Eurovision Song Contest 2003
The Eurovision Song Contest 2003 was the 48th annual Eurovision Song Contest. The contest took place in Riga, Latvia on 24 May 2003 and it was the first win and hosting of the competition for Latvia with only their third participation after debuting at the 2000 contest. Latvijas Televīzija chose the Skonto Hall as the venue after conducting a bidding process among several cities and venues in Latvia. The hosts for the contest were the years winner Marie N and former Latvian representative at the 2000 contest, Renārs Kaupers. The design of the contest was built around the theme Magical rendez-vous, Finland, Lithuania and Switzerland were required to withdraw due to their poor results in the 2002 contest. This was the first win for Turkey at the Eurovision Song Contest and Sweden rounded out of the top five, placing fourth and fifth respectively. The United Kingdom achieved their worst result to date, coming in last place, the 2003 contest was the last contest to take place on one evening. This was the last contest in which a system was used to determine which countries would participate in the following years contest.
On 22 August 2002, Latvian public broadcaster Latvijas Televīzija announced that it had chosen the Skonto Hall in Riga as the host venue for the 2003 contest. Latvia won the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 on 25 May 2002 in Tallinn and this was Latvia’s first victory in the contest, which carried the right for LTV to organise the 2003 contest. LTV initially had concerns with staging the contest. Rubenis elaborated that LTV was prepared to cover the side and broadcasting of the contest. The Government of Latvia allotted €5.3 million for the event with a further €1.1 million being provided by the Riga City Council – covering the anticipated organisational costs for the contest. Three cities were considered as host city of the contest, Ventspils, LTV requested proposals from the three cities concerning how they plan to organise the contest. Riga City Council offered the Mežaparks Open-air Stage, Skonto Hall, Jūrmala City Council offered the Dzintari Concert Hall with plans to expand and upgrade the facility and surrounding infrastructure.
LTV’s organisational task force decided to proceed with the bids from Riga and Ventspils, eliminating Jūrmala. LTV ultimately chose the Skonto Hall as the venue to stage the contest, the rules modified the eligibility criteria for entries, changing the date of release cut-off point for songs from 1 January 2003 to 1 October 2002. The draw for running order was held on 29 November 2002 in Riga, hosted by Marie N and Renārs Kaupers, the official sponsors for the contest were Latvian mobile telecom provider Latvijas Mobilais Telefons and Latvian bank company Parex Banka
Lithuanian National Radio and Television
Lithuanian National Radio and Television is the national public broadcasting company of Lithuania based in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. The company broadcasts two channels, an international channel and a high-definition TV station. LRT broadcasts three radio channels. LRT has provided regular service since 1926 and television broadcasting since 1957. LRT currently employs about 650 people, LRT was admitted as a full active member of the European Broadcasting Union on 1 January 1993. The Lithuanian Radio and Television Council oversees the operations of LRT according to the Law on the Provision of Information to the Public, LRT is funded by the state budget and television commercials. A television licence fee or tax that every television purchaser would have to pay is being discussed since 1996 as the source of income for LRT. In May 2007 LRT started a project of converting all of its films, including some five hours of cinefilm. The oldest entry dates back to 1895, on 23 December 2013, Seimas banned commercials on LRT TV channels and radio stations starting from 2015.
Eastern Bloc information dissemination 1991 January Events Official website
Eurovision Song Contest 2001
The Eurovision Song Contest 2001 was the 46th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. The contest took place in Copenhagen, following the Olsen Brothers win at the 2000 contest in Stockholm, the hosting marked only the second time the contest was held on Danish soil, after the 1964 contest -37 years earlier. 23 countries took part in the contest, which was held on 12 May 2001, the host venue was the Parken Stadium - the largest venue to ever host the contest. A total of 35,000 spectators saw the live from within the stadium. The presenters were Danish journalist and TV-show presenter Natasja Crone Back, france and Slovenia were the heavy favourites to win the contest, however, as the voting progressed it became a two-horse race between Estonia and the host country Denmark. The contest was won by Estonia, represented by Tanel Padar, Dave Benton & 2XL with the song Everybody, the host nation, finished in 2nd place with 177 points - beaten by 21 points. Coming 3rd were Greece with 147 points - giving the country their best result up till this point, france came 4th with 142 points, and in 5th place were Sweden with 100 points.
