Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2003

The origins of the contest date back to 2000 when Danmarks Radio held a song contest for Danish children that year and the following year.[1][2] The idea was extended to a Scandinavian song competition in 2002, known as MGP Nordic, with Denmark, Norway and Sweden as participants.[3][4] The EBU picked up the idea for a song contest featuring children and opened the competition to all EBU member broadcasters making it a pan-European event. The working title of the programme was "Eurovision Song Contest for Children",[5] branded with the name of the EBU's long-running and already popular song competition, the Eurovision Song Contest.

Denmark was asked to host the first programme after their experience with their own contests and the MGP Nordic.[6] Copenhagen was confirmed as the host city in November 2002.[7] In January 2003, it was announced that the Danish broadcaster would host the inaugural contest at the 8,000 capacity Forum venue in the Danish capital.[8]

Venue

Forum in Copenhagen was the venue for the inaugural contest.

Forum Copenhagen (Danish: Forum København) is a large multi-purpose, rentable indoor arena located in Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, Denmark. It hosts a large variety of concerts, markets, exhibitions and other events. The venue can hold up to 10,000 people depending on the event. The Forum operates as a convention center, concert hall and indoor arena.

It was opened in February 1926 to host a car exhibition and was last renovated in 1996–97. Over two storeys there is a combined exhibition floor area of 5,000 m² and a separate restaurant for up to 250 seated guests. The Metro station Forum is adjacent to the building. Forum Copenhagen was designed by Oscar Gundlach-Pedersen, and the lighting was from Poul Henningsen's brand new PH-lamp. In 1929 it held an architecture exhibition, which was one of the first presentations of functionalism in Denmark, namely the Housing and Building Exhibition in Forum. It was at this exhibition that Arne Jacobsen and Flemming Lassen exhibited their subscription to the cylindrical "House of the Future".

Cover art of the official album

In May 2003, the EBU released the initial list of participants with 16 competing countries, in the first edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest.[9] In an original press release for the contest, then entitled the "Eurovision Song Contest for Children", a draw was held to select 15 countries to take part in the inaugural contest, with Slovakian broadcaster Slovenská televízia (STV) and German broadcaster ARD being drawn to compete along with 13 other countries.[5]

These countries would eventually be replaced by entries from Poland, Cyprus (added as 16th country before Germany and Slovakia withdrew) and Belarus, in their first ever Eurovision event. There were also reports that Finnish broadcaster Yle had planned to enter in the contest, but went on to just broadcast it instead.[10]

Prior to the event, a compilation album featuring all the songs from the 2003 contest,[lower-alpha 1] along with karaoke versions, was put together by the European Broadcasting Union and released by Universal Music Group in November 2003.[11]

Participants of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2003[12]

Country	Broadcaster	Artist	Song	Language	Songwriter(s)
Belarus	BTRC	Volha Satsiuk	"Tancuj" (Танцуй)	Belarusian	Katsiaryna Lipouskaya
Belgium	VRT	X!NK	"De vriendschapsband"	Dutch	Jonas Meukens Thomas Valkiers
Croatia	HRT	Dino Jelusić	"Ti si moja prva ljubav"	Croatian	Dino Jelusić
Cyprus	CyBC	Theodora Rafti	"Mia efhi" (Μια ευχή)	Greek	Theodora Rafti
Denmark	DR	Anne Gadegaard	"Arabiens drøm"	Danish	Anne Gadegaard
Greece	ERT	Nicolas Ganopoulos	"Fili gia panta" (Φίλοι για πάντα)	Greek	Nicolas Ganopoulos
Latvia	LTV	Dzintars Čīča	"Tu esi vasarā"	Latvian	Dzintars Čīča
Macedonia	MRT	Marija and Viktorija	"Ti ne me poznavaš" (Ти не ме познаваш)	Macedonian	Irena Galabovska
Malta	PBS	Sarah Harrison	"Like a Star"	English	Sarah Harrison
Netherlands	AVRO	Roel	"Mijn ogen zeggen alles"	Dutch	Roel Felius
Norway	NRK	2U	"Sinnsykt gal forelsket"	Norwegian	Charlot Daysh Kid Joki
Poland	TVP	Kasia Żurawik	"Coś mnie nosi"	Polish	Katarzyna Żurawik
Romania	TVR	Bubu	"Tobele sunt viața mea"	Romanian	Bubu Cernea
Spain	RTVE	Sergio	"Desde el cielo"	Spanish	Sergio Jesús García
Sweden	SVT	The Honeypies	"Stoppa mig"	Swedish	Rebecka Laakso
United Kingdom	ITV	Tom Morley	"My Song for the World"	English	Tom Morley

The event took place on 15 November 2003 at 20:00 CET. Sixteen countries participated, with the running order published on 6 October 2003.[15] All the countries competing were eligible to vote by televote. Croatia won with 134 points, with Spain, the United Kingdom, Belarus, and Denmark, completing the top five. Macedonia, Norway, Cyprus, Sweden, and Poland, occupied the bottom five positions.[16]

