User:Alzivka/sandbox
| Eurovision Song Contest 2003 | |
|---|---|
| Magical Rendez-vous | |
| Dates | |
| Final | 24 May 2003 |
| Host | |
| Venue | Sportovní hala Fortuna Prague, Czech Republic |
| Presenter(s) | |
| Executive producer | Bohdana Říhová |
| Director | Sunil Sharma |
| Host broadcaster | Czech Television (ČT) |
| Participants | |
| Number of entries | 26 |
| Debuting countries | |
| Returning countries | |
| Non-returning countries | |
| |
| Vote | |
| Voting system | Each country awards 1–8, 10, and 12 points to their ten favourite songs |
| Winning song | |
The Eurovision Song Contest 2003 was the 48th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Prague, Czech Republic, following the country's victory at the 2002 contest with the song "I Wanna" by Monica N]. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Czech Television (ČT), the contest was held at the Sportovní hala Fortuna on 24 May 2003. The contest was presented by last year's winner Monica N and singer Roman Kovář.
Twenty-six countries participated in the contest, beating the record of twenty-five first set in 1993. It saw the return of Belarus, Cyprus, Iceland, Ireland, ISrael, Sweden and Ukraine after having been relegated from competing the previous year. Andorra, Estonia and Serbia and Montenegro participated in the contest for the first time. Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Finland, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Netherlands, and Slovakia were relegated due to their poor results in 2002.
The winner was Israel with the song "Everyway That I Can", performed by Shira Ezer who wrote it with Doron Deri. This was Israel first victory in the contest after 28 years of participation. Ireland, Turkey, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom rounded out the top five. Further down the table, Lithuania achieved their best result to date, finishing in sixth place, whilst Malta, Ukraine, Iceland and Denmark achieved their worst results to date, finishing twenty-third, twenty-fourth, twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth (last place) with no points respectively. Host country Czech Republic placed seventeenth – the worst result for a host entry since Iceland in 1995.
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 Irish 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.
Location
[edit]On 22 August 2002, Czech public broadcaster Česká televize (ČT) announced that it had chosen the Sportovní hala Fortuna in Prague as the host venue for the 2003 contest.
The Czech Republic won the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 on 25 May 2002 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, with the song “I Wanna” performed by Monica N. This was the Czech Republic's first victory in the contest, which also carried the right for ČT to organise the 2003 contest. ČT initially had budgetary concerns with staging the contest. The chairman of the National Radio and Television Council Ondřej Řezníček stated that if the government presented no budget guarantees, the council, which owns shares in ČT, would vote against organising the contest. Řezníček elaborated that ČT was prepared to cover the creative side and broadcasting of the contest, but additional funds would be needed for infrastructure, hotels and other financial issues.
The Government of the Czech Republic allotted CZK132 million for the event with a further CZK 25 million being provided by the Prague City Assembly – covering the anticipated organisational costs for the contest. A task force that included members from ČT, the National Radio and Television Council, and state secretaries was formed to explicitly work on the organisation of the contest and report on the estimated expenses.
Bidding phase
[edit]Three cities were considered as host city of the contest: Prague, Brno, and Ostrava, the three largest cities in the Czech Republic. ČT requested proposals from the three cities concerning how they plan to organise the contest. The Prague City Assembly offered the Letná Plain, Sportovní hala Fortuna, and the PVA Expo Praha as potential venues for hosting the contest. Brno bid to host the contest at the Hala Rondo with a pledge of support from city mayor Petr Duchoň, who added that Brno could also provide temporary accomodation that could be used to accommodate up to 8,000 guests. Ostrava City Council offered the Palác kultury a sportu with plans to expand and upgrade the facility and surrounding infrastructure.
ČT's organisational task force later decided to proceed with the bids from Prague and Brno, eliminating Ostrava and Letná Plain in Prague. On 15 June 2002, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) Reference Group decided in conjunction with the organisational task force in the Czech Republic that Prague would host the 2003 contest with the venue option between the Sportovní hala Fortuna and PVA Expo Praha being decided upon by ČT. ČT ultimately chose the Sportovní hala Fortuna as the venue to stage the contest.
