Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003

Ireland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 with the song "We've Got the World" written by Martin Brannigan and Keith Molloy. The song was performed by Mickey Joe Harte. The Irish broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) returned to the Eurovision Song Contest after a one-year absence following their withdrawal in 2002 as one of the bottom six countries in the 2001 contest. The Irish entry for the 2003 contest in Riga, Latvia was selected through the music competition series You're a Star, organised by RTÉ. The competition consisted of 20 shows and concluded with a final, resulting in the selection of "We've Got the World" performed by Mickey Joe Harte as the Irish Eurovision entry after facing a public televote.

Ireland competed in the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 24 May 2003. Performing during the show in position 3, Ireland placed eleventh out of the 26 participating countries, scoring 53 points.

Background
Prior to the 2003 Contest, Ireland had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest thirty-six times since its first entry in 1965. Ireland has won the contest a record seven times in total. The country's first win came in 1970, with then-18-year-old Dana winning with "All Kinds of Everything". Ireland holds the record for being the only country to win the contest three times in a row (in 1992, 1993 and 1994), as well as having the only three-time winner (Johnny Logan, who won in 1980 as a singer, 1987 as a singer-songwriter, and again in 1992 as a songwriter). The Irish entry in 2001, "Without Your Love" performed by Gary O'Shaughnessy placed twenty-first.

The Irish national broadcaster, Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), broadcasts the event within Ireland and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. RTÉ confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest on 2 September 2002. RTÉ has consistently used a national final procedure to choose the entry to represent Ireland at the contest, with several artists and songs being featured. For the 2003 contest, RTÉ announced alongside their confirmation that both the song and performer for the contest would be selected via the talent contest You're a Star.

You're a Star
Ireland's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 was selected through the first season of the music competition series You're a Star, which was developed by RTÉ and co-produced with ShinAwil Productions. The shows took place in the Mahoney Hall of the Helix in the Dublin City University (DCU), hosted by Ray D'Arcy and featured a judging panel composed of composer and musician Phil Coulter, television personality and former member of Atomic Kitten Kerry Katona, music publicist Darren Smith and music manager Louis Walsh. The competition consisted of 20 shows, which commenced on 3 November 2002 and concluded on 8 March 2003. All shows in the competition were broadcast on RTÉ One.

The competition took place over two phases. The first phase involved over 5,000 candidates attending auditions held across Ireland in Dún Laoghaire, Belfast, Dundalk, Cork, Killarney, Kilkenny, Galway, Derry and South Dublin. The first ten shows showcased the auditions and selected a total of 13 contestants to go forward to the next stage in the competition. Nine of the contestants were selected following a public televote (one per audition city) with the remaining four selected by the judging panel (one per judge). The second phase was the ten live shows where the results of all shows were determined solely by a public televote; the judging panel participated in an advisory role only. Following the seventh show, the four contestants remaining in the competition were matched with a potential Eurovision Song Contest song selected by two of the competition judges Phil Coulter and Louis Walsh from entries received through established composers approached by RTÉ. The public televote that took place in both phases was conducted through telephone and SMS.

Results summary

 * Colour key
 * – Contestant received the most public votes
 * – Contestant received the fewest public votes and was eliminated

Live shows
The ten live shows took place between 5 January and 8 March 2003. The first seven shows featured various themes: free choice for the first three shows, Irish rock songs for the fourth show, Irish folk/traditional songs for the fifth show, love songs for the sixth show and American songs for the seventh show. Either one or two contestants were eliminated in each of the seven shows. The four remaining contestants each performed their candidate Eurovision songs starting from the eighth show and one contestant was eliminated during each of the eighth and ninth shows. "We've Got the World" performed by Mickey Harte was selected as the winner following the final show and announced the day after on 9 March 2003. 1.3 million televotes were cast during the final show.

At Eurovision
According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the bottom five countries in the 2002 contest competed in the final on 24 May 2003. On 29 November 2002, an allocation draw was held which determined the running order and Ireland was set to perform in position 3, following the entry from Austria and before the entry from Turkey. Ireland finished in eleventh place with 53 points.

In Ireland, the show was broadcast on RTÉ One with commentary by Marty Whelan and Phil Coulter. The Irish spokesperson, who announced the Irish votes during the show, was Pamela Flood.

Voting
Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Ireland and awarded by Ireland in the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Norway in the contest.

Delayed televoting results
Televoting was provided to viewers in Ireland during the contest, however due to a delay in receiving the full results the votes of an assembled back-up jury were used instead to provide the Irish votes. RTÉ subsequently revealed the top 10 countries from the Irish televoting after the contest.