THe EBU has confirmed that 26 countries will take part in next years conest in Riga, Latvia. It is said that there will be a new system introduced in 2004 for selecting countries to go forward to the next contest due to the number of countries now wanting to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest. I can now say that after all the speculation regarding new countries in next years contest there will be one new country. THe 26 vcountries that will take part in ESC 2003 are:-

Austria, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Latvia, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, UKRAINE, United Kingdom.