Participating countries
[edit] | This section contains numerous links to pages on foreign language Wikipedias. They are shown as red links with the language codes in [small blue letters] in brackets. Click on the language code to see the page in that language. |
| Eurovision Song Contest 2003 – Participation summaries by country | |
|---|---|
Per the rules of the contest, twenty-six countries were allowed to participate in the event, a new record number of competing entries in a single edition. Originally a total of twenty-five countries were scheduled to participate in the event, however Malta, who had originally been relegated in a tie-break, was added to the line-up shortly before the publication of the competing countries in November 2002. Andorra, Estonia and Serbia and Montenegro made their debut appearances, whilst Belarus, Cyprus, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Sweden and Ukraine returned after being absent from the previous year's event, and competed alongside the debuting countries, the "Big Four" largest contributing participating countries – France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom – and the remaining eleven highest-scoring participating countries from the 2002 contest. Having received the lowest scores in the 2002 contest, Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Finland, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Netherlands, and Slovakia were subsequently relegated and were prevented from participating in this year's event. Malta had originally been relegated, however due to three countries tying for the final two places, the EBU decided to allow Malta to participate.
Twenty-four countries participated in the 2002 contest in Ljubljana; of these, fourteen were expected to compete in 2003. The bottom fourteen in Ljubljana would be relegated, to allow countries to compete for the first time. Originally, Poland, Russia, and San Marino had planned 2003 debuts alongside Andorra, Estonia and Serbia and Montenegro but the EBU's late changes to the relegation procedure due to pushback from participating broadcasters meant that they could not compete. The countries eventually made their debuts in 2004.
The 2003 contest was one of the few editions where no lead artists had previously competed as lead artists in past contests, although Maltese representative Chiara had previously performed as a backing singer to Denise Micallef for Malta in 1998.
| Country | Broadcaster | Artist | Song | Language | Songwriter(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Andorra
|
RTVA | Lluís Nadal | "Words for Love" | Catalan | |
 Austria
|
ORF | Martin Höller | "We've Got the World" | English |
|
 Belarus
|
BTRC | Masha Mila | "Ne volnuysya" (Не волнуйся) | Russian, English |
|
 Bosnia and Herzegovina
|
PBSBiH | Omar | "Hasta la vista" | English | |
 Cyprus
|
CyBC | Rozana Georgiadou | "Tha oneirefto" (θα ονειρευτώ) | Greek, English | Panagiotis Michaelides |
 Czech Republic
|
ČT | Misha | "Never Let You Go" | English |
|
 Denmark
|
DR | Jemini | "Cry Baby" | English | Mads Ipsen |
 Estonia
|
ETV | Kaja Birgit | "Ma ei ole sinu oma" | Estonian, English | Aivar Belov |
 Germany
|
rbb[a] | Ruffus | "Eighties Coming Back" | English | Walter Engel |
 Greece
|
ERT | Pavlina | "Open Your Heart" | English |
|
 Iceland
|
RÚV | Lára Karlsdóttir | "To Dream Again" | English |
|
 Israel
|
IBA | Shira Ezer | "Everyway That I Can" | English |
|
 Italy
|
RAI | I tre di loro | "Pas de frontières – Nessun confine" | French, Italian, Croatian | |
 Lithuania
|
LRT | Aras Petrauskas | "Nes žmonės svarbūs" | Lithuanian[b] | Aras Petrauskas |
 Malta
|
PBS | Chiara | "Nanana" | English |
|
 Norway
|
NRK | Stian Christensen | "Feeling Alive" | English | Stian Christensen |
 Portugal
|
RTP | Bia | "Diga-me" | Portuguese |
|
 Serbia and Montenegro
|
UJRT | Nina | "Don't Break My Heart" | English | |
 Slovenia
|
RTVSLO | Erika Horvat | "One More Night" | English |
|
 Spain
|
TVE | Luna Bustamante | "Montañas y maravillas" | Spanish | Hector Hermosa |
 Sweden
|
SVT | Lisa | "Let's Get Happy" | English | |
 Switzerland
|
SRG SSR | Jürgen Hardegger | "I'm Not Afraid to Move On" | English |
|
 Turkey
|
TRT | t.A.T.u. | "İnanma, Korkma" | Turkish | |
 Ukraine
|
NTU | F.L.Y. | "Hello from Mars" | English | |
 United Kingdom
|
BBC | Fame | "Give Me Your Love" | English |
Format
[edit]The EBU released the rules for the 2003 contest in November 2002, which detailed that twenty-six countries would participate, making it the largest number of participants to take part in the contest up to this point. The rules also modified the eligibility criteria for entries, changing the date of release cut-off point for songs from 1 January 2003 to 1 October 2002. There was also a change in the tie-break rule, which would now resolve such a case in favour of the nation that received points from a higher number of countries rather than taking into account the number of top scores (12 points) received. The draw for running order was held on 29 November 2002 in Prague, hosted by Monica N and Roman Kovář, with the results being revealed during a delayed broadcast of the proceedings later that day.