Dave Benton, who was born and raised in Aruba, was the first black person and, at the age of 50 years and 101 days, the capital of Denmark was the host city for the 46th edition of Eurovision. The venue choice for the contest was Parken Stadium, a stadium in the Indre Østerbro district of Copenhagen, Denmark. The logo of the 2001 Eurovision Song Contest was made out of four circles, the four circles were present in the stage design, with the light construction was made of the same four rings. The Danish national broadcaster faced some problems whilst organising the contest such as the lack of funds, the event was eventually located in the football stadium Parken, after the company running the stadium agreed to add a retractable roof to the building. Changes occurred in the process for the 2002 Contest, along with the Big 4 countries. The other spots for 2002 would be filled by countries that were excluded from the 2001 contest because of their low point average for the years 1996–2000, the Danes were so offended that the BBC was obliged to issue an apology on Wogans comments.
Controversy surrounded the Swedish song, Listen To Your Heartbeat, eventually the EBU decided for the matter to be settled in court, with the song allowed to compete as long as the courts did not declare the song as plagiarism. During the voting the Danish band Aqua performed with a medley of their singles, Although enjoyable, people complained about it being a little bit rude as there was some swearing during the performance, both at the beginning and end of Barbie Girl. This brought the number of participating countries to twenty-three. Tanel Padar was a backing vocalist for Ines in 2000, the majority of participating countries held a televote, where the top ten most voted for songs were awarded the 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 points. This year the EBU introduced for the first time a mix of voting systems for those countries that didnt want to use 100% televoting, only three votes were allowed per household
Eurovision Song Contest 2005
The Eurovision Song Contest 2005 was the 50th annual Eurovision Song Contest. The contest took place at the Palace of Sports in Kiev, the contest consisted of two shows, the semi-final and final, which took place on 19 and 21 May 2005, respectively. The shows were hosted by Maria Efrosinina and Pavlo Shylko, thirty-nine countries participated, including the débuts of Bulgaria and Moldova and the return of Hungary, which was last represented in 1998. The winner for 2005 was Greece with the song My Number One performed by Helena Paparizou, written by Christos Dantis and Natalia Germanou and it scored 230 points, beating Malta into second place by a margin of 38 points. This was the first victory for Greece at the Eurovision Song Contest, romania and Latvia rounded out the top five. The Big Four countries ended up as the Last Four, all placing in the four position of the scoreboard in the final. The official logo of the contest remained the same from the 2004 contest with the flag in the heart being changed.
Following Istanbuls Under The Same Sky, the slogan for the 2005 show was Awakening, the postcards for the 2005 show illustrated Ukraine’s culture and heritage along with a more modern and industrial side to the country. The hosts of the Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev were television presenter Maria Masha Efrosinina, previous winner Ruslana returned to the stage in Kiev to perform in the interval act and to interview the contestants backstage in the green room. The famous Ukrainian boxers Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko opened the televoting, while a special trophy was presented to the winner by Ukraines president, Viktor Yushchenko. An official CD and DVD was released and a new introduction was an official pin set, the EBU commissioned a book The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History by British/American author John Kennedy OConnor to celebrate the contests fiftieth anniversary. The book was presented on screen during the break between songs 12 and 13, the book was published in English, French, Swedish and Finnish.
During the semi final, there were a few volume falls in the sound, most notably during the Norwegian song and these were not fixed for the DVD release. 2005 was no exception for scandals regarding the representatives from the countries participating, germanys entrant in the Eurovision Song Contest rejected calls to quit after her producer admitted manipulating the countrys pop charts with mass purchases of her single. Gracia Baur defended her producer David Brandes, behind Swiss entry Vanilla Ninja, bulgarias debut was overshadowed by a scandal. The song Lorraine by Kaffe was accused of plagiarism, the song sounded too similar to another one released by Ruslan Mainov in 2001. There were problems in Malta with the electricity supply during the contest, there was a controversy regarding the Turkish entry, TRT got a false jury which led to the victory of the song Gülseren, which the 2003 winner Sertab Erener said was not the best choice. There were similar controversies in Macedonia which led to a victory for Martin Vučić
Russo-Georgian War
The Russo-Georgian War was a war between Georgia and the Russian-backed self-proclaimed republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The war took place in August 2008 following a period of worsening relations between Russia and Georgia, both constituent republics of the Soviet Union. The fighting took place in the strategically important Transcaucasia region, which borders the Middle East and it was regarded as the first European war of the 21st century. The Republic of Georgia declared its independence in early 1991 as the Soviet Union began to fall apart, following the war, a joint peacekeeping force of Georgian and Ossetian troops was stationed in the territory. Meanwhile, a stalemate developed in the region of Abkhazia. By August 1,2008, Ossetian separatists began shelling Georgian villages, to put an end to these deadly attacks and restore order, the Georgian Army was sent to the South Ossetian conflict zone on 7 August. Georgians took control of most of Tskhinvali, a separatist stronghold, Georgia stated it was responding to Russia moving non-peacekeeping units into the country.
