Lied van Liedjes 42

This was the forty-second Lied van Liedjes to be held. It was held in Enschede, Netherlands. The Semi-Finals were held on 2, 4, and 6 May 2004 and the Grand Final took place on 10 May 2004. 44 countries took part, with South Korea making their debut appearance.

Organisation
After the financial problems in edition 41, the executive, Katelyn Ratz, stepped down from her position. She was replaced by long-time LVL cooperator and past director Adelardo Garibaldi, who also coordinated all editions hosted in Italy. Adelardo immediately took action to get the contest back on its feet after the crisis. He brought Annie McLoad back as the director and Hubert Fijneman returned as coordinator, having previously taken that position in the first edition.

Garibaldi's plan to restore the glory of LVL was inviting rich countries outside of Europe to the contest and making brand deals with companies for sponsoring. His reputation as a previously successful director of the contest resulted in him being able to gain several crucial investors. The most important one was Swedish clothing brand GALBHAUS, which covered a substantial amount of the budget for the edition. Seeing the contest come back to life, several countries and dozens of past sponsors also returned.

The host city was decided as Enschede after an internal company voting. Fijneman had already worked in the arena during several smaller music festivals, which made planning out the stage easier.

Countries
As a result of Garibaldi's plan to expand the reach of the contest to reach countries further from Europe again, five countries signed up for the contest, those being, , , , and the debuting. Additionally, also returned following a contract with a Maltese company, and the lowered entry fees also made  and  return to the contest.

On April 15, 2004, a fire broke out in the main building of the Austrian broadcaster. The flames got out of control and ended up burning most of the left side of the building, as well as damaging the right half and several other buildings in the television complex. 7 people died in the fire - five employees and two firefighters - and a further 41 were injured. Due to this tragedy withdrew from the contest indefinitely.