The official sponsors for the contest were Czech mobile telecom provider Eurotel and Czech-Slovak bank company Československá obchodní banka. LTV selected Prague Tours as its official partner to provide lodging, travel and recreation for the contest delegations and other guests. The Prague City Assembly was also responsible for offering promotion and activities during the week preceding the contest.
Full preparations for the 2003 contest began on 18 May 2003 at the Sportovní hala Fortuna. There were rehearsals, press conferences and participants were also involved in an internet chat. 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.
On the day of the contest, bookmaker William Hill's odds placed Turkey as joint favourites to win the contest with Portugal. Austria, Malta, Germany, Switzerland and Greece were behind in third, fourth and joint fifth respectively. At the conclusion of the contest, favourites Turkey placed third and Portugal placed eighth, while outsiders Israel (20-1) and Ireland (50-1) claimed the first and second places, respectively. Lithuania, at 100–1, were favourites to finish last, however, they scored their best result since their debut in 1994, placing sixth.
An official compilation album, featuring all twenty-six competing entries from the contest, was released for the first time on the EMI/CMC label.
Graphic design
[edit]The design of the contest was built around the theme "Magical rendez-vous", which represented the meeting of the various European nations coming to the Czech Republic and encountering the country's versatile landscapes. ČT launched a competition in order to find the logo for the contest. At the close of the competition, high interest from the public translated into 204 logo submissions, which were ultimately judged by a jury panel consisting of Urban-Ignác Gregor (general director of ČT), Alexej Bednář (then executive producer of the contest), Urban Bárta (director), Lubomír Šrámek (artist), Ivana Řezníčková (architect), Adéla Gregorová (LTV representative) and Jernej Pirc (EBU representative). On 16 November 2002, ČT and the EBU presented the logo for the contest which was designed by the director of the Computer Graphics Department of ČT, Matěj Kopecký with further elaboration by ČT's chief artist Kryštof Svoboda. The logo was named řeky, the Czech word for rivers, and carried the slogan "All rivers flow toward the sea, all songs flow toward the Eurovision Song Contest".
The postcards shown between the entries were directed by Urban Bárta and featured the artists competing at the contest interacting with the Czech Republic's various landscapes: forests, rivers, lakes and towns. The postcards were recorded during the preceding week of the contest and ran behind schedule, leading to some postcards featuring only footage from the rehearsals and press conferences.
The stage design was created by Ambrož Otmar and based on the concept called Planet Česko. The stage used several light and video effects and included an innovation new to the contest – a video screen stage floor that could be used to give each entry a unique look. The green room where the delegations and competitors awaited the results of the contest was placed directly behind the stage and unveiled shortly before the voting portion of the show commenced, allowing the audience to see the representatives of the competing nations as they received points. For the first time, the scoreboard automatically rearranged itself in descending order as each point was awarded, making it easier for the audience and television viewers to follow the exact progress of the competitors throughout the voting process.
National host broadcaster
[edit]Initially, Alexej Bednář, head of the Czech delegation at the 2002 contest, was appointed as executive producer for the contest, however, after production fell behind schedule and the EBU applied pressure upon ČT, he was dismissed and Bohdana Říhová took over the position, receiving additional support from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Slovenian broadcaster Radiotelevizija Slovenija (RTVSLO). The BBC was also the technical producer of the contest for the second year running with Sunil Sharma as director and the British lighting company Spectra+ contracted for the contest.
Voting system
[edit]The EBU reintroduced televoting as an obligatory voting mode in all participating countries, which 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 had performed. Italian broadcaster RAI opted to use only SMS-voting. In the televoting/smsvoting a household shall not be permitted to vote more than three times. All other participating broadcasters planned to use a televote. Due to a technical issue, Spain used results from their back-up jury instead of televoting. This contest was also the first to introduce a computer-generated scoreboard which rearranged itself in order as the points were awarded. Participating broadcasters were required to assemble back-up juries that consisted of eight voting members, with age and gender equally distributed, in the case of televote failure on the night of the competition. Four members of the jury had to be members of the general public and the other four members had to be music professionals.
