Eurovision Song Contest 2003

 Sertab Erener

Date: May 24, 2003
Venue: Skonto Hall, Riga, Latvia
Presenters: Marija Naumova, Renārs Kaupers
Director: Sven Stojanovic
Scruteneer: Sarah Yuen
Host broadcaster: LTV
Interval act: Music from Latvia
Duration: 3 hours, 10 minutes
Number of entries: 26
Debuting countries: Ukraine
Returning countries: Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal
Withdrawing countries: Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, F.Y.R. Macedonia, Switzerland
Winning Song: Every way that I can  - Sertab Erener, Turkey
Voting system: Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs

Entries

01. Iceland: Birgitta Haukdal - Open your heart (8th place, 81 points)
02. Austria: Alf Poier - Weil der Mensch zählt (6th place, 101 points)
03. Ireland: Mickey Joe Harte - We've got the world (11th place, 53 points)
04. Turkey: Sertab Erener - Every way that I can (1st place, 167 points)
05. Malta: Lynn Chircop - To dream again (25th place, 4 points)
06. Bosnia & Herzegovina: Mija Martini - Ne brini (16th place, 27 points)
07. Portugal: Rita Guerra - Deixa-me sonhar (22nd place, 13 points)
08. Croatia: Claudia Beni - Više nisam tvoja (15th place, 29 points)
09. Cyprus: Stelios Konstantas - Feeling Alive (20th place, 15 points)
10. Germany: Lou - Let's get happy (11th place, 53 points)
11. Russia: t.A.T.u. - Ne ver', ne boysia (3rd place, 164 points)
12. Spain: Beth - Dime (8th place, 81 points)
13. Israel: Lior Narkas - Words for love (19th place, 17 points)
14. The Netherlands: Esther Hart - One more night (13th place, 45 points)
15. UK: Jemini - Cry baby (26th place, 0 points)
16. Ukraine: Oleksandr Ponomaryov - Hasta la vista (14th place, 30 points)
17. Greece: Mando - Never let you go (17th place, 25 points)
18. Norway: Jostein Hasselgård - I'm not afraid to move on (4th place, 123 points)
19. France: Louisa Baïleche - Monts et merveilles (18th place, 19 points)
20. Poland: Ich Troje - Keine Grenzen-Żadnych granic (7th place, 90 points)
21. Latvia: F.L.Y. - Hello from Mars (24th place, 5 points)
22. Belgium: Urban Trad - Sanomi (2nd place, 165 points)
23. Estonia: Ruffus - Eighties coming back (21st place, 14 points)
24. Romania: Nicola - Don't break my heart (10th place, 73 points)
25. Sweden: Fame: Give me your love (5th place, 107 points)
26. Slovenia: Karmen Stavec - Nanana (23rd place, 7 points)

Esther Hart

The Eurovision Song Contest 2003 was the 48th Eurovision Song Contest, held at the Skonto Hall in Riga, Latvia on May 24 2003. The hosts were Marie N and Renārs Kaupers. Sertab Erener, the Turkish entrant, won the contest with Everyway That I Can, scoring 167 points. The winning songwriters were Sertab Erener and Demir Demirkan. Belgium and Russia were second and third respectively, within three points of Turkey's score.

Format

The 2003 contest was the last to take place over one evening; in 2004 a semi-final system was introduced. Twenty-six countries competed, at the time the biggest field in the contest's history. Six countries that sat out the 2002 contest returned from relegation, and were joined by Ukraine, making its debut, with Ukrainian heartthrob Oleksandr Ponomaryov singing Hasta La Vista, co-written by Israel's Svika Pick, who composed the 1998 Eurovision winner, Diva. The 2003 contest's start-list was the last to be influenced by the relegation rule.

The pre-contest favourites, Russia's t.A.T.u., attracted much media attention. Among the other noteworthy contestants were Alf Poier, an outspoken comedian representing Austria; Ich Troje, who attempted to represent two countries; and F.L.Y., a trio of musical veterans representing the host country. Jemini, representing the United Kingdom, finished the contest without a point, the first British entrants to do so.

This was also the fifth time in the history of the contest (including 1956) that no returning artists or acts were featured. All artists taking part in the contest this year did it for the first time.

Jostein Hasselgård

Hosting

Latvia won the 2002 Eurovision Song Contest on May 25 2002, represented by Marie N performing I Wanna. It was Latvia's first victory, and meant that LTV would host the 2003 contest. Arvids Babris, head of the Latvian delegation at the 2002 contest, said that although LTV's funds were limited, the broadcaster would host the 2003 event; later, the Latvian government pledged €2.3 million for the event. The Skonto Hall in Riga, which seats 5,000 spectators, was chosen to host the contest. Babris was appointed as its producer. In December 2002, LTV announced that the contest would be hosted by Marie N, alongside Renars Kaupers, the lead singer of Brainstorm, the Latvian representatives at the 2000 contest. In March 2003, Danish newspaper B.T. reported that the contest could be moved as it was running behind schedule; the general director of LTV, Uldis Grava, replied, saying: "We [Grava, Bjorn Erichsen of Danmarks Radio and Werner Rumphorst of the EBU] 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." Swedish public broadcaster Sveriges Television produced the contest for the second year running (with Sven Stojanovic as director), and Swedish lighting company Spectra+, having supplied the 2000 and 2002 contests, were involved for the third time. The contest's tagline was Magical Rendez-vous. An official CD of the contest was released, on the EMI/CMC label.

Participating countries

Twenty-four countries participated in the 2002 contest in Tallinn; of these, fourteen were expected to compete in 2003. The bottom ten in Tallinn would be relegated, to allow countries to compete for the first time. In reality, only five countries were relegated—nineteen countries that entered in 2002 competed in Riga. Macedonia, Finland, Switzerland, Lithuania and Denmark were forced to sit out the contest. The nineteen qualifiers were joined by the six countries that had sat out the 2002 contest: Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Portugal. The twenty-sixth contestant was Ukraine, making its debut at the contest. Originally, Serbia and Montenegro, Albania and Belarus had planned 2003 debuts, but the EBU's late changes to the relegation procedure meant that they could not compete. All three nations made their debuts in 2004. RTBF was the Belgian broadcaster at the forty-eighth contest, marking the first Walloon entry since 2000. Twenty-six entries was the highest number in the contest's history at that point; it remains the most to have competed in a Eurovision final, and was subsequently equalled nine years later in 2012. The draw for the running order took place in December 2002 in Riga: Iceland would open the contest and Slovenia would complete it.

