Eurovision 2003, the 48th edition of the song contest took place in Riga, Latvia, following the country's surprise victory at the 2002 contest. MARIE N sang the song I WANNA. It was organized at the Skonto Hall on 24 May 2003. Marie N, the 2002 winner and Renars Kaupers, who was in the group Brainstorm, hosted.
Twenty-six countries participated in the contest, beating the record of twenty-five first set in 1993. Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and Poland, having been relegated from competing the previous year, returned. Portugal also returned to the contest after being absent the previous year. 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 2003 contest was one of the few editions where no lead artists had previously competed as lead artists in past contests, although Slovenian representative Karmen had previously performed as a backing singer to Vili Resnik (Slovenia 1998).
During the show rehearsals, Latvia impressed me by bringing in children from orphan homes to watch the morning rehearsals. The kids made special gifts for all 26 delegations/artists. Unfortunately, my memory has failed me, and I cannot recall the exact gifts and even trying to google in Dutch, English, Latvian and Russian did not bring answers.
Like Estonian TV the previous year, Latvian TV also gave me a complimentary ticket for the final. A young guy working in my hotel really wanted to attend and as I had press accreditation and could watch it in the press room, I asked Latvia TV if I could give the ticket to him.
Talking of hotels, I stayed with Morten from Norway in an official accredited hotel and on the same floor was the Romanian delegation. We had breakfast each morning with them and got to know them well. Also inside our hotel was a casino and an escort agency and some interesting stories here.
The final was great, and the voting was extremely tight. Turkey won with the song Every way that I can performed by Sertab Erener. This was Turkey's first victory in the contest after 28 years of participation. Belgium, Russia, Norway and Sweden rounded out the top five. Turkey received 167 points, Belgium 165 and Russia 164.
Further down the table, the United Kingdom achieved their worst result to date, finishing twenty-sixth (last place) with no points and resulted in a CRY BABY affair. Such drama but space does not allow me to write the details. 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.
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.
My personal top 3 were Poland, Sweden and Latvia, totally different from the winning top 3. The Latvian group was F-L-Y, a trio made up of Martin Freiman, Lauris Raynix and Yana Kay. I met them, and they were lovely to talk to. Besides the promo CD single, I got also a full CD. There is a huge tragedy around the trio. One of the two male members, Martin died in January 2011. He was one of 5 Eurovision artists I met 2000 to 2009 that died young.
A low light for me was the Russian duo t.A.T.u. I just did not like them nor their song.
As always, a highlight for me is meeting up with Ralph Siegel who was there as the composer of the German entry Let’s get happy by Lou.
An interesting fact is that the Icelandic singer of 2003, Birgitta was born in Husavik. The name meant nothing at that time but after the Eurovision theme movie of a few years ago, this name became a household name. More such facts I deleted due to cutting down the words. But please feel free to ask me!
