48th "Eurovision" took place in the Latvian capital, Riga, on May 24 of 2003. This was, probably, one of the most suspensive shows in the history of the contest ever. And especially for Russia. The voting was very interesting and exciting. Russia, Belgium and Turkey, locking themselves in the Top 3 in the middle of the voting not letting anyone get close to them, altogether came to the finish with the shocking results. When Belgium got the Slovenian 3 points, it put them to 165, with Turkey and Russia currently having 155 and 152, what automatically got Tatu out of the running. But when the 10 points went to Turkey - they won. A 12 for russians Tatu didn't change anything. It's rare to see such close result in "Eurovision". It immediately broke the third record of "the closest wins points-wise" category. The first place is 1991's tie on Top with Carola and Sweden winning, and second - Celine Dion having a victory only by 1 point in 1988. Although Sertab had the 4th appearance number in the performing order, she managed to win. It's known and statistically proved that the closer to the beginning you perform - the less chances you have.

Second place was taken by the Belgian sextet Urban Trad with the perfect song for "Eurovision", i.e. that shows the true beauty of national music of the country, "Sanomi". However, it's impossible not to notice national motives in the winning song either. Not having been overshadowed by such colorful national songs, Russia took great challenge and in spite of losing to the winners by only 3 points, Russia did it with dignity like no one else has. Their representatives were the scandalously famous all over the world duo "t.A.T.u", or simply "Tatu". They naturally became main favourites with the bookmakers before the contest. Interesting that Turkey and Belgium got points from all the countries except three whereas Russia scored points from all the countries bar Ireland and United Kingdom. It was strange because just 3 months before the show took place Tatu débuted in the UK Official Singles chart at number One and spent there 4 consecutive weeks, which is by the way an extremely rare occasion. Besides, 2 days after the 2003 final the second single came out and a week later it got to Number Seven in the same chart. Already mentioned country, United Kingdom, shocked everyone and finished last with nul points, which becamse the worst result for the Kingdom to-date. The duo "Jemini" with the song "Cry Baby" is now the only one to have scored nul points in the final of the last 10 years from 2000 to 2009. Latvia came third to last that cut the string of host's successes. "Eurovision" brought Turkey their first win, Belgium returned to the Top 3 in 17 years, Russia also returned to the Top 3 but having been absent there for 2 years. For the first time the imaginary language song was performed. Ukraine débuted in the contest and finished 14th.

01.		Turkey	Sertab Erener	Everyway that I can	167
02.		Belgium	Urban Trad	Sanomi	165
03.		Russia	t.A.T.u.	Ne ver', ne boysia	164
04.		Norway	Jostein Hasselgård	I'm not afraid to move on	123
05.		Sweden	Fame	Give me your love	107
06.		Austria	Alf Poier	Weil der Mensch zählt	101
07.		Poland	Ich Troje	Keine Grenzen-Żadnych granic	90
08.		Iceland	Birgitta	Open your heart	81
09.		Spain	Beth	Dime	81
10.		Romania	Nicola	Don't break my heart	73
11.		Germany	Lou	Let's get happy	53
12.		Ireland	Mickey Harte	We've got the world	53
13.		Netherlands	Esther Hart	One more night	45
14.		Ukraine	Olexandr	Hasta la vista	30
15.		Croatia	Claudia Beni	Više nisam tvoja	29
16.		Bosnia & Herzegovina	Mija Martina	Ne brini	27
17.		Greece	Mando	Never let you go	25
18.		France	Louisa Baileche	Monts et merveilles	19
19.		Israel	Lior Narkis	Milim La'Ahava	17
20.		Cyprus	Stelios Constantas	Feeling alive	15
21.		Estonia	Ruffus	Eighties coming back	14
22.		Portugal	Rita Guerra	Deixa-me sonhar	13
23.		Slovenia	Karmen	Nanana	7
24.		Latvia	F.L.Y.	Hello from Mars	5
25.		Malta	Lynn Chirchop	To dream again	4
26.		United Kingdom	Jemini	Cry baby	0