United Kingdom's act, Jemini, failed to receive a single point, 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.

1 Results
2 Voting structure
3 Score sheet
4 Map
5 External links

The presenters, Marie N and Renārs Kaupers.

[edit] Results

Bolded Countries have earned a spot in the final for the 2004 ESC

Draw	Country	Language	Artist	Song	Translation	Place	Points
1	Iceland	English	Birgitta Haukdal	Open Your Heart	-	9	81
2	Austria	Steiermarkish - German dialect in Austria	Alf Poier	Weil Der Mensch Zählt	Because Humans Count	6	101
3	Ireland	English	Mickey Joe Harte	We've Got The World	-	11	53
4	Turkey	English	Sertab Erener	Every Way That I Can	-	1	167
5	Malta	English	Lynn Chircop	To Dream Again	-	25	4
6	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, English	Mija Martina	Ne Brini	Don't Worry	16	27
7	Portugal	English, Portuguese	Rita Guerra	Deixa-me sonhar (só mais uma vez)	Let me dream (only one more time)	22	13
8	Croatia	Croatian, English	Claudia Beni	Više nisam tvoja	I'm Not Yours Anymore	15	29
9	Cyprus	English	Stelios Konstantas	Feeling Alive	-	20	15
10	Germany	English	Lou	Let's Get Happy	-	11	53
11	Russia	Russian	t.A.T.u.	Не верь, не бойся / Ne Ver', Ne Boysia	Don't believe, don't fear	3	164
12	Spain	Spanish	Beth	Dime	Tell Me	8	81
13	Israel	English, Hebrew	Lior Narkis	Milim la'ahava	Words For Love	17	19
14	Netherlands	English	Esther Hart	One More Night	-	13	45
15	United Kingdom	English	Jemini	Cry Baby	-	26	0
16	Ukraine	English	Oleksandr Ponomaryov	Hasta la vista	-	14	30
17	Greece	English	Mando	Never Let You Go	-	17	25
18	Norway	English	Jostein Hasselgård	I'm Not Afraid To Move On	-	4	123
19	France	French	Louisa Baileche	Monts et merveilles	Hills and Wonders	18	19
20	Poland	German, Polish, Russian	Ich Troje	Keine Grenzen - Żadnych Granic	No Borders	7	90
21	Latvia	English	F.L.Y.	Hello From Mars	-	24	5
22	Belgium	Imaginary	Urban Trad	Sanomi	-	2	165
23	Estonia	English	Ruffus	Eighties Coming Back	-	21	14
24	Romania	English	Nicola	Don't Break My Heart	-	10	73
25	Sweden	English	Fame	Give Me Your Love	-	5	107
26	Slovenia	English	Karmen Stavec	Nanana	-	23	7

[edit] Voting structure

The vast majority of countries use televoting, where the top ten most-voted-for songs were awarded 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 points. Despite the EBU insisting on televoting in every nation in wake of the vote rigging of the juries in the 2002 contest, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Russia were unable to set up effective systems in time, so both remained using jury votes, for what has so far been the final time. The Irish televoting system failed during this contest, and so the votes of the Irish backup jury were used instead. The results of the Irish televotes were later released ([2]) after Russian protests of vote rigging to prevent t.A.T.u. from winning, but if the Irish televote results had been included, Turkey would still have won, and Russia would not have got any more points (though would have come second).

[edit] 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-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.