 Lou

National selections

Austria, having failed to finish in the top five at Eurovision since 1989, selected comedian Alf Poier to represent them in a televised national final on 14 March 2003. Poier beat former Eurovision contestant Petra Frey into second place. He described his song, Weil der Mensch zählt, as a hymn to individualism and against collectivism. Ireland, back from relegation, used a reality series, You're A Star, to select their entry. The winner was Mickey Harte; his Eurovision song reached number one on the Irish Singles Chart. Spain also used a reality series; Beth, a runner-up of Operación Triunfo was chosen. Ich Troje tried to represent Poland and Germany with different songs: they won the Polish final on 27 January with Keine Grenzen-Żadnych granic; performed in Polish, German and Russian), but lost in Germany. A member of the Belgian group, Urban Trad, was expelled from the group after it was reported that she had been a member of a far-right political group—this was later denied by the group as the reason for her absence.

In Latvia, three former Eirodziesma contestants won the right to represent the host country as F.L.Y., performing Hello From Mars. Sweden's Melodifestivalen took place on 15 March at the Globen in Stockholm; Fame won the right to represent the country in Riga. Estonia chose Claire's Birthday as their representative—the band later changed their name to Ruffus. Among the contestants to be chosen internally (without a televised selection) were t.A.T.u. from Russia: the self-styled duo had already scored a chart-topper throughout Europe with All the Things She Said, and quickly became favourites to win the contest.

Twelve languages were represented at the contest: eleven real and one constructed. Belgium's Sanomi was described by its composer as a danceable folk pearl sung in an imaginary and thus universal language. Most of the entries included lyrics in English.

 t.A.T.u.

Eurovision week

Full preparations for the 2003 contest began on May 18 2003 at the Skonto Hall. There were rehearsals, press conferences and participants were also involved in an Internet chat. The first performer to rehearse was Birgitta Haukdal from Iceland, on May 19; she was also first at the Press Centre and on the web chat. t. A.T.u.'s first rehearsal dominated proceedings on May 20—the band were supposed to rehearse the day before, but had turned up a day late, claiming that Yulia Volkova was suffering from a sore throat. The group were booed by journalists at the Press Centre. Sarah Yuen from the EBU said They are the bad girls of pop…we shouldn’t have expected them to come here and be nice and pleasant. With the entrants' press conferences and web chats completed, two dress rehearsals were held on May 23, 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 May 24, 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 Russia as joint favourites to win the contest with Spain. Ireland, Slovenia, Estonia, Norway and Iceland were behind in third, fourth and joint fifth respectively. Austria, at 100-1, were favourites to finish last. A separate bookmaker also placed Russia to win, but were only joint favourites with the United Kingdom.

Show

The Eurovision Song Contest 2003 began at 22:00 EEST (19:00 UTC) on Saturday 24 May 2003. Among the 6,000 spectators were several Latvian government ministers. In between the entries, touristy film clips of the contestants were shown. Elton John spoke to the presenters from Vienna and one astronaut and one cosmonaut—Ed Lu and Yuri Malenchenko—gave their greetings from the International Space Station. Alf Poier performed Weil der Mensch zählt flanked by stuffed farmyard animals. The Turkish entry, Everyway That I Can performed by Sertab Erener, featured a mix of rhythm and belly dance. Romania's Nicola was joined by dancers holding cardboard records. By contrast, Jostein Hasselgård performed the Norwegian entry at a piano, without any movement from his backing singers. Malta's performer, Lynn Chircop, threw a flower into the audience during her performance of To Dream Again. Before the voting began, short clips of the songs were played, in reverse order, beginning with the final song. The interval act featured Renars Kaupers' band, Brainstorm, and Marie N performing in a filmed sequence.

Alf Poier

Voting

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. Bosnia & Herzegovina and Russia used juries, due to the countries' poor telecommunications.[34] Poland's voting was done entirely by text message;[36] all other countries planned to use a televote. This contest was also the first to introduce a computer-generated scoreboard which rearranged itself in order as the points were awarded.

Among the spokespeople were three former Eurovision contestants: Marlayne for the Netherlands in 1999, Ines for Estonia in 2000, and Sandrine François for France in 2002. Kattis Ahlström, co-host of the 2000 contest, announced the Swedish results.

Iceland were first to vote: they awarded their twelve points to Norway, giving Jostein Hasselgård an early lead. Austria were next, awarding one point to Germany and twelve points to Turkey. The jury in Sarajevo also awarded their twelve points to Turkey. As Bosnian spokesperson Ana Vilenica announced the votes, she mistakenly awarded five points to Croatia, rather than Austria. As a result, she had to announce the results again from the beginning. Terry Wogan, meanwhile, jokingly remarked That's OK, you're fired! For the first time, Cyprus managed to award points to Turkey (eight, in fact) and, as usual, awarded twelve points to Greece, amidst booing in the hall—Greece reciprocated. The Russian jury awarded twelve points to Romania. Ukraine, making their debut, gave their twelve points to Russia. The host country's top score also went to t.A.T.u.; Russia picked up five twelve-point scores in total.

With just Slovenia left to vote, Belgium's Urban Trad led the contest with 162 points with their song Sanomi sung in an imaginary language, with Turkey second with 157 and Russia third with 152. Three points were awarded to Belgium, putting them on 165 and leaving Russia out of the running. Turkey won ten points, giving them a nail-biting victory with 167 points. The final twelve points went to Russia, leaving them on 164. Norway were fourth and Sweden fifth, with the United Kingdom last, without a point.

