Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003

Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003
Eurovision Song Contest 2003
Country	Russia
Selection process	Internal selection
Announcement date	Artist: 19 March 2003 Song: 3 April 2003
Competing entry
Song	"Ne ver, ne boysya"
Artist	t.A.T.u.
Songwriters	Mars Lasar Valery Polienko
Placement
Final result	3rd, 164 points
Participation chronology
◄2002 • 2003 • 2004►

Russia was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 in Riga, Latvia. The Russian entry was selected internally by the Russian broadcaster Channel One Russia (C1R). t.A.T.u. represented Russia with the song "Ne ver, ne boysya", which placed 3rd and scored 164 points at the contest. ^[1]

Before Eurovision

Internal selection

On 26 January 2003, C1R announced a submission period for interested artists and composers to submit their entries until 1 March 2003. ^[2] The broadcaster received 500 submissions at the conclusion of the deadline, including entries from Avraam Russo, Kristina Orbakaitė, Plazma and Smash. The jury which have consisted of Konstantin Ernst (general manager of C1R), Aleksandr Fifeman (general producer of C1R), Yuriy Aksyuta (music director of C1R), Vladimir Matetsky (singer-songwriter and producer) and Dmitri Malikov (singer, composer and producer) listened to submitted entries and was set to choose song for Eurovision, however, they did not find "anything suitable" among the submitted entries and decided to directly invite t.A.T.u to represent Russia.^{[ citation needed ]} On 19 March 2003, C1R announced that they had internally selected t.A.T.u. to represent Russia in Riga with the song "Ne ver, ne boysya", composed by Valery Polienko and with lyrics by Mars Lasar. ^[3]

Participants

Internal selection – Known submitted entries^{[ citation needed ]}

Artist(s)	Song	Songwriter(s)
Avraam Russo	Unknown	Unknown
Dusha	"Ya ne boleyu toboy" (Я не болею тобой)	Dmitriy Moss, Artur A'Kim
Jam	Unknown	Unknown
Kevin	"Wonderful Light"	Kevin
Kristina Orbakaitė	Unknown	Unknown
Plazma	Unknown	Unknown
Smash	"Talk to Me"	Pam Sheyne, Ben Robbins, Michael Garvin, Andy Hill
t.A.T.u.	"Ne ver, ne boysya" (Не верь, не бойся)	Valery Polienko, Mars Lasar

At Eurovision

Russia performed 11th at the 2003 Contest, following Germany and preceding Spain. After the voting concluded, Russia scored 164 points and placed 3rd, one point behind 2nd placed Belgium and 3 points behind the winner, Turkey. ^[4] This guaranteed Russia automatic qualification to the final of the 2004 Contest.

After the contest, Channel One Russia 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." ^[5] 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 Russia would have finished in second place. ^[6]

Voting

The voting spokesperson for Russia was Yana Churikova.^{[ citation needed ]}

Points awarded to Russia [7] Score Country 12 points   Croatia   Estonia   Latvia   Slovenia   Ukraine 10 points   Cyprus   Greece   Israel   Turkey 8 points   Austria   Germany 7 points   Belgium   France   Romania 6 points   Spain 5 points 4 points   Iceland   Poland   Portugal 3 points   Bosnia and Herzegovina 2 points   Norway   Sweden 1 point   Malta   Netherlands

Points awarded by Russia [7] Score Country 12 points   Romania 10 points   Netherlands 8 points   Ukraine 7 points   Germany 6 points   Spain 5 points   Israel 4 points   Norway 3 points   Belgium 2 points   Estonia 1 point   Greece

References

1. "Eurovision Song Contest 2003". Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 12 July 2013.
2. Opheim, Bjørn Erik (26 January 2003). "Russian Channel One asks for entries". Esctoday. Archived from the original on 10 December 2004. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
3. Bakker, Sietse (19 March 2003). "Officially: Tatu to Eurovision for Russia". ESCToday.com. Retrieved 12 July 2013.
4. "Final of Riga 2003". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 7 April 2021. Retrieved 7 April 2021.
5. "Russia launches Eurovision appeal". BBC News . 29 May 2003. Retrieved 22 March 2008.
6. Bakker, Sietse (27 June 2003). "Irish televoting results finally announced". ESCToday.com. Retrieved 22 March 2008.
7. "Results of the Final of Riga 2003". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 7 April 2021. Retrieved 7 April 2021.