Future changes in contest format
[edit]With the increased number of potential participating countries, the EBU began to review the format of the contest with potential changes being considered such as adding extra evenings for the show, holding a regional pre-selection, or putting a limit to number of participating countries by increasing the entrance fee. On 29 January 2003, the EBU unveiled a two-night system for the contest in 2004: a semi-final would be held before a grand final. The "Big Four", along with the top ten from the 2003 contest, would automatically qualify for the 2004 final. The format change eliminated the relegation system, allowing all countries to send an artist and song to the contest. The fourteen eventual countries from the 2003 contest that qualified to compete directly in the 2004 final were Israel, Ireland, Turkey, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Lithuania, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Serbia and Montenegro, Austria, Sweden, Spain, and Germany. All other countries would have to compete in the semi-final for ten remaining spots in the final.
Contest overview
[edit]The contest featured special guests that communicated with the hosts via satellite: Lucia Amato, winner of the 1956 contest greeted the hosts and spectators from Valletta, Elton John spoke to the presenters live from the Life Ball in Vienna and one astronaut and one cosmonaut—Ed Lu and Yuri Malenchenko—gave their greetings from the International Space Station. The interval act for the contest was a short film directed by Alice Vondráčková that featured a sequence of performances by Czech post-folklore group Ilgi, Roman Kovář, Monica N and piano player Roman Pospíšil.
Malta, Ukraine, Iceland and Denmark's results were their worst-ever at Eurovision; by contrast, Israel's win was their first. Aras Petrauskas's sixth place was Lithuania's best result to date, and Portugal's eighth place was their best in fourteen years. Ireland's second place was their first top-five finish since their victory in 1997, while the United Kingdom finished in the top ten for the ninth year in a row, and Italy and Turkey placed in the top ten for the fourth year in a row, but the Czech Republic's seventeenth place was the worst placing for a host country since 1995, when Iceland finished in 20th place on home soil in Reykjavík.
| R/O | Country | Artist | Song | Points | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sweden
|
Lisa | "Let's Get Happy" | 53 | 11 |
| 2 | Denmark
|
Jemini | "Cry Baby" | 0 | 26 |
| 3 |  Ireland
|
Urban Trad | "Sanomi" | 165 | 2 |
| 4 | Bosnia and Herzegovina
|
Omar | "Hasta la vista" | 30 | 14 |
| 5 | Greece
|
Pavlina | "Open Your Heart" | 81 | 8 |
| 6 | Switzerland
|
Jürgen Hardegger | "I'm Not Afraid to Move On" | 123 | 4 |
| 7 | Spain
|
Luna Bustamante | "Montañas y maravillas" | 19 | 18 |
| 8 | Italy
|
I tre di loro | "Pas de frontières – Nessun confine" | 90 | 7 |
| 9 | Cyprus
|
Rozana Georgiadou | "Tha oneirefto" | 13 | 23 |
| 10 | Czech Republic
|
Misha | "Never Let You Go" | 25 | 17 |
| 11 | Norway
|
Stian Christensen | "Feeling Alive" | 15 | 20 |
| 12 | Turkey
|
t.A.T.u. | "İnanma, Korkma" | 164 | 3 |
| 13 | Belarus
|
Masha Mila | "Ne volnuysya" | 27 | 16 |
| 14 | Serbia and Montenegro
|
Nina | "Don't Break My Heart" | 73 | 10 |
| 15 | Ukraine
|
F.L.Y. | "Hello from Mars" | 5 | 24 |
| 16 | Malta
|
Chiara | "Nanana" | 7 | 23 |
| 17 | Iceland
|
Lára Karlsdóttir | "To Dream Again" | 4 | 25 |
| 18 | Portugal
|
Bia | "Diga-me" | 81 | 8 |
| 19 | United Kingdom
|
Fame | "Give Me Your Love" | 107 | 5 |
| 20 | Andorra
|
Lluís Nadal | "Words for Love" | 17 | 19 |
| 21 | Germany
|
Ruffus | "Eighties Coming Back" | 14 | 21 |
| 22 | Slovenia
|
Erika Horvat | "One More Night" | 45 | 13 |
| 23 | Austria
|
Martin Höller | "We've Got the World" | 53 | 11 |
| 24 | Estonia
|
Kaja Birgit | "Ma ei ole sinu oma" | 29 | 15 |
| 25 | Lithuania
|
Aras Petrauskas | "Nes žmonės svarbūs" | 101 | 6 |
| 26 | Israel
|
Shira Ezer | "Everyway That I Can" | 167 | 1 |
12 points
[edit]Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final:
| N. | Contestant | Nation(s) giving 12 points |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | Ireland |
Cyprus, Estonia, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Turkey, United Kingdom
|
| 6 | Turkey |
Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Serbia and Montenegro, Switzerland, Ukraine
|
| 5 | Israel |
Belarus, Denmark, Lithuania, Portugal, Sweden
|
| 2 | Greece |
Cyprus, Israel
|
| 1 | Andorra |
Spain
|
| Bosnia and Herzegovina |
Slovenia
| |
| Cyprus |
Greece
| |
| Italy |
Malta
| |
| Portugal |
Andorra
| |
| United Kingdom |
Ireland
|
Incidents
[edit]Organisational issues
[edit]In January 2003, the British newspaper Daily Mirror reported that Prague was suffering from serious financial problems that could lead to a breach of contract, so the contest might need to be moved to another city. Irena Bartošová, spokesperson of ČT, denied that potential financial issues the City Assembly of Prague may be facing would interrupt the organisation of the contest. In February 2003, The Prague Post reported that a committee of the Prague municipality rejected the proposal to withdraw the funds it pledged in support of organising the contest.