 Mickey Joe Harte

Aftermath

Turkey's victory meant that it would stage the 2004 contest. During the week of the contest, 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 fourteen eventual qualifiers were Turkey, Belgium, Russia, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Poland, Spain, Iceland, Romania, Ireland, Germany, France and the United Kingdom. All the other countries would compete in the semi.

After the contest, Russia's Channel One complained that Irish broadcaster RTÉ had used a back-up jury, and that it had cost them victory. A statement by Channel One 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 Russia. RTÉ responded by publishing the unused results of the Irish televote, which showed that had the jury not been used, Turkey would still have won, and Ireland's voting partners, the United Kingdom, would still have no points.

The United Kingdom's last-place finish was greeted with much consternation in the British media. Terry Wogan, long-time commentator on the contest for the BBC, said that the UK was suffering from post-Iraq backlash. Chris Cromby from Jemini said The monitors were off. Maybe it was sabotage, but we couldn't hear anything...we used the floor monitors, the others used their own. The UK's result was their worst-ever at Eurovision; by contrast, Turkey's win was their first. Alf Poier's sixth place was Austria's best result for fourteen years, Poland's seventh place was their best in nine, and Romania's tenth place was one place behind their best-ever. Belgium's second place was their first top-five finish in seventeen years, but Latvia's third-from-bottom finish was their worst result in four attempts; it was also the worst placing for a host country since 1992.

Marcel Bezençon Awards

The Marcel Bezençon Awards were first handed out during the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 in Tallinn, Estonia honoring the best competing songs in the final. Founded by Christer Björkman (Sweden's representative in the 1992 Eurovision Song Contest and current Head of Delegation for Sweden) and Richard Herrey (member of the Herreys, Eurovision Song Contest 1984 winner from Sweden), the awards are named after the creator of the annual competition, Marcel Bezençon. The awards are divided into 3 categories; Press Award; Artistic Award; and Fan Award.

Artists Award: The Netherlands, Esther Hart - One more night
Fan Award: Spain, Beth - Dime
Press Award: Turkey, Sertab erener - Every way that I can

Anabela

Anabela

Anabela Braz Pires (born September 22, 1976 in Almada) is a Portuguese singer and musical theatre actress, best known in Portugal by her first name, Anabela. For her album Nós which was released in 2010 Anabela covered the Portuguese entry of the ESC 1974 E depois do adeus.

Her career in music has spanned over two decades, and she is well known for representing Portugal at the Eurovision Song Contest, her work as a solo recording artist and her work in musical theatre collaborating with producer Filipe La Féria. In a 2006 interview with Selecções do Reader's Digest, she joked that in the national consciousness, she went from being known as the Eurovision girl to the La Féria girl.

Anabela started singing professionally at the age of 8, participating in various children's festivals. In 1989, at age 12, she won the Grande Noite do Fado. That year she represented Portugal at the UNICEF Song Festival in the Netherlands where she received second place and won the Danny Kaye Award for Best Interpreter.

In 1991, she participated in the Sopot International Song Festival representing Portugal with the song Brother. From there, she released albums in 1991 and 1992.

In 1993 Anabela won Festival RTP da Canção with the song A cidade (até ser dia) In Millstreet, at the ESC, she came 10th with 60 points. The song was the lead single on her third album, also called A cidade, até ser dia.

Her fourth album, released in 1996, was called Primeiras Águas. That year she also participated in Filipe La Féria's children's musical Jasmim ou o Sonho do Cinema. In 1999, Anabela worked with La Féria again, starring in the musical Koko. She released another album that same year, heralded by HMV Japan as the new generation of fado, called Origens.

In 2000, she recorded four tracks with the Galician musician Carlos Núñez for his album Mayo Longo, and participated in the promotional tour, which lasted two and a half years and took her around the world. Returning to Portugal in 2002, she continued her association with La Féria, playing protagonist Eliza Doolittle in the Lisbon production of My Fair Lady.

In 2005, she released her first album in six years, which was an interpretation of poems called Aether. With the help of Carlos Maria Trindade, she interpreted the poems of Portuguese writers Florbela Espanca, Fernando Pessoa, Manuel Alegre and José Carlos Ary dos Santos. She also released a Spanish version of her album on Resistencia Records. In March 2006, she performed three special concerts in Spain and two in the Azores, performing some of the works on the Aether album.

In 2006, Anabela and popular singer Lúcia Moniz took turns playing the part of Maria von Trapp in Música no Coração, the Portuguese production of The Sound of Music at the Teatro Politeama in Lisbon. This was a continuation of Anabela's working relationship with La Féria, as he directed the production.

In December 2007 the show was taken on the road to Porto, where Anabela reprised her role at the Teatro Rivoli with Wanda Stuart. The musical celebrated its 500th show in Portugal, in April 2008, and finished its run on May 4, 2008.

Taking a break of less than a month, Anabela returned to the stage on May 30, 2008, at the Teatro Politeama, in Lisbon, working again with La Féria. She stepped into the role of Mary Magdalene in Jesus Cristo Superstar, the Lisbon production of Jesus Christ Superstar, taking over the part from Sara Lima. For the entire month of August 2008, Anabela and the entire company performed the musical in Portimão, in the Algarve.

In November 2008, Anabela participated in La Féria's newest musical production, Amor Sem Barreiras, the Portuguese adaptation of West Side Story, at Lisbon's Politeama.

In addition to being a recording artist and stage actress, Anabela is also known for her voiceover work as a singing voice. For Disney she was the singing voices for Ariel in The Little Mermaid, the title character in Mulan and Rapunzel in Tangled. In addition to her Disney voices, she was the singing voice for Kayley in The Quest for Camelot for Warner Bros. and the singing voice for Miriam in The Prince of Egypt for DreamWorks.

