Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2003
The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2003 was the inaugural edition of the annual Junior Eurovision Song Contest for young singers aged eight to fifteen. It was held on 15 November 2003, in Copenhagen, Denmark. With Camilla Ottesen and Remee as the presenters, the contest was won by the then eleven-year-old Dino Jelusić, who represented with his song "Ti si moja prva ljubav" (You are my first love) while second and third place went to and the respectively. The next time that a country would win on its first attempt was in . It was  the first Eurovision contest to be broadcast in the 16:9 widescreen and high definition, but was also offered to broadcasters in the traditional 4:3 aspect ratio. It was also the first Eurovision Song Contest where a DVD of the contest would be released. It was decided that the country that won the contest would not necessarily host the next contest, to reduce the pressure on the contestants. It was announced before the contest took place that the next edition would be held in the United Kingdom (although in the end this did not happen). Origins and history. The origins of  the contest date back to 2000 when Danmarks Radio held a song contest for Danish children that year and the following year. The idea was extended to a Scandinavian song competition in 2002, known as MGP Nordic, with Denmark, Norway and Sweden as participants. The EBU picked up the idea for a song contest featuring children and opened the competition to all EBU member broadcasters making it a pan-European event. The working title of the programme was "Eurovision Song Contest for Children", branded with the name of the EBU's long-running and already popular song competition, the Eurovision  Song Contest. Location. Denmark was asked to host the first programme after their experience with their own contests and the MGP Nordic. Copenhagen was confirmed as the host city in November 2002. In January 2003, it was announced that the Danish broadcaster would host the inaugural contest at the 8,000 capacity Forum venue in the Danish capital. Venue. Forum Copenhagen () is a large multi-purpose, rentable indoor arena located in Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, Denmark. It hosts a large variety of concerts, markets, exhibitions and other events. The venue can hold up to 10,000 people depending on the event. The Forum operates  as a convention center, concert hall and indoor arena. It was opened in February 1926 to host a car exhibition and was last renovated in 1996–97. Over two storeys there is a combined exhibition floor area of 5,000 m² and a separate restaurant for up to 250 seated guests. The Metro station Forum is adjacent to the building. Forum Copenhagen was designed by Oscar Gundlach-Pedersen, and the lighting was from Poul Henningsen's brand new PH-lamp. In 1929 it held an architecture exhibition, which was one of the first presentations of functionalism in Denmark, namely the Housing and  Building Exhibition in Forum. It was at this exhibition that Arne Jacobsen and Flemming Lassen exhibited their subscription to the cylindrical "House of the Future". Format. Presenters. In February 2003, there was speculation regarding the potential host of the first ever Eurovision Song Contest for Children. Initially, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the organizer of the show, announced the possible allocation of this role to Irish vocalist and Eurovision Song Contest 1997 co-host Ronan Keating although no contract had yet been signed. On 10 October 2003, however, it was officially announced that the contest would be hosted by the  Danish duo consisting of Camilla Ottesen and rapper Remee. Running order. The draw for the running order of the contest was held on 6 October at Radiohuset, with Greece drawn to open the contest and the Netherlands drawn to close. Voting. All countries used televoting to decide on their top ten. In normal Eurovision fashion, each country's favourite song was given 12 points, their second favourite 10, and their third to tenth favourites were given 8–1 points. Opening and interval acts. The opening number was performed by and Dance Faction, although this was not included in televised broadcast. The  halftime entertainment was provided by two acts from the UK. Busted performed "Crashed the Wedding" but Charlie Simpson was absent due to illness. However, the following day he was present for a radio interview in the UK where it was implied by both himself and the other band members, that this was, in fact, a lie. The real reason for his absence was that he hated Eurovision. The Sugababes performed "Hole in the Head". Postcards. The postcards featured all of the participants (and their backing dancers/singers) exploring different parts of Copenhagen. The postcard's audio would be an instrumental  version of the opening theme. The following list shows the various places they visited: Participating countries. 16 countries competed in the first edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest. In an original press release for the contest, then entitled the "Eurovision Song Contest for Children", a draw was held to select 15 countries to take part in the inaugural contest, with Slovakian broadcaster Slovenská televízia (STV) and German broadcaster ARD being drawn to compete along with 13 other countries. These countries would eventually be replaced by entries from , (added as 16th country before Germany and Slovakia withdrew) and , in their  first ever Eurovision event. The Finnish broadcaster Yle also expressed a debut in the first contest, but went on to just broadcast it instead. Scoreboard. 12 points. Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points each country awarded to another: Other countries. For a country to be eligible for potential participation in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, it needs to be an active member of the EBU. It is currently unknown whether the EBU issue invitations of participation to all 56 active members like they do for the Eurovision Song Contest. Broadcasts. The rights to broadcast the contest were  also acquired by broadcasters in Iceland (RÚV), Finland (Yle), Serbia and Montenegro (RTS/RTCG), Estonia (ETV), Germany (KI.KA), Australia (SBS) and Kosovo (RTK). Some of the participating broadcasters also transmitted the programme live on radio. Official album. Junior Eurovision Song Contest: Copenhagen 2003, is a compilation album put together by the European Broadcasting Union, and was released by Universal Music Group on November 2003. The album features all the songs from the 2003 contest. On the track list Cyprus was misspelt as "Cypres".