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" ("Because people matter"), 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" ("No borders"; performed in Polish, German and Russian), but lost in Germany. The German contestant was Lou. 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 "lesbian" 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.
Read more about this topic: Eurovision Song Contest 2003
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