Eurovision Song Contest 2002

Marie N

Date: May 25, 2002
Venue: Saku Suurhall, Tallinn, Estonia
Presenters: Annely Peebo, Marko Matvere
Director: Marius Bratten
Scruteneer: Christine Marchal-Ortiz
Host broadcaster: ETV
Interval act: Dance performance directed and choreographed by Teet Kask
Duration: 3 hours
Number of entries: 24
Debuting countries: -
Returning countries: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, F.Y.R. Macedonia, Romania, Switzerland
Withdrawing countries: Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal
Winning Song: I Wanna - Marie N, Latvia
Voting system: Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs

Entries

01. Cyprus: One - Gimme (6th place, 85 points)
02. UK: Jessica Garlick - Come vack (3rd place, 111 points)
03. Austria: Manuel Ortega - Say a word (18th place, 26 points)
04. Greece: Michalis Rakintzis - S.A.G.A.P.O. - 17th place, 27 points)
05. Spain: Rosa - Europe's living a celebration (7th place, 81 points)
06. Croatia: Vesna Pisarović - Everything I want (11th pace, 44 points)
07. Russia: Prime Minister - Northern girl (10th place, 55 points)
08. Estonia: Sahlene - Runaway (3rd place, 111 points)
09. F.Y.R. Macedonia: Karolina Gočeva - Od nas zavisi (19th place, 25 points)
10. Israel: Sarit Hadad - Light a candle (12th place, 37 points)
11. Switzerland: Francine Jordi - Dans le jardin de mon âme (22nd place, 15 points)
12. Sweden: Afro-dite - Never let it go (8th place, 72 points)
13. Finland: Laura Voutilainen - Addicted to you (20th place, 24 points)
14. denmark: Malene - Tell me who you are (24th place, 7 points)
15. Bosnia & Herzegovina: Maja Tatić - Na jastuku za dvoje (13th place, 33 points)
16. Belgium: Sergio & The Ladies - sister (13th place, 33 points)
17. France: Sandrine François - Il faut du temps (5th place, 104 points)
18. Germany: Corinna May - I can't live without music (21st place, 17 points)
19. Turkey: Buket Bengisu & Group Safir - Leylaklar soldu kalbinde (16th place, 29 points)
20. Malta: Ira Losco - 7th Wonder (2nd place, 164 points)
21. Romania: Monica Anghel & Marcel Pavel - Telle me why (9th place, 71 points)
22. Slovenia: Sestre - Samo ljubezen (13th place, 33 points)
23. Latvia: Marie N - I wanna (1st place, 176 points)
24. Lithuania: Aivaras - Happy you (23rd place, 12 points)

Rosa

The Eurovision Song Contest 2002 was the 47th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place on May 25 2002 at the Saku Suurhall Arena in Tallinn, Estonia.

The contest was won by Latvia's Marie N and her song I Wanna, which won by a tight margin over Malta's Ira Losco. Third place went to both the United Kingdom and host country Estonia, with France completing the Top 5.

I Wanna was the winning song in the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 performed in English by Marie N representing Latvia. With this victory, Latvia became the second Baltic state to win the Contest. The song was written by Marie Naumova and Marats Samauskis.

Jessica Garlick

The song is particularly famous for Marie's performance. She began wearing a white suit and a trilby hat, which was removed by one of her dancers. As the song continued, other dancers removed her suit jacket and her dark shirt, revealing the top of a red dress. The suit trousers were then removed, revealing the bottom half of the short dress. On the final beat of the song, the hem was pulled, revealing the dress to be much longer. This visual performance was also supported by a Salsa-style song, which made full use of the more up-beat tempos increasingly finding success in the Contest.

Format

There had been worries about whether Estonian broadcaster ETV would be able to fund the event; however, worries were put to rest when a combination of fundraising activities and the Estonian Government enabled them to host the event. The theme implemented for this year's contest was a modern fairytale, which was evident in the postcards aired between the songs, which showed classic fairytales ending with Estonian situations.

The show began with 2001 winners Tanel Padar and Dave Benton performing a reprise of their winning entry Everybody. The hosts for the evening, Annely Peebo and Marko Matvere, gave a performance of A Little Story in the Music, composed by Raimond Valgre and arranged especially for the event, during the commercial break between the songs from Sweden and Finland.

Sarit Hadad

A total of 24 countries competed in the 2002 Contest, which included the top 17 countries from the previous years contest, alongside the seven returning countries which had been relegated from competing in the 2001 Contest. These countries replaced the bottom 6 countries from the 2001 contest, which were relegated from taking part in this year's Contest.

The total participants had originally been 22, but when the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) increased their participation number for the Contest to 24 this granted Israel and Portugal the opportunity to enter. Portugal declined to enter the Contest due to internal problems in the Portuguese broadcaster RTP. This allowed Latvia (who went on to win the Contest) to enter.[3][4]

Controversy erupted during the competition over remarks by commentators on Swedish and Belgian TV, both of whom told the audience not to vote for the Israeli singer Sarit Hadad. Hadad received zero points from the Swedish audience but earned two from the Belgians, finishing 12th overall.

 Afro-dite

The Danes suffered the same fate at this contest, as the Norwegians had suffered some years earlier. Denmark won in 2000, came second in 2001 and last in 2002. Norway won in 1995, came second in 1996 and last in 1997, where it picked up its fourth nul points, a Eurovision record for the most scorless entries. The Danish entry in 2002, Malene Mortensen, had been one of the favorites to win.

Voting

Half of the participating countries organized a televote where the top 10 songs received the points, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 12, but FYR Macedonia, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Bosnia and Herzegovina used juries, while Cyprus, Greece, Spain, Croatia, Malta, Slovenia and Lithuania used a 50-50 mix of both televoting and jury votes. This was used as it had become apparent that the public vote favored songs in the later part of the running order in comparison to the songs nearer to the start - particularly in the preceding 2001 contest. This year saw allegations that the juries in use were guilty of swapping votes between each other.

 Ira Losco

Returning artists

Two atists returned to the contest. Constantinos Christoforou, member of the Cypriot band One, represented Cyprus in 1996 and Monica Anghel represented Romania in 1996 but stranded in the Pre-qualifying round.

