Latvia was represented at the

Eurovision Song Contest 2003 The Eurovision Song Contest 2003 was the 48th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Riga, Latvia, following the country's victory at the with the song " I Wanna" by Marie N. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) ...

with the song "Hello from Mars", written by

Mārtiņš Freimanis Mārtiņš Freimanis (7 February 1977 – 27 January 2011) was a Latvian musician, singer, songwriter, actor, and TV personality. Freimanis was born in Liepāja, but spent his childhood in Aizpute. Career Music Mārtiņš Freimanis was the le ...

and

Lauris Reiniks Lauris Reiniks (born July 11, 1979) is a Latvians, Latvian pop music singer, songwriter, television host and actor. He has graduated from Jelgava Music college, studied communication science at the University of Latvia and trained as an actor in L ...

, and performed by the group F.L.Y. The Latvian participating broadcaster,

Latvian Television Latvijas Televīzija (''Latvian Television'', LTV) is the state-owned public service television broadcaster in Latvia. LTV operates two channels, LTV1 in Latvian and LTV7 (previously called LTV2) in Latvian with selected programming in Russia ...

(LTV) organised the national final ''2003'' in order to select its entry for the contest. In addition, LTV was also the host broadcaster and staged the event at the

Skonto Hall Skonto Hall (also known as Skonto Arena) is an arena in Riga, Latvia. In the lobby of Skonto there are conference halls, a gym, and an arena with an Artificial turf, artificial football field, which also hosts numerous exhibitions and concerts. Th ...

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

, after winning the with the song " I Wanna" performed by

Marie N Marija Naumova-Bullīta (born 23 June 1973), known professionally as Marija Naumova, is a Latvian singer. Under the stage name Marie N, she sings a broad range of music ranging from pop to musical theatre and jazz, and has recorded several albu ...

. Fifteen songs were selected to compete in the national final on 1 February 2003 where two rounds of public televoting selected "Hello from Mars" performed by F.L.Y. as the winner. As the host country, Latvia qualified to compete directly in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. Performing in position 21, it placed twenty-fourth out of the 26 participating countries with 5 points.

Background

Prior to the 2003 contest,

(LTV) had participated in the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

representing Latvia three times since its first entry in 2000. It won the contest once in

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

with the song " I Wanna" performed by

. As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, LTV organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. Since its debut in 2000, the broadcaster had organised the selection show , a selection procedure that was continued in order to select its entry for the 2003 contest.

Before Eurovision

''2003''

''2003'' was the fourth edition of , the music competition organised by LTV to selects its entries for the Eurovision Song Contest. The competition took place at the Olympic Center in

Ventspils Ventspils () is a state city in northwestern Latvia in the historical Courland region of Latvia, and is the sixth largest city in the country. At the beginning of 2020, Ventspils had a population of 33,906. It is situated on the Venta River and ...

on 1 February 2003, hosted by Ilze Jaunalksne and

Ģirts Līcis Ģirts is a Latvian masculine given name and may refer to: *Ģirts Ankipāns (born 1975), Latvian ice hockey player *Ģirts Dzelde (born 1963), Latvian professional tennis player *Ģirts Feldbergs (born 1993), Latvian swimmer *Ģirts Karlsons (bo ...

with Samija Šerifa hosting from the green room. The show was broadcast on LTV1, via radio on Latvijas Radio 1 as well as online via the broadcaster's official Eurovision Song Contest website ''eirovizija.lv''. The national final was watched by 525,000 viewers in Latvia with a market share of 50%.

Competing entries

Artists and songwriters were able to submit their entries to the broadcaster between 3 October 2002 and 4 November 2002. 57 entries were submitted at the conclusion of the submission period; 49 of the songs were in English, six were in Latvian and two were in Russian. An international jury panel appointed by LTV evaluated the submitted songs and selected fifteen entries for the competition. The twenty competing artists and songs were announced during a press conference on 15 November 2002.

Final

The final took place on 1 February 2003. Fifteen acts competed and the winner was selected over two rounds of public televoting. In the first round, the top five songs advanced to the second round, the superfinal. In the superfinal, the voting results were revealed by Latvia's five regions alongside votes submitted via mobile phones and SMS, and the song with the highest number of votes, "Hello from Mars" performed by F.L.Y., was declared the winner. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, guest performers included

,winner of ;

Lior Narkis Lior Narkis (; born November 8, 1976, in Holon, Israel) is an Israeli singer. Biography Lior Narkis was born in Holon. His father, David Narkis, was of Iraqi-Jewish origin. His mother Hanna Narkis, was of Serbian-Jewish descent and also had Gr ...

, who would represent ; and Oleksandr Ponomariov, who would represent .

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the bottom ten countries in the

contest competed in the final. As the host country, Latvia automatically qualified to compete in the final on 24 May 2003. On 29 November 2002, a special allocation draw was held which determined the running order and Latvia was set to perform in position 21, following the entry from

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

and before the entry from

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. Latvia finished in twenty-fourth place with 5 points. The show was broadcast in Latvia on LTV1 featuring commentary by Kārlis Streips.

Voting

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Latvia and awarded by Latvia in the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Russia in the contest. LTV appointed

as its spokesperson to announce the Latvian votes during the final.

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 2003

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster submits an origina ...