Eurovision 2004 - The history - Tiscali Music Features

The jury was made up of two delegates from each participating country, among whom one president and two scrutineers were appointed by secret ballot of the members to collect the votes and draw up the final rankings of the songs at the end of the performances. The jury was to judge the contest from a small television screen and each jury member awarded a mark for each song, ranging from 1 to 10 in ascending order of merit, on a paper provided for the purpose. The song obtaining the most points was awarded the "1956 Grand Prix of the Eurovision Song Contest". At that time there was no rule against members of the jury voting for their own country, and no material awards were attached to the contest. As for the financing of the contest, participants paid their own expenses and the host country (Switzerland that year) bore the whole cost of organising the European final. The winner of the Grand Prix was Switzerland with the song "Refrain", performed by Lys Assia.

In 1974, the Grand Prix was won by Sweden%u2019s ABBA for the song "Waterloo". ABBA became the most popular group in the history of the competition.

The 2000 contest was held in Stockholm's prestigious Globe Arena before an audience of 12,000. The number of participants increased to 24. Bosnia-Herzegovina, Lithuania, Portugal, Poland and Slovakia were forced to take a one-year break due to their having gained an insufficient number of points in the previous year's contest. Finland, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Romania, the Russian Federation, and Switzerland returned, and Latvia joined the contest for the first time. This year's contest saw the introduction of two important new concepts. Firstly, a compilation CD of all 24 entries was made and released commercially. Secondly, Microsoft broadcast the contest live on the Internet. The Grand Prix was awarded to Denmark with the song "Fly on the Wings of Love" performed by the Olsen Brothers.

The Eurovision Song Context in 2001 was held in Denmark - more popular than ever before. Nearly 35,000 people were on hand at the Parken Stadium for the contest. New EBU rules took effect. The following year%u2019s competition would be attended only by those countries which took the top 15 slots in Copenhagen, plus the "big four" (the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Spain). A total of 23 countries competed in 2001, and the Eurovision Song Contest was won by Tanel Padar and Dave Benton from Estonia, with the song "Everybody".

Estonia then organised the Eurovision Song Contest in 2002. The Saku Suurhall auditorium in Tallinn was the place where Marija N from Latvia took the Grand Prix with her song " Wanna", beating 23 other competitors for the title Before the competition, representatives of Estonian Television had been worried about whether they would be able to produce a European-level competition, but in the event, the Estonians posted results that were like a fairy tale - and that was the theme of the Estonian competition, too.

2003 Winner

The winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 was Turkey.

Everyway that I can - Sertab Erener

Sertab Erener was born in Istanbul, Turkey and is one of the country%u2019s most popular female vocalists, with recording sales numbering four million. Her first album was released in 1992, followed by "Lal" in 1994 and "Sertab Gibi" in 1996.

Her duet with Jose Carreras demonstrated her versatility as a singer of different genres of music, while her duet with Ricky Martin called "Private Emotion" on the Turkish and Middle Eastern versions of Martin's 99 English language album moved her stardom up another notch. Her 1994 recording of "Lal" was selected by Sony Music as one of the biggest hits of the century and was included in the "Soundtrack For A Century" collection.

In April 1999 she released her fourth album, "Sertab" and less than a year later, in February 2000, she released a European album. Sertab has given numerous concerts, including some at major festival such as Dranouter, Sfinks, the Amsterdam Roots Festival and Live for Life.

Her latest album "Turuncu" was released in 2001. "Turuncu" is the word for the colour orange, signifying happiness and all things positive. Sertab is currently recording her next album, due for release this summer.

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