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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. Turkey managed to win the contest despite receiving points from only 21 countries. This is less than Belgium who came 2nd receiving points from 22 countries, and Russia who came 3rd receiving points from 23 countries. 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 Ballad s 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. It is worth mentioning that second-to-last voter Sweden did not give any points at all to Belgium and only two points to Russia. 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 and throughout the world, 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 ( {Link without Title} ), 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. Ukraine participated for the first time, however they also had a monitor problem during their performance.It is interesting to note that the host country of the event, Latvia ,didn'd go well on the competition,as well as Estonia , Malta , Slovenia and Cyprus who interestingly did well in Eurovision Song Contest 2002 . Italy , Luxembourg didn't broadcast the contest.However, Serbia And Montenegro did broadcast the event.They even held a National Final, Beovizija and the Macedonian singer Tose Proeski won that national final. Albania , along with Belarus , Serbia-Montenegro and Ukraine , registered for the 2003 event. Initially, the EBU indicated that participation should be fine, however, on review, it was felt that this would require too many existing nations to be barred from competing. As it was planned to incorporate a pre-qualification round from 2004 onwards, they were asked to defer from competition a further year. Ukraine appealed and the EBU included one extra nation in the 2003 competition.Albania hosted their annual Festival I Kenges competition in December 2002 Mira Konci won the contest that used to select Albania's eurovision song. INDIVIDUAL ENTRIES RESULTS ''Bolded Countries earned a spot in the final for the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 '' VOTING STRUCTURE The vast majority of countries use 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). SCORE SHEET SPOKESPERSONS
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