After Germany finished 21st in the Eurovision Song Contest 2002, head of delegation Jürgen Meier-Beer wanted to renew the national final. In an interview, he said:
Countdown Grand Prix Eurovision
Countdown Grand Prix Eurovision was the competition that selected Germany's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2003. The competition took place on 7 March 2003 at the Ostseehalle in Kiel, hosted by Axel Bulthaupt. Fourteen acts competed during the show with the winner being selected through a public televote.
Competing entries
Ten acts were nominated by major record labels. The remaining five acts were proposed by five well-known newspapers and magazines BILD, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, die tageszeitung, Yam! and Hürriyet. The fifteen participating acts were announced on 11 January 2003. Among the participating acts, Lou and Tagträumer have previously taken part in Countdown Grand Prix Eurovision 2001. Ich Troje took part as Troje although they had previously already won the Polish national final with "Keine Grenzen-Żadnych granic". They would have not been allowed to take part in the competition for two countries according to the rules. Later in Riga, the band would receive its only twelve points from Germany. On 21 January 2003, "Marie" performed by Joachim Deutschland was disqualified due to the singer having insulted the Bavarian minister-presidentEdmund Stoiber in one of his other songs and inappropriate lines in his entry.
Final
The televised final took place on 7 March 2003. The winner was selected through two rounds of public voting, including options for landline and SMS voting. In the first round of voting, the top three entries were selected to proceed to the second round. The top three entries were: "Let's Get Happy" performed by Lou, "Woran glaubst du?" performed by Beatbetrieb and "Alles wird gut" performed by Die Gerd Show. In the second round, the winner, "Let's Get Happy" performed by Lou, was selected. Only the top three placings of the first round were supposed to be revealed, but BILD has published the full results shortly after the competition. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the interval act was performed by Modern Talking. 2002 Eurovision winnerMarie N performed her entry "I Wanna" and host of the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 Renārs Kaupers appeared in the national final.
Releases
Again, a compilation album of the national final was released. Apart from the 14 competing entries, it included the German entry of 2002 "I Can't Live Without Music" and the winner of that year, "I Wanna". As compilations cannot enter the album charts in Germany, little can be said about the commercial success.
Chart successes
For the first time since 1999, the German entry would not enter the German single charts. From the 14 competing songs, only two reached the top 100: "Alles wird gut" was the most successful one peaking at #18. The disqualified entry "Marie" by Joachim Deutschland also reached the single charts.
Entry
"Woran glaubst Du?"
80
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"Alles wird gut"
18
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"Marie"
32
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At the Eurovision Song Contest
Lou performed 10th,following Cyprus and preceding Russia finished joint 11th with Ireland scoring 53 points. The highest vote came from Sweden - 10 points. Iceland was the first country to vote and gave eight points to Germany, which put the country in third place after the first points announced.Germany automatically qualified for the grand final,of the 2004 Contest; as part of the "Big Four".
Voting
Points awarded by Germany
Final
Points awarded to Germany
After the Eurovision Song Contest
In an interview at the aftershow party of the Eurovision Song Contest, Lou was asked why she did not reach a better position. She answered that she was “too old, too fat and too ugly”. That quote made it to the front page of BILD the Monday after the contest. Previously, Lou had made it to front page of that newspaper stating that she lost weight for Riga and reduced her wrinkles with Botox.
