I Wanna

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I Wanna
Eurovision Song Contest 2002 entry
Country Latvia
Artist(s) Marija Naumova
As Marie N
Language English
Composer(s) Marija Naumova
Lyricist(s) Marija Naumova
Marats Samauskis
Place 1st
Points 176
Lyrics Lyrics

◄ Too Much (2001)   
Hello From Mars (2003) ►

I Wanna, also known in its original version as I Wonna, was the winning song in the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 performed in English by Marie N representing Latvia. With this victory, Latvia became the second ex-USSR member to win the Contest (Estonia had achieved the feat one year earlier).

The song is particularly famous for Marie's performance. She began wearing a white suit and a trilby hat, which was removed by one of her dancers. As the song continued, other dancers removed her suit jacket and her dark shirt, revealing the top of a red dress. The suit trousers were then removed, revealing the bottom half of the short dress. On the final beat of the song, the hem was pulled, revealing the dress to be much longer.
This visual performance was also supported by a Salsa-style song, which made full use of the more up-beat tempos increasingly finding success in the Contest.

The lyrics are relatively simple, with the singer telling her lover that she wants to be various things to him.

The song was performed twenty-third on the night (following Slovenia's Sestre with Samo Ljubezen and preceding Lithuania's Aivaras with Happy You). At the close of voting, it had received 176 points, placing 1st in a field of 24. The song was a commercial failure both in Latvia and Europe.

Marie (along with Brainstorm lead singer Renārs Kaupers) would go on to host the Eurovision Song Contest 2003.

Preceded by
Everybody by Tanel Padar , Dave Benton & 2XL
Eurovision Song Contest winners
2002
Succeeded by
Everyway That I Can by Sertab Erener
Languages