Estonia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 with the song "Eighties Coming Back" written by

Vaiko Eplik Vaiko Eplik (born 1 August 1981) is an independent Estonian pop-composer, producer, singer and multi-instrumentalist. Eplik was born in Rapla, Estonia, into a music-loving family. Eplik studied music at the Tallinn Music School, specialisin ...

. The song was performed by the band Ruffus. The Estonian broadcaster Eesti Televisioon (ETV) organised the national final '' Eurolaul 2003'' in order to select the Estonian entry for the 2003 contest in

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the ...

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

. Ten songs competed in the national final and "Eighties Coming Back" performed by Claire's Birthday was selected as the winner by an international jury panel. The band was later renamed as Ruffus for the Eurovision Song Contest. Estonia competed in the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 24 May 2003. Performing during the show in position 17, Estonia placed twenty-first out of the 26 participating countries, scoring 14 points.

Background

Prior to the 2003 Contest, Estonia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest eight times since its first entry in , winning the contest on one occasion in

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanist ...

with the song " Everybody" performed by Tanel Padar,

Dave Benton Dave Benton (born 31 January 1951, birth name Efrén Eugene Benita) is a pop musician from Aruba who lives in Estonia. He is one of the winners of the Eurovision Song Contest 2001. At the age of 50 years and 101 days at the time of his victory ...

and 2XL. The Estonian national broadcaster, Eesti Televisioon (ETV), broadcasts the event within Estonia and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. Since their debut, the Estonian broadcaster has organised national finals that feature a competition among multiple artists and songs in order to select Estonia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. The ''Eurolaul'' competition has been organised since 1996 in order to select Estonia's entry and on 8 November 2002, ETV announced the organisation of ''Eurolaul 2003'' in order to select the nation's 2003 entry.

Before Eurovision

Eurolaul 2003

''Eurolaul 2003'' was the tenth edition of the Estonian national selection ''

Eurolaul Estonia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 27 times since making its debut in 1994. Its first appearance would have taken place in 1993 but a qualification round was installed for seven former Eastern Bloc countries hoping to make t ...

'', which selected Estonia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2003. The competition consisted of a ten-song final on 8 February 2003 at the ETV studios in

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju '' ...

, hosted by Marko Reikop and Romi Erlach and broadcast on ETV. The national final was watched by 343,500 viewers in Estonia with a market share of 57.4%.

Competing entries

On 8 November 2002, ETV opened the submission period for artists and composers to submit their entries up until 9 December 2002. A record 100 submissions were received by the deadline—breaking the previous record of 90, set during the 2002 edition. A 10-member jury panel selected 10 finalists from the submissions and the selected songs were announced on 13 December 2002. Among the competing artists was previous Eurovision Song Contest entrant Koit Toome, who represented Estonia in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

Kaire Vilgats Kaire Vilgats (born 11 January 1976
Kaire Vilgats: mulle ...

(member of Family), Kadi Toom, Maarja Kivi (member of

Vanilla Ninja Vanilla Ninja is an Estonian all-female rock band which enjoyed chart success in a number of countries across Europe, especially in Estonia, Germany and Austria. The group formed in 2002 and released their self-titled debut album '' Vanilla N ...

), Maiken and Nightlight Duo have all competed in previous editions of Eurolaul. The selection jury consisted of

Jaak Joala Jaak Joala (26 June 1950 – 25 September 2014) was an Estonian singer, musician and a member of two bands: Kristallid and Virmalised. He began as a flautist, later adding singing and bass guitar. Biography Early life Jaak Joala was born i ...

(musician), Meelis Kapstas (journalist), Ivo Linna (singer), Jaan Karp (musician), Priit Hõbemägi (culture critic),

Tõnu Kõrvits Tõnu Kõrvits (born 9 April 1969 in Tallinn) is an Estonian composer. In 1994 he graduated from the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre with specialty in composition. Since 2001 he has taught composition and instrumentation at the Estonian ...

(composer),

Eda-Ines Etti Eda-Ines Etti (, born 26 May 1981), also known as simply Ines, is an Estonian singer and songwriter. Etti represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2000 with the song " Once in a Lifetime", placing fourth. Until their win the following ...

(singer),

Ignar Fjuk Ignar Fjuk (born 12 March 1953, Tartu) is an Estonian architect, politician and radio journalist, most notable for being one of the voters for the Estonian restoration of Independence. He graduated from Hugo Treffner Gymnasium in 1971, and from ...

(architect), Karmel Eikner (journalist) and Tiit Kikas (musician).

Final

The final took place on 8 February 2003. Ten songs competed during the show and "Eighties Coming Back" performed by Claire's Birthday was selected as the winner by an international jury. A non-competitive public televote which registered 77,729 votes was also held and selected "Club Kung-Fu" performed by

as the winner. The international jury panel consisted of

Anders Berglund Anders Olof Berglund (born 21 July 1948) is a Swedish arranger, composer, conductor, pianist and musician. Career Born in Stockholm, Berglund is best known as conductor of Melodifestivalen, the Swedish final of the Eurovision Song Contest. ...

(Sweden), Sergio (Belgium),

Darja Švajger Darja Švajger (born 16 June 1965 in Maribor, SR Slovenia, SFR Yugoslavia) is one of Slovenia's most popular singers, perhaps best known internationally for having represented her country in the Eurovision Song Contest on two occasions. Early l ...

(Slovenia), Manfred Witt (Germany), Moshe Datz (Israel),

Renārs Kaupers Renārs Kaupers (sometimes anglicised as Reynard Cowper; born 1 September 1974, in Jelgava) is a Latvian pop/rock singer, instrumentalist, and songwriter who is the vocalist of the band Prāta Vētra (known internationally as Brainstorm). Bio ...

(Latvia),

Michael Ball Michael Ashley Ball (born 27 June 1962) is an English singer, presenter and actor. He made his West End debut in 1985 playing Marius Pontmercy in the original London production of ''Les Misérables'', and went on to star in 1987 as Raoul in ...

(United Kingdom) and Bo Halldórsson (Iceland).

At Eurovision

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

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

contest competed in the final on 24 May 2003. On 29 November 2002, a special allocation draw was held which determined the running order and Estonia was set to perform in position 23, following the entry from

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

and before the entry from

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

. The band performed at the contest under the new name Ruffus and Estonia finished in twenty-first place with 14 points. The show was broadcast in Estonia on

ETV ETV may stand for: Television * e.tv, a South African terrestrial television channel * Educational Television (Hong Kong), a television series * Educational television, the use of television in education * Enhanced TV, an interactive television ap ...

with commentary by Marko Reikop as well as via radio on Raadio 2 with commentary by Vello Rand. The Estonian spokesperson, who announced the Estonian votes during the show, was

Ines Ines or INES may refer to: People * Ines (name), a feminine given name, also written as Inés or Inês * Saint Ines or Agnes (), Roman virgin–martyr * Eda-Ines Etti (stage name: ''Ines''; born 1981), Estonian singer Places * Doña Ines, a vo ...

who had previously represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

Voting

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 2003

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Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...