Russia accused Georgia of aggression against South Ossetia, and launched a land, air. Russian and Ossetian forces battled Georgian forces in and around South Ossetia for several days and Abkhaz forces opened a second front by attacking the Kodori Gorge held by Georgia. Russian naval forces blockaded part of the Georgian coast and this was the first war in history in which cyber warfare coincided with military action. An active information war was waged during and after the conflict. President of France Nicolas Sarkozy negotiated an agreement on 12 August. Russian forces temporarily occupied the Georgian cities of Zugdidi, Poti, the South Ossetians destroyed most ethnic Georgian villages in South Ossetia and were responsible for an ethnic cleansing of Georgians. Russia recognised Abkhazia and South Ossetia as separate republics on 26 August, in response, Russia mostly completed its withdrawal of troops from Georgia proper on 8 October. In the aftermath, Russias international relations were largely unharmed, the war displaced 192,000 people and while many returned to their homes after the war,20,272 people remained displaced as of 2014.
Russia has, since the war, occupied Abkhazia and South Ossetia in violation of the agreement of August 2008. In the tenth century AD, Georgia for the first time emerged as a concept in the territories where the Georgian language was used to perform Christian rituals. After the Mongol invasions of the region, the Kingdom of Georgia eventually was broken up into several kingdoms, in the nineteenth century, the Russian Empire gradually annexed the Georgian lands
Eurovision Song Contest 2006
The Eurovision Song Contest 2006 was the 51st Eurovision Song Contest, held at the Olympic Indoor Hall in Athens, Greece on 18 May and 20 May 2006. The hosting national broadcaster of the contest was Ellinikí Radiofonía Tileórasi, the Finnish band Lordi won the contest with the song Hard Rock Hallelujah, written by lead singer Mr. Lordi. Hard Rock Hallelujah was the first ever hard rock song to win the contest, since Eurovision is normally associated with pop music. This was Finlands first victory in Eurovision after waiting forty-five years and it is noted that they scored the same amount of points in the semi-final and the grand final. In the semi-final, both the hosts sang Katrina and the Waves contest-winning Love Shine A Light, for one of the intervals, Sakis Rouvas sang an English version of his Greek hit Seho Erotefthi called Im in love with you. Helena Paparizou, who performed the song in Kiev, returned to the Eurovision stage in Athens. An official CD and DVD was released and a new introduction was a fan book released from this year.
The 2006 contest saw the 1, 000th song to be performed in the contest, Armenia entered for the first time in the contest. The venue that was chosen as the host venue, was the Olympic Indoor Hall in Athens, the official logo of the contest remained the same from 2004 and 2005 with the countrys flag in the heart being changed. The 2006 sub-logo created by the design company Karamela for Greek television was based on the Phaistos Disc which is a popular symbol of ancient Greece. According to ERT, it was inspired by the wind and the sea, the golden sunlight, following Istanbuls Under The Same Sky and Kievs Awakening, the slogan for the 2006 show was Feel The Rhythm. This theme was the basis for the postcards for the 2006 show, to save time in the final, the voting time lasted ten minutes and the voting process was changed, points 1-7 were shown immediately on-screen. The spokespersons only announced the countries scoring 8,10 and 12 points, constantinos Christoforou saluted from Nicosia, the last divided capital in Europe, during Cyprus reading, the telecast displayed Switzerland by mistake.