The show was opened by Danish boy band Fu:el and dance crew Dance Faction. The interval act included two British acts: the Sugababes performed "Hole in the Head", while the Busted, with the exception of Charlie Simpson absent due to illness, performed "Crashed the Wedding".[17]

R/O	Country	Artist	Song	Points	Place
1	Greece	Nicolas Ganopoulos	"Fili gia panta"	53	8
2	Croatia	Dino Jelusić	"Ti si moja prva ljubav"	134	1
3	Cyprus	Theodora Rafti	"Mia efhi"	16	14
4	Belarus	Volha Satsiuk	"Tancuj"	103	4
5	Latvia	Dzintars Čīča	"Tu esi vasarā"	37	9
6	Macedonia	Marija and Viktorija	"Ti ne me poznavaš"	19	12
7	Poland	Kasia Żurawik	"Coś mnie nosi"	3	16
8	Norway	2U	"Sinnsykt gal forelsket"	18	13
9	Spain	Sergio	"Desde el cielo"	125	2
10	Romania	Bubu	"Tobele sunt viața mea"	35	10
11	Belgium	X!NK	"De vriendschapsband"	83	6
12	United Kingdom	Tom Morley	"My Song for the World"	118	3
13	Denmark	Anne Gadegaard	"Arabiens drøm"	93	5
14	Sweden	The Honeypies	"Stoppa mig"	12	15
15	Malta	Sarah Harrison	"Like a Star"	56	7
16	Netherlands	Roel	"Mijn ogen zeggen alles"	23	11

For a country to be eligible for potential participation in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, it needs to be an active member of the EBU. It is currently unknown whether the EBU issue invitations of participation to all 56 active members like they do for the Eurovision Song Contest.

•  Finland – Finnish broadcaster Yle expressed an interest in participating in the contest. However, it was unsuccessful and they went on to broadcast it instead.[19]
•  Germany – The EBU announced that they would hold a draw to determine which countries would participate in the contest. German broadcaster KiKa was one of the countries drawn.[5] However, they announced their withdrawal from the contest and went on to broadcast it instead.[19] Germany wouldn't debut at Junior Eurovision until 2020.[20]
•  Ireland – After Germany and Slovakia withdrew,[21] the EBU sent an invitation to Irish broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) who then submitted preliminary applications, but in the end declined to participate or broadcast the contest.[22] Ireland did, however, debut with TG4 as the broadcaster in 2015.
•  Israel – The EBU also sent an invitation to the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA), but they declined to participate and also did not broadcast it.[21] Ireland and Israel would later be replaced by Poland and Belarus, who received the final spot.[21]
•  Slovakia – Slovakian broadcaster Slovenská televízia (STV), along with KiKa, was drawn to participate in the contest,[5] however declined to participate and did not broadcast the show either.

The rights to broadcast the contest were also acquired by broadcasters in Iceland (RÚV),[23] Finland (Yle), Serbia and Montenegro (RTS/RTCG), Estonia (ETV), Germany (KI.KA), Australia (SBS) and Kosovo (RTK). Some of the participating broadcasters also transmitted the programme live on radio.[19]

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries

Country	Broadcaster(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref.
Belarus	Belarus 1	Denis Kurian
Belgium	VRT TV1	Dutch: Ilse Van Hoecke and Bart Peeters
	RTBF La Deux	French: Corinne Boulangier
Croatia	HRT	TBC
Cyprus	CyBC	TBC
Denmark	DR1	Nicolai Molbech
Greece	ERT1	Masa Fasoula and Nikos Frantseskakis	[24]
Latvia	LTV1	Kārlis Streips	[25]
Malta	TVM	TBC
Macedonia	MTV 1	Milanka Rašik
Netherlands	Nederland 1	Angela Groothuizen
Norway	NRK1	Stian Barsnes Simonsen
Poland	TVP2	Jarosław Kulczycki
Romania	TVR1	Ioana Isopecu and Alexandru Nagy
Spain	TVE1	Fernando Argenta
Sweden	SVT1	Victoria Dyring
United Kingdom	ITV	Mark Durden-Smith and Tara Palmer-Tomkinson	[26]

Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries

Country	Broadcaster(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref.
Australia	SBS TV (delayed)	No commentary	[27]
Estonia	ETV	Unknown	[19]
Finland	YLE TV2	Henna Vänninen and Olavi Uusivirta	[10]
Germany	KI.KA (delayed)	Unknown	[27]
Iceland	RÚV	Unknown	[23]
Serbia & Montenegro	RTCG, RTS, RTK	Unknown	[19]

• European Broadcasting Union
• Eurovision Song Contest 2003
• Junior Eurovision Song Contest

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2003.

• Official website