Tag: Latvia

Eurovision 2003

Today, the 48th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest 2003 was held in Riga, Latvia, following the country’s victory at the 2002 contest with the song I Wanna by Marie N. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Latvijas Televīzija (LTV), the contest was held at the Skonto Hall on 24 May 2003. The contest was presented by last year’s winner Marie N and former contestant Renārs Kaupers.

Twenty-six countries participated in the contest, beating the record of twenty-five first set in 1993. It saw the return of Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and Poland after having been relegated from competing the previous year. Portugal also returned to the contest after being absent the previous year, while Ukraine participated in the contest for the first time. Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Macedonia and Switzerland were relegated due to their poor results in 2002.

The winner was Turkey with the song Everyway That I Can, performed by Sertab Erener who wrote it with Demir Demirkan. This was Turkey’s first victory in the contest after 28 years of participation. Belgium, Russia, Norway and Sweden rounded out the top five. Further down the table, the United Kingdom achieved their worst result to date, finishing twenty-sixth (last place) with no points. However, they avoided relegation due to being one of the “Big Four” countries at the time. The host country Latvia placed twenty-fourth (third from last) – this was the first time since 1995 that the host entry did not place in the top 10, and it was, overall, the worst result for a host entry since 1992.

This was the last contest to take place on one evening. The EBU revealed that it would be adding a semi-final show to the competition in order to accommodate the growing number of interested countries wishing to take part in the contest. This was also the last contest in which a relegation system was used to determine which countries would participate in the following year’s contest. As the Belgian entry was sung in an imaginary language, this was also the first time the contest featured a song with no parts performed in English or a language native to the country.

Eurovision 2002

Today the 47th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest was held in Tallinn, Estonia, following the country’s victory at the 2001 contest with the song Everybody by Tanel Padar, Dave Bentonand 2XL. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Eesti Televisioon (ETV), the contest was held at the Saku Suurhall on 25 May 2002. The contest was presented by Estonian opera singer Annely Peebo and actor Marko Matvere. It was the first Eurovision Song Contest held in one of the former Sovietrepublics.

For the first time, a slogan (or theme) was implemented. This year’s theme was called A Modern Fairytale, which was evident in the postcards shown between the songs, which showed classic fairytales ending in modern Estonian situations.

The postcards continued with the opening theme of A Modern Fairytale taking well known fairy tales and translating them into Estonian life through short films, with a moral at the end of each one of them.

Twenty-four countries participated in the contest. Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, Macedonia, Romania and Switzerland returned after their relegation from the previous edition. Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway and Poland were relegated due to their poor results in 2001. It was the first (and only) time Ireland and Norway were relegated from the contest. Latvia was also set to sit out this year, but when Portugal announced their non-participation, due to internal problems at its broadcaster, it left a spot open for Latvia to take, as the country had finished higher the year before than any of the other relegated countries. This would go on to be very fortunate for the country as Latvia ended up winning the contest with the song I Wanna, performed by Marie N who wrote it with Marats Samauskis. Malta, United Kingdom, Estonia and France rounded out the top five. Malta achieved their best result in their Eurovision history, coming second. Further down the table, Denmark finished twenty-fourth and last, their worst result up until that point, despite having been declared one of the favourites to win the competition beforehand.