Marcel Bezençon Awards

The Marcel Bezençon Awards were first handed out during the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 in Tallinn, Estonia honoring the best competing songs in the final. Founded by Christer Björkman (Sweden's representative in the 1992 Eurovision Song Contest and current Head of Delegation for Sweden) and Richard Herrey (member of the Herreys, Eurovision Song Contest 1984 winner from Sweden), the awards are named after the creator of the annual competition, Marcel Bezençon. The awards are divided into 3 categories; Press Award; Artistic Award; and Fan Award.Monica Anghel

Artists Award: Sweden, Afro-dite - Never let it go
Fan Award: Finland, Laura Voutilainen - Addicted to you
Press Award: France, Sandrine François - Il faut du temps

Eurovision Song Contest 2001

 Tanel Padar & Dave Benton

Date: May 12, 2001
Venue: Parken Stadium, Copenhagen, Denmark
Presenters: Natasja Crone Back, Søren Pilmark
Director: Jan Frifelt
Scruteneer: Christine Marchal-Ortiz
Host broadcaster: DR
Interval act: Aqua and Safri Duo
Duration: 3 hours
Number of entries: 23
Debuting countries: -
Returning countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Greece, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia
Withdrawing countries: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, F.Y.R. Macedonia, Romania, Switzerland
Winning Song: Everybody - Tanel Padar, Dave Benton, 2XL, Estonia
Voting system: Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs

Entries

01. The Netherlands: Michelle - Out on my own (18th place, 16 points)
02. Iceland: Two Tricky - Angel (22nd place, 3 points)
03. Bosnia & Herzegovina: Nino Pršeš - Hano (14th place, 29 points)
04. Norway: Haldor Lægreid - On my own (22nd place, 3 points)
05. Israel: Tal Sondak - En davar (16th place, 25 points)
06. Russia: Mumiy Troll - Lady alpine blue (12th place, 37 points)
07. Sweden: Friends - Listen to your heartbeat (5th place, 100 points)
08. Lithuania: Skamp - You got style (13th place, 35 points)
09. Latvia: Arnis Mednis - Too much (18th place, 16 points)
10. Croatia: Vanna - Strings of my heart (10th place, 42 points)
11. Portugal: MTM - Só sei ser feliz assim (17th place, 18 points)
12. Ireland: Gary O'Shaughnessy - Without your love (21st place, 6 points)
13. Spain: David Civera - Dile que la quiero (6th place, 76 points)
14. France: Natasha St-Pier - Je n'ai que mon âme (4th place, 142 points)
15. Turkey: Sedat Yüce - Sevgiliye Son (11th place, 41 points)
16. UK: Lindsay Dracass - No dream impossible (15th place, 28 points)
17. Slovenia: Nuša Derenda - Energy (7th place, 70 points)
18. Poland: Piasek - 2 Long (20th place, 11 points)
19. Germany: Michelle - Wer liebe lebt (8th place, 66 points)
20. Estonia: Tanel Padar, Dave Benton, 2XL - Everybody (1st place, 198 points)
21. Malta: Fabrizio Faniello - Another summer night (9th place, 48 points)
22. Greece: Antique - Die for you (3rd place, 147 points)
23. Denmark: Rollo & King - Never ever let it go (2nd place, 177 points)

Michelle

The Eurovision Song Contest 2001 was the 46th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on May 12 2001 in the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was the first time in 36 years that Denmark hosted the Eurovision Song Contest, thanks to the Olsen Brothers' win the previous year in Stockholm. The Olsen Brothers Opened the show with a snippet from their winning song Fly on the Wings of Love, followed by their latest single Walk Right Back, which was already a smash hit in Denmark. The presenters were Danish journalist and TV-show presenter Natasja Crone Back and the famous Danish actor Søren Pilmark who spoke most of their announcements in rhyme. The contest was won by Estonia who were represented by Tanel Padar, Dave Benton & 2XL with the song Everybody, written by Ivar Must and Maian Karmas. Dave Benton, from Aruba, was the first black person to win the contest.

Venue

The venue choice for the contest was the Parken Stadium, a football stadium in the Indre Østerbro (Inner Østerbro) district of Copenhagen, Denmark, built from 1990–1992. A total of 35,000 spectators saw the show live from within the stadium, breaking a record held by the previous hosts Sweden in 2000.

Format

The logo of the 2001 Eurovision Song Contest was made out of four circles, placed in the shape of a heart. The four circles were also present in the stage design, with the light construction was made of the same four rings.

Michelle

The Danish national broadcaster faced some problems whilst organising the contest such as the lack of funds and the search for a suitable venue. The event was eventually located in the football stadium Parken, after the company running the stadium agreed to add a retractable roof to the building. This solution made it the biggest venue ever to host a Eurovision Song Contest, but the scale of it wasn't entirely a success: many of the 38,000 people in the audience could not see the stage, and for many entries the hall appeared to be too big.

All of the countries participating in this year's Eurovision were required to use televoting for the first time after becoming compulsory. The jury backup votes were only used by some countries with either technical problems with their televotes or a weak fixed-telephone infrastructure. Further changes occurred in the qualification process for the 2002 Contest: along with the "Big 4" countries, the top 15 placed countries of the country would qualify for next year's competition. The other spots for 2002 would be filled by countries that were excluded from the 2001 contest because of their low point average for the years 1996-2000.

France, Greece and Slovenia were the heavy favourites to win the contest, however as the voting progressed it became a two-horse race between Denmark and Estonia, with Estonia ending as the unexpected winner.

 Fabrizio Faniello

Incidents

Controversy was again rife in the 2001 Contest: the United Kingdom TV commentator Terry Wogan repeatedly made critical comments about the hosts and dubbed them "Doctor Death and the Tooth Fairy/The Little Mermaid" after providing their entire commentary in rhyming couplets. The Danes were so offended that the BBC was obliged to issue an apology on Wogan's comments. Controversy also surrounded the Swedish song, Listen To Your Heartbeat, which was repeatedly accused as a plagiarism of the Belgian entry for the 1996 Contest, Liefde is een kaartspel. Eventually the EBU decided for the matter to be settled in court, with the song allowed to compete as long as the courts did not declare the song as plagiarism.