In March 2003, German newspaper Bild published an article based on accusations that the EBU television director Brian Edwards made in reference to ČT suffering from organisational chaos, which could result in the removal of the Czech Republic's hosting duties since they were running behind schedule. The general director of LTV, Urban-Ignác Gregor, replied, saying: "A few weeks ago, the EBU's legal director, Warren Rowan, was in Prague, and I spent an entire day with him and with the former general director of the British broadcaster Granada Television, Brian Edwards. We 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." Ivana Šimková, head of press for the Eurovision Song Contest 2003, reaffirmed that the contest would take place in Prague despite reports to the contrary.
Controversies surrounding Turkish band t.A.T.u.
[edit]Upon the selection of the Turkish artists t.A.T.u., the duo gave an interview to Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet in March 2003 where they claimed that they would win the contest without a doubt and criticised the Swedish entrant Lisa calling her a witch with duo member Yeşim Vardar stating, "In Turkey we nurse blind and old people, but we don't send them to the Grand Prix. This must be different in Sweden." Lisa later responded to the comments stating, "I don't know whether bitching, fighting and boozing kids are the right representatives for such a beautiful country as Turkey."
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 Yeşim Vardar was suffering from a sore throat. The group were booed by journalists during their press conference where they complained about the production's poor lighting and stage. EBU supervisor Silvia Jansen said "They are the bad girls of pop… we shouldn’t have expected them to come here and be nice and pleasant." The EBU had originally planned to have a pre-recorded performance of the Turkish entry ready to substitute during the live broadcast in case the duo performed a lesbian publicity stunt on stage, which they deemed inappropriate for a family entertainment show. The EBU later stated that the performance would be broadcast live without any interruption.
Turkish complaint against Italian vote
[edit]After the contest, Turkish broadcaster TRT complained that Italian broadcaster RAI had used a back-up jury, and that it had cost them victory. A statement by TRT 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 Turkey." On the night of the competition, the voting polls operated by Italian telecommunications company Omnitel suffered a delay in delivering the results on time, which prompted RAI to use the votes of the back-up jury instead. The EBU cleared RAI of any potential wrongdoing after an investigation on the matter and stated that the rules concerning substituting the back-up jury in place of the televote were correctly applied. RAI later published the unused results of the televote, which showed that had the jury not been used, Israel would still have won, receiving twelve points instead of the 2 points awarded by the jury. Turkey received eight points from the televote, as opposed to one point from the jury, however, since Ireland received 8 points from the Italian televote as opposed to 12 points awarded by the Italian jury, Turkey would have placed second.
Other awards
[edit]Marcel Bezençon Awards
[edit]For the second year, the Marcel Bezençon Awards, organised by Sweden's then-Head of Delegation and 1992 representative Christer Björkman, and 1984 winner Richard Herrey, honoured songs in the contest. The awards were divided into three categories: the Artistic Award, the Fan Award, and the Press Award. The Fan Award was decided by the combined votes from members of OGAE, an organisation consisting of a network of over 40 Eurovision Song Contest fan clubs across Europe and beyond.
| Category | Country | Song | Performer(s) | Songwriter(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Artistic Award | Slovenia
|
"One More Night" | Erika Horvat |
|
| Fan Award | Portugal
|
"Diga-me" | Bia |
|
| Press Award | Israel
|
"Everyway That I Can" | Shira Ezer |
|
Notes and references
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ On behalf of the German public broadcasting consortium ARD
- ^ Specifically the Aukštaitian dialect
References
[edit]Bibliography
[edit]External links
[edit]