Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003

Melodi Grand Prix 2003 was the 41st edition of the Norwegian national final Melodi Grand Prix and selected Norway's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2003. The show took place on 1 March 2003 at the Oslo Spektrum in Oslo, hosted by Øystein Bache and was televised on NRK1 as well as streamed online at NRK's official website nrk.no.[3][4] The national final was watched by 1.349 million viewers in Norway.[5]

A submission period was opened by NRK between 25 September 2002 and 15 November 2002. Songwriters of any nationality were allowed to submit entries, and NRK reserved the right to directly invite certain artists and composers to compete in addition to the public call for submissions.[2] At the close of the deadline, over 450 submissions were received.[6] Twelve songs were selected for the competition and the competing acts and songs were revealed on 21 January 2003.[7] Among the competing artists were former Eurovision Song Contest entrants Elisabeth Andreassen (Bettan) who represented Sweden in 1982 and Norway in 1985 (as part of Bobbysocks!), 1994 (alongside Jan Werner Danielsen) and 1996, Kikki Danielsson who represented Sweden in 1985, and Lotta Engberg who represented Sweden in 1987.[8] The competing entries were premiered during broadcasts of the Nordic World Ski Championships 2003 between 17 and 28 February 2003.[9]

Twelve songs competed during the final on 1 March 2003. The winner was selected over two rounds of regional televoting. In the first round, the results of the public televote were divided into Norway's five regions and each region distributed points as follows: 1–8, 10 and 12 points. The top four entries were selected to proceed to the second round, the Gold Final, where the results of the public televote were revealed by Norway's five regions based on actual voting figures and led to the victory of "I'm Not Afraid to Move On" performed by Jostein Hasselgård with 78,460 votes.[10] In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the interval act featured Cheezy Keys performing several past Norwegian Eurovision entries.[11]

The interval act of Melodi Grand Prix 2003, performed by the group Cheezy Keys, caused a considerable amount of controversy in Latvia. Despite intending to incorporate Latvian culture into their performance, the group wore Cossack uniforms and used Russian matryoshka dolls and balalaikas. Latvian citizens threatened to boycott Norwegian goods in response, while Latvian ambassador in Norway, Normunds Popens, criticised the improper use of symbols even for humouristic purposes and claimed that it "draw [sic] a picture of my country as if it was a part of Russia, and that's simply not true". Criticism was also made by the Norwegian ambassador in Latvia, Jan Wessel Hegg, who described it as "painfully embarrassing" and "unfortunate for Norway as a country".[5][12] The group later expressed regret that they have hurt the Latvian people and confessed that they "don't know much about Latvian culture".[13]

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Norway and awarded by Norway in the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Iceland in the contest.

Points awarded to Norway[18] Score Country 12 points  Iceland  Ireland  Sweden 10 points  Estonia 8 points 7 points  Germany  Latvia  Netherlands  Ukraine 6 points  Belgium  Malta  Poland  United Kingdom 5 points  Portugal  Slovenia 4 points  Russia 3 points  France  Israel  Romania 2 points  Austria 1 point

Points awarded by Norway[18] Score Country 12 points  Iceland 10 points  Turkey 8 points  Austria 7 points  Sweden 6 points  Ireland 5 points  Netherlands 4 points  Poland 3 points  Belgium 2 points  Russia 1 point  Romania