This voting process has been criticized because suspense was lost by only reading three votes instead of ten, and for the first time, the display for the Macedonian entry had the title spelled out in its entirety instead of being abbreviated as it has been in previous years. Participating countries in a Eurovision Song Contest must be members of the EBU. The semi-final was held on 18 May 2006 at 21,00,23 countries performed and all 37 participants and Serbia & Montenegro voted. Shaded countries qualified for the Eurovision Final Notes 1. ^ The song contained phrases in Spanish,2. ^ The song contained phrases in French. The finalists were, the four automatic qualifiers France, Germany and the United Kingdom, the top 10 countries from the 2005 final, the final was held on 20 May 2006 at 21,00 and was won by Finland
Eurovision Song Contest 1999
The Eurovision Song Contest 1999 was the 44th Eurovision Song Contest, held on 29 May 1999 in Jerusalem, Israel after Dana International won the contest the previous year in the United Kingdom. The venue for the contest was the International Convention Center, the place that hosted the 1979 contest. Israels two previous winners, Izhar Cohen, who won in 1978 with A-Ba-Ni-Bi and Milk and Honeys Gali Atari who won it the year with Hallelujah attended as spectators. The winner of the Contest was Charlotte Nilsson, representing Sweden with Take Me to Your Heaven and this was Swedens fourth win in the Contest and the second in the 1990s. In the run-up to the Contest, many speculated that it would not be held in Israel, long-standing rules in place for decades were abolished during this Contest, rules that each country had to sing in one of their national languages was abolished for the first time since 1977. Furthermore, live music became optional for the first time in the Contests history, IBA took advantage of this and decided to drop the orchestra from the Contest as a way to conserve money for the show.
This meant that for the first time all entries used backing track during their performances and this caused controversy for Eurovision traditionalists, with three-time winner Johnny Logan criticising the move, describing the event now as karaoke. Latvia had attempted to participate in the Contest for the first time and this gave Hungary a chance to enter the Contest, Magyar Televízió decided not to take part. This allowed Portugal to compete as the 23rd country, austria and Herzegovina, Denmark and Iceland returned to the Contest after being relegated from competing in 1998. Lithuania returned to the Contest for the first time in five years, the Lithuanian delegation had had budget problems to contend with, and so the EBU allowed the Lithuanians to arrive in Israel a day than everyone else. The first delegation on the hand to walk the Holy Land were Estonia. After being relegated from the 1998 Contest, Russias Channel One had decided not to broadcast that years contest, however, as only countries which had broadcast the previous years contest were allowed to enter the next years contest, Russia was forced to miss another year.
They were joined by Finland, Hungary, Romania and Switzerland, the favourites to win the Contest came from Icelands Selma with All Out of Luck, and Cypruss Marlain with Tha Ne Erotas, after an internet poll by fans. But, while Iceland finished second to Sweden, Cyprus failed to inspire televotes, a number of controversies occurred before the Contest. Both artists would eventually represent their countries in Eurovision, in 2006 and 2002 respectively, croatias entry attracted objections from the Norwegian delegation, due to synthesised male vocals being used on the backing track of Doris Dragovićs entry. The interval act was provided by Dana International, who performed a cover of the Stevie Wonder song Free, Dana International appeared at the end of the show, handing the winning trophy to Nilsson. After pretending that the trophy was too heavy to lift, she fell to the stage, below is a summary of all 12 point in the final
Eurovision Song Contest 1995
The Eurovision Song Contest 1995 was the 40th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 13 May 1995 in the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. This years competition was the last with one host until 18 years in 2013 in Malmö. This contest broke the chain of victories that Ireland enjoyed in 1992,1993 and this was Irelands 3rd year in succession to host the contest - and to mark the 40th show, it was opened with a 4-minute retrospective showing images from the contests history. The Norwegian group Secret Garden was the winner of this contest with the instrumental song. Incidentally, Secret Gardens violinist was Fionnuala Sherry, who is Irish and it was his birthday that night, but according to host Kennedy, He wouldnt say which one. Nonetheless, the audience sang Happy Birthday for him, assisted by the orchestra, after winning the 1994 contest, RTÉ were worried about whether they could afford to host a third consecutive contest in 1995. The BBC had offered to take on the responsibility of hosting the contest, in the end RTÉ decided to stage the contest on its own.
However they did ask the EBU that, should Ireland win once more, the favourite to win the contest, according to bookmakers, was Sweden with the pop-ballad Se på mig. Other countries in contention for the win were Croatia, Israel, the winning song was something new at Eurovision in that it contained only 24 words accompanied by long violin solos. The United Kingdom contributed a modern rap number, while the previous year’s runner-up, after the voting was completed, Norway was the winner with 148 points, followed by Spains Vuelve conmigo with 119 points, and Sweden gaining 100 points. The stage was designed by Alan Farquharson who designed the set of the 1993 contest that took place in Millstreet, the interval act consisted of several well known Irish performers including Clannad, Brian Kennedy and was composed by leading musician Michael OSuilleabhan. The EBU decreased the number of back to 23 to make sure the show wouldnt last longer than 3 hours. 5 of the 6 countries that were relegated the year came back to the contest, Luxembourg decided to stop participating completely and Italy withdrew voluntarily.
