Belgium participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 with the song "Sanomi" written by Yves Barbieux. The song was performed by the group Urban Trad, which was internally selected by the Walloon broadcaster Radio Télévision Belge de la Communauté Française (RTBF) in December 2002 to represent the nation at the 2003 contest in Riga, Latvia. The song, "Sanomi", was presented to the public on 31 March 2003. Belgium competed in the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 24 May 2003. Performing during the show in position 22, Belgium placed second out of the 26 participating countries, scoring 165 points. This was Belgium's best result in the contest since their victory in 1986. Background Prior to the 2003 contest, Belgium had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest forty-four times since its debut as one of seven countries to take part in . Since then, the country has won the contest on one occasion in with the song "J'aime la vie" performed by Sandra Kim. In 2002, Sergio and the Ladies represented the country with the song "Sister" and placed thirteenth. The Belgian broadcaster for the 2003 contest, who broadcasts the event in Belgium and organises the selection process for its entry, was Radio Télévision Belge de la Communauté Française (RTBF). The Belgian participation in the contest alternates between two broadcasters: the Flemish Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroeporganisatie (VRT) and the Walloon RTBF. Both broadcasters have selected the Belgian entry using national finals and internal selections in the past. In 2000 and 2002, both RTBF and VRT organised a national final in order to select the Belgian entry. On 18 December 2002, RTBF confirmed Belgium's participation in the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest having internally selected both the artist and song. Before Eurovision Internal selection The Belgian entry for the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest was selected via an internal selection by RTBF. On 18 December 2002, the broadcaster announced that they had selected the group Urban Trad to represent Belgium in Riga, performing the song "Sanomi" at the contest. The song was written by member of the group, Yves Barbieux, and was performed in imaginary language. "Sanomi" was also the first ever entry at the Eurovision Song Contest that was in imaginary language. On 31 March 2003, RTBF held a press conference in Brussels where the song was presented to the public. The music video for the song, filmed in late March 2003,