During the voting the Danish band Aqua performed with a medley of their singles, with percussion ensemble Safri Duo performing in the medley. Although enjoyable, people complained about it being a little bit rude as there was some swearing during the performance, both at the beginning and end of Barbie Girl.

Partcipating countries

Due to the EBU's relegation rule of the lowest ranked countries from the contest had to miss the follow year's contest, meant several countries had to withdraw, while relegated countries from the 1999 contest were able to return this year. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, and Slovenia returned, while Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, Macedonia, Romania, and Switzerland withdrew, as they were the lowest ranking countries from the 2000 contest. This brought the total number of participating countries to twenty-three.

 Antique

Returning artists

No returning acts were present this year, the first time it happened since 1989.

Voting

The majority of participating countries held a televote, where the top ten most voted for songs were awarded the 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points. This year the EBU introduced for the first time a mix of voting systems (50% televoting and 50% jury) for those countries that didn't want to use 100% televoting. According to the EBU rules (published on 05/10/00), every broadcaster was free to make a choice between the full televoting system and the mixed 50-50 system. In exceptional circumstances, where televoting was not possible at all, only a jury was used: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Turkey and Russia. Only a few countries are confirmed to have used the mixed voting system: Croatia, Greece and Malta.

Ketil Stokkan

Ketil Stokkan

Ketil Stokkan (born April 29 1956, in Harstad) is a Norwegian pop artist who has performed as solo artist as well as a singer in the Norwegian band Zoo.

In 1983 he participated in the Norwegian qualifying heat for Eurovision Song contest with the song Samme charmeur which was placed second.

In 1986 he won the national Eurovision Song Contest with the song Romeo, written by himself, which came 12th on homeground in the Eurovision Song Contest final, which that year was held in Bergen, Norway. In 1990 he won the national final again with the song Brandenburger Tor, the song ended up last tied with Finland. Ketil Stokkan now works as a secondary school teacher in Harstad.

Ketil had released many singles and albums as a solo artist and with the band Zoo.

Eurovision Song Contest 2000

 Olsen Brothers

Date: May 13, 2000
Venue: Globe Arena, Stockholm, Sweden
Presenters: Kattis Åhlström, Anders Lundin
Director: Marius Bratten
Scruteneer: Christine Marchal-Ortiz
Host broadcaster: SVT
Interval act: Street Musicians from Stockholm
Duration: 3 hours, 2 minutes
Number of entries: 24
Debuting countries: Latvia
Returning countries: Finland, F.Y.R. Macedonia, Romania, Russia, Switzerland
Withdrawing countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia
Winning Song: Fly on the Wings of Love - Olsen Brothers, Denmark
Voting system: Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs

Entries

01. Israel: PingPong - Sameyakh (22nd place, 7 points)
02. The Netherlands: Linda Wagenmakers - No goodbyes (13th place, 40 points)
03. UK: Nicki French - Don't play that song again (16th place, 28 points)
04. Estonia: Ines - Once in a lifetime (4th place, 98 points)
05. France: Sofia Mestari - On aura le ciel (23rd place, 5 points)
06. Romania: Taxi - the moon (17th place, 25 points)
07. Malta: Claudette Pace - Desire (8th place, 73 points0
08. Norway: Charmed - My heart goes boom (11th place, 57 points)
09. Russia: Alsou - Solo (2nd place, 155 points)
10. Belgium: Nathalie Sorce - Envie de vivre (24th place, 2 points0
11. Cyprus: voice - Nomiza (21st place, 8 points)
12. Iceland: August & Telma - Tell me! (12th place, 45 points)
13. Spain: Serafín Zubiri - Colgado de un sueño (18th place, 18 points)
14. Denmark: Olsen Brothers - Fly on the wings of love (1st place, 195 points)
15. Germany: Stefan Raab - Wadde hadde dudde da? (5th place, 96 points)
16. Switzerland: Jane Bogaert - La vita cos'è? (20th place, 14 points)
17. Croatia: Goran Karan - Kad zaspu andeli (9th place, 70 points)
18. Sweden: Roger Pontare - When Spirits Are Calling My Name (7th place, 88 points)
19. F.Y.R. Macedonia: XXL - 100% te ljubam (15th place, 29 points)
20. Finland: Nina Åström - A little bit (18th place, 18 points)
21. Latvia: Brainstorm - My star (3rd place, 136 points)
22. Turkey: Pinar Ayhan & the SOS - Yorgunum anla (10th place, 59 points)
23. Ireland: Eamonn Toal - Millennium of love (6th place, 92 points)
24. Austria: The Rounder Girls - All to you (14th place, 34 points)

 Linda Wagenmakers

The Eurovision Song Contest 2000 was the 45th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 13 May 2000 at the Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden, following Charlotte Nilsson's victory in Jerusalem the previous year. It was the first time since 1996 that the contest was held on mainland Europe. The contest was the second to be held in Stockholm, and the fourth held in Sweden. The presenters were Kattis Ahlström and Anders Lundin, and the contest was won by the Olsen Brothers who represented Denmark with the song Fly on the Wings of Love (originally: Smuk som et stjerneskud). The song was written by one of the brothers, Jørgen Olsen.

Format

The Globe Arena was, at the time, the largest venue chosen to host the contest with a capacity of 16,000 spectators. The postcards used to introduce each country participating involved Swedish themes that incorporated each nation in some respect. The logo for the contest, a pair of open mouth lips, was chosen by SVT, and was described by its designers as "a sensual, yet stylistically pure mouth representing song, dialogue and speech", and was later one of the possible choices for the generic logo introduced at the 2004 Contest.

The favourite in this year's contest was Estonia, who was also a fan favourite and praised by the press. However, as the voting results came in, Denmark immediately took control of the scoreboard, beating Russia into second place and Latvia into 3rd place.