This rumour did, however inspire a popular episode of Father Ted, in any event, RTÉ ended up hosting the contest once again in 1997. Each country had a jury that awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs. Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final, FR Yugoslavia After the breakup of Yugoslavia, third channel of Radio Television of Serbia broadcast the show, although Yugoslavia did not participate
4Fun
4Fun is a Lithuanian music band. They play a range of music styles, including rock, pop rock. The band was created in 2001 and participated in national and international festivals, including Visaginas Country. 4Fun had participated in the selection for the Eurovision three times. After unsuccessful attempts in 2005 and 2006, 4Fun won the selection with their lyrical ballad Love or Leave. They outstripped two other superfinalists, Aistė Pilvelytė and Rūta Ščiogolevaitė, 4Fun represented Lithuania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 in Helsinki and finished 21st with 28 points, with major votes from Ireland and Latvia. Lead singer Julija Ritčik received a wild card entry directly to the finals of the selection for Eurovision 2008. In 2008, 4Fun together with Latvian Valters & Kaža recorded song With U, gyvas –2004 Dėlionė/A Puzzle –2009 Official site
Linas and Simona
Linas and Simona was a popular duo, which represented Lithuania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004. With 26 points they placed 16th in the semifinal and could not participate in the final, they befriended Ruslana, the winner of the Eurovision 2004, and together recorded Fight for Love and Freedom. This song was released in album I Love U on 22 July 2005, in 2005 they representatives of anti-AIDS campaign in Lithuania. The couple separated in late 2007 ending the duo and their last work, live album Linas and Simona presents UAB MUSIC Live featuring Stasys Povilaitis, Violeta Riaubiškytė, was released in February 2008. Linas Adomaitis was born on 10 April 1976 to a family of a professional violinist and he attended music school from early age and now holds masters degree from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater. Linas started his career in 1995 with quartet called L+. The band played in R&B style and they released four albums before adjourning in 2000. Simona Jakubėnaitė participated in about 15 large international music festivals before taking part in Fizz Superstar contest in 2002, the show was very similar to the American Idol and took place in the three Baltic states.
Simona did not win the contest, but met Linas and started working together, for a while she was Linas backing singer. After the separation from Linas, she went to study at the Berklee College of Music
Euro
Outside of Europe, a number of overseas territories of EU members use the euro as their currency. Additionally,210 million people worldwide as of 2013 use currencies pegged to the euro, the euro is the second largest reserve currency as well as the second most traded currency in the world after the United States dollar. The name euro was adopted on 16 December 1995 in Madrid. The euro was introduced to world markets as an accounting currency on 1 January 1999. While the euro dropped subsequently to US$0.8252 within two years, it has traded above the U. S. dollar since the end of 2002, peaking at US$1.6038 on 18 July 2008. In July 2012, the euro fell below US$1.21 for the first time in two years, following concerns raised over Greek debt and Spains troubled banking sector, as of 26 March 2017, the euro–dollar exchange rate stands at ~ US$1.07. The euro is managed and administered by the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank, as an independent central bank, the ECB has sole authority to set monetary policy.
The Eurosystem participates in the printing and distribution of notes and coins in all states. The 1992 Maastricht Treaty obliges most EU member states to adopt the euro upon meeting certain monetary and budgetary convergence criteria, all nations that have joined the EU since 1993 have pledged to adopt the euro in due course. Since 5 January 2002, the central banks and the ECB have issued euro banknotes on a joint basis. Euro banknotes do not show which central bank issued them, Eurosystem NCBs are required to accept euro banknotes put into circulation by other Eurosystem members and these banknotes are not repatriated. The ECB issues 8% of the value of banknotes issued by the Eurosystem. In practice, the ECBs banknotes are put into circulation by the NCBs and these liabilities carry interest at the main refinancing rate of the ECB. The euro is divided into 100 cents, in Community legislative acts the plural forms of euro and cent are spelled without the s, notwithstanding normal English usage.
Otherwise, normal English plurals are used, with many local variations such as centime in France. All circulating coins have a side showing the denomination or value. Due to the plurality in the European Union, the Latin alphabet version of euro is used. For the denominations except the 1-, 2- and 5-cent coins, beginning in 2007 or 2008 the old map is being replaced by a map of Europe showing countries outside the Union like Norway
For the most recent participation see
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Lithuania in the Eurovision Song Contest
