Russia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 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 Ba ...

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 ...

. The Russian entry was selected internally by the Russian broadcaster

Channel One Russia Channel One ( rus, Первый канал, r=Pervyy kanal, p=ˈpʲervɨj kɐˈnal, t=First Channel) is a Russian state-controlled television channel. It is the first television channel to broadcast in the Russian Federation. Its headquarters ...

(C1R).

t.A.T.u. t.A.T.u. (russian: Тату, ) were a Russian music duo that consisted of Lena Katina and Julia Volkova. The singers were part of children's music group Neposedy before being managed by producer and director Ivan Shapovalov and signing with ...

represented Russia with the song "

Ne ver', ne boysia "Ne ver', ne boysia" () also known as "Ne ver', ne boisia, i ne prosi" (, "Don't believe, don't fear and don't ask") is a song by t.A.T.u., which they performed at Eurovision Song Contest 2003 representing . Production The title of the song is ...

", which placed 3rd and scored 164 points at the contest.

Before Eurovision

Internal selection

On 26 January 2003, C1R announced a submission period for interested artists and composers to submit their entries until 1 March 2003. The broadcaster received 500 submissions at the conclusion of the deadline, including entries from Avraam Russo,

Kristina Orbakaitė Kristina Edmundovna Orbakaitе (, lt, Kristina Orbakaitė, born 25 May 1971), is a Russian-Lithuanian singer and actress. Her parents are Russian pop star Alla Pugacheva and Lithuanian circus performer Mykolas Orbakas. Biography Kristina Orba ...

Plazma Plazma (previously known as Slow Motion) is a Russian musical group consisting of Roman Chernitsyn (vocals, lyrics, music) and Maxim Postelniy (background vocals, keyboards, music and arrangements). The band was one of the first Russian pop gr ...

and Smash. The jury which have consisted of

Konstantin Ernst Konstantin Lvovich Ernst (russian: Константин Львович Эрнст; born 6 February 1961) is a Russian media manager, producer and TV host. He is currently the CEO of Channel One Russia. Biography Early years and education His ...

(general manager of C1R), Aleksandr Fifeman (general producer of C1R), Yuriy Aksyuta (music director of C1R),

Vladimir Matetsky Vladimir Leonardovich Matetsky (russian: link=no, Владимир Леонардович Матецкий; born May 14, 1952, in Moscow) is a Russian and Soviet composer, producer, and radio presenter. Matetsky is a member of the Russian Authors ...

(singer-songwriter and producer) and Dmitri Malikov (singer, composer and producer) listened to submitted entries and was set to choose song for Eurovision, however, they did not find ''"Anything suitable"'' among the submitted entries and decided to directly invite t.A.T.u to represent Russia. On 19 March 2003, C1R announced that they had internally selected

to represent Russia in Riga with the song "

", composed by Valery Polienko and with lyrics by

Mars Lasar Mars Lasar is a German-born keyboardist and composer, raised in Australia. Predominantly new-age, his music also contains elements of electronica, jazz, pop, world, and rock. Lasar's music has appeared on television and in films; one nota ...

Participants

At Eurovision

Russia performed 11th at the 2003 Contest, following

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and preceding

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. After the voting concluded, Russia scored 164 points and placed 3rd, one point behind 2nd placed

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 th ...

and 3 points behind the winner,

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. This guaranteed Russia automatic qualification to the final of the 2004 Contest. The voting spokesperson for Russia was

Yana Churikova Yana Alekseyevna Churikova (russian: Яна Алексеевна Чурикова; born 6 November 1978) is a Russian journalist and television host who worked on MTV Russia before moving to Channel One, where she hosted seven seasons of the '' ...

. After the contest, Channel One Russia complained that

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

broadcaster

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...

had used a back-up jury, and that it had cost them victory. A statement by Channel One said "Considering heinsignificant difference in points between the first and third places, there are grounds to believe that the contest results could be much different for Russia." RTÉ responded by publishing the unused results of the Irish televote, which showed that had the jury not been used, Turkey would still have won and Russia would have finished in second place.

Voting

References

{{Tatu

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

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 ...

t.A.T.u.