For the first time, an official CD compilation was released; it contained all of the songs of the participating nations and was available throughout Europe. Such a disc was attempted in the previous year, however it lacked four of the competing songs.

Participating countries

Slovakia, Greece and Hungary decided not to compete for financial reasons. The countries with the five lowest average scores over the previous five contests who had participated in 1999, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal and Slovenia were excluded meaning that five countries could return. These countries were: Finland, Macedonia, Romania, Russia and Switzerland. Latvia also joined contest as the only country to debut.

 Ines

Incidents

There were some controversies concerning some participating countries. Israel, who opened the contest, entered a group who waved Israeli and Syrian flags advocating peace between the two nations. The two male singers in the group also ran up to each other and kissed for a brief moment. The Russian delegation petitioned for the winning Olsen Brothers to be disqualified, after they had used a vocoder to give Jørgen Olsen an electronic sound to his voice, during one of the verses of their performance. This issue was rejected by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

The intermission during the finale of the ESC was Once Upon a Time Europe Was Covered With Ice, a movie/song directed, composed and edited by Johan Söderberg and produced by John Nordling. For the film Söderberg had traveled all over Europe to record children performing the score. On stage were violinist Caroline Lundgren, drummer Strängnäs Trumkorps plus street musicians from Stockholm and dancers from the Bounce Street Dance Company.

In the Netherlands, NOS decided to take the Contest off air halfway through because of the Enschede fireworks disaster that happened earlier that day, so it could use the channel for continuous news broadcasts. Later, NOS declared that it was both for practical reasons as well as because they found it "inappropriate to broadcast a light entertainment programme on the night of such a catastrophic event". As a result, televoting had to be suspended and the Dutch votes were given by a stand-by jury instead.

The contest was also broadcast in Canada, Australia, Japan, the United States and via the internet for the first time.

Voting

According to the EBU rules of the 45th Eurovision Song Contest 2000 (published on 23 September 1999), all participating countries should have used televoting, where the top ten most voted for songs were awarded the 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points. In exceptional circumstances where televoting was not possible, a jury was used instead: Russia, Macedonia, Turkey and Romania. The Dutch votes were the votes of the backup jury due to interrupted broadcasting of the contest in the Netherlands because of the fireworks disaster in the Dutch town of Enschede.

Returning artists

Three artists returned to the ESC this year. Alexandros Panayi, member of Voice, represented Cyprus in 1995, Serafín Zubiri participated Sweden in 1992 and Roger Pontare represented Sweden in 1994.

Eurovision Song Contest 1999

Charlotte Nilsson

Date: May 24, 1999
Venue: International Convention Center, Jerusalem, Israel
Presenters: Dafna Dekel, Yigal Ravid, Sigal Shahamon
Directors: Aharon Goldfinger, Hagay Mautner, Amnon Barkay
Scruteneer: Christine Marchal-Ortiz
Host broadcaster: IBA
Price presenter: Dana International
Interval act: Dana International, performing Free
Duration: 3 hours, 14 minutes
Number of entries: 23
Debuting countries: -
Returning countries: Austria, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Denmark, Iceland, Lithuania
Withdrawing countries: Finland, Greece, Hungary, F.Y.R. Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland
Winning Song: Take Me To Your Heaven - Charlotte Nilsson, Sweden
Voting system: Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs

Béatrice & Dino

Entries

01. Lithuania: Aistė - Strazdas (20th place, 13 points)
02. Belgium: Vanessa Chinitor - Like the wind (12th place, 38 points)
03. Spain: Lydia - No quiero escuchar (23rd place, 1 point
04. Croatia: Doris Dragović - Marija Magdalena (4th place, 118 points)
05. UK: Precious - Say it again (12th place, 38 points)
06. Slovenia: Darja Švajger - For a thousand years (11th place, 50 points)
07. Turkey: Tuğba Önal & Grup Mistik - Dön Artık (16th place, 21 points)
08. Norway: Stig van Eijk - Living my life without you (14th place, 35 points)
09. Denmark: Trine Jepsen & Michael Teschl - This time I mean it (8th place, 71 points)
10. France: Nayah - Je veux donner ma voix (19th place, 14 points)
11. The Netherlands: Marlayne - One good reason (8th place, 71 points)
12. Poland: Mietek Szcześniak - Przytul mnie mocno (18th place, 17 points)
13. Iceland: Selma - All out of luck (2nd place, 146 points)
14. Cyprus: Marlain - Tha 'ne erotas (22nd place, 2 points)
15. sweden: Charlotte Nilsson - Take me to your heaven (1st place, 163 points)
16. Portugal: Rui Bandeira - Como tudo começou (21st place, 12 points)
17. Ireland: The Mullans - When you need me (17th place, 18 points)
18. Austria: Bobby Singer - Reflection (10th place, 65 points)
19. Israel: Eden - Yom Huledet (Happy Birthday) (5th place, 93 points)
20. Malta: Times Three - Believe 'n peace (15th place, 32 points)
21. Germany: Sürpriz - Reise nach Jerusalem - Kudüs'e seyahat (3rd place, 140 points)
22. Bosnia & Herzegovina: Dino & Béatrice - Putnici (7th place, 86 points)
23. Estonia: Evelin Samuel & Camille - Diamond of night (6th place, 90 points)

Eden

The Eurovision Song Contest 1999 was the 44th Eurovision Song Contest, held on May 29, 1999 in Jerusalem, Israel after Dana International won the contest the previous year in the United Kingdom. The venue for the contest was the Ussishkin Auditorium at the International Convention Center,the same place who´s was hosted the 1979 contest. Television anchor news Yigal Ravid, singer and 1992 contestant Dafna Dekel and model/actress Sigal Shahamon were the show's hosts, and it was the first time that three presenters were used to host the Contest. Israel's two previous winners, Izhar Cohen, who won in 1978 with A-Ba-Ni-Bi and Milk and Honey's Gali Atari who won it the next year with Hallelujah attended as spectators. The winner of the Contest was Charlotte Nilsson, representing Sweden with Take Me to Your Heaven, which scored 163 points. This was Sweden's fourth win in the Contest and the second in the 1990s (after Carola's win for Sweden in 1991). Take Me to Your Heaven was written by Lars Diedricson and Marcos Ubeda and is and  is an up-beat song about love, with the singer asking her lover to take her to heaven by loving her. Some fans have argued that it is derivative of previous Swedish 1974 winner ABBA.

Format

In the run-up to the Contest, many speculated that it would not be held in Israel, but would be moved to either Malta or the United Kingdom (the countries that completed the top 3 of the 1998 Contest). This came about after major concerns over funding for the event from the Israeli government arose, alongside the opposition from Orthodox Jews that they would attempt to stop the Contest from coming to Israel after Dana International won the previous year's Contest. This, however, provided no hindrance for IBA or to the organising team of the event, and the International Convention Center in Jerusalem was selected as the venue for the 44th Contest.

Selma

Long-standing rules in place for decades were abolished during this Contest: rules that each country had to sing in one of their national languages was abolished for the first time since 1977. A majority of the participating countries, thirteen out of twenty-three, chose to sing entirely or partly in English and only nine entirely in their respective national languages; Lithuania, Spain, Croatia, Slovenia, Poland, France, Cyprus, Portugal and Turkey. Furthermore, live music became optional for the first time in the Contest's history. IBA took advantage of this and decided to drop the orchestra from the Contest as a way to conserve money for the show. This meant that for the first time all entries used backing track during their performances. This caused controversy for Eurovision traditionalists, with three-time winner Johnny Logan criticising the move, describing the event now as karaoke.

In was announced in 1999 that, as of the 2000 Contest, the four biggest financial contributors to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) – Germany, Spain, France and the United Kingdom – would all be given automatic entry into the Contest, regardless of their average scores over the past five years.

The favourites to win the Contest came from Iceland's Selma with All Out of Luck, and Cyprus's Marlain with Tha 'Ne Erotas, after an internet poll by fans. But, while Iceland finished second to Sweden (the country's best showing in the contest), Cyprus failed to inspire televotes, finishing second last with only two points, both from the United Kingdom.

Marlayne

A number of controversies occurred before the Contest. Two songs selected to compete in Israel were found to be ineligible: Bosnia and Herzegovina's Hari Mata Hari were disqualified after their entry was discovered to have been released in Finland some years previously; Germany's Corinna May was also disqualified after her song was revealed to have been released in 1997 by a different singer. Both artists would eventually represent their countries in Eurovision, in 2006 and 2002 respectively.

Croatia's entry attracted objections from the Norwegian delegation, due to synthesised male vocals being used on the backing track of Doris Dragović's entry. The EBU decided to reduce the country's score by a third for the purpose of calculating its five-year average to determine participation in future contests, though it was decided to leave its placement in the 1999 result unaffected.

The interval act was provided by Dana International, who performed a cover of the Stevie Wonder song Free, which caused some controversy in Israel due to the song's lyric. Dana International also appeared at the end of the show, giving the winning trophy to Nilsson. After pretending that the trophy was too heavy to lift, she fell to the stage, bringing down the winning composers with her. At this, security forces threw themselves upon her, think it to be a terrorist attack. The show finished with the three presenters inviting everyone on stage to sing a rendition of the English version of Hallelujah, the Israeli winner from the 1979 Contest, as a tribute to the victims of the Balkan War, who were unable to view the contest after the bombing resulted in their transmitters being blown up.

Vanessa Chinitor

A compilation CD was made and released in Israel, with the idea of containing all the competing songs on one CD. However, the songs from Poland, Cyprus, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom were not included, thus defeating the idea. Furthermore, unlike similar CDs released from the following year's Contest onwards, it was not an official release by the EBU.

Voting

Each country had a televote, where the top ten most voted-for songs were awarded the 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points, with the exceptions of Turkey, Lithuania, Ireland and Bosnia & Herzegovina who used juries.

After some thoroughly confusing thrills and spills in the early voting, with Lithuania awarding maximum points to the — for once — rank outsiders Ireland, the contest soon settled into a nip-and-tuck duel between Sweden and Iceland, but with Iceland more often than not holding a slight lead. The fortunes of Germany were more erratic - on a few occasions, their challenge seemed to be failing, only for a couple of high scores to haul them back to within striking distance of the leading pair. That appeared to be the case once again when the penultimate voting country, Bosnia and Herzegovina, handed ten points to the Germans. This momentarily distracted attention from the fact that the Balkan nation had not yet awarded any points to Sweden or Iceland, meaning that one of the two was bound to receive nothing. With Charlotte Nilsson of Sweden already having crept into a three-point lead at a crucial moment, the realisation quickly dawned that, while twelve points for Iceland would put them back into a commanding position, twelve points for Sweden would settle the contest in abrupt fashion.

Trine Jepsen & Michael Teschl

Participating countries

Latvia had attempted to participate in the Contest for the first time, but withdrew at a late stage. This gave Hungary a chance to enter the Contest; however, Magyar Televízió decided not to take part. This allowed Portugal to compete as the 23rd country.

Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark and Iceland returned to the Contest after being relegated from competing in 1998. Lithuania also returned to the Contest for the first time in five years. The Lithuanian delegation had had budget problems to contend with, and so the EBU allowed the Lithuanians to arrive in Israel a day later than everyone else. The first delegation on the other hand to walk the Holy Land were Estonia.

After being relegated from the 1998 Contest, Russia's Channel One had decided not to broadcast that year's contest, in order to allow for a strong comeback in Israel. However, as only countries which had broadcast the previous year's contest were allowed to enter the next year's contest, Russia was forced to miss another year. They were joined by Finland, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia and Switzerland; the countries with the lowest average scores over the previous five years.

Returning Artists

Two artists returned to the contest this year. Doris Dragović represented Yugoslavia in 1986 and Darja Švajger represented Slovenia in 1995.