Lied van Liedjes 40

This was the fourtyth Lied van Liedjes to be held. The contest would be held in Gothenburg, Sweden, following their victory at the previous contest. The Semi-Finals would occur on 26 December 2003 and 28 December 2003. The Grand Final would take place on 30 December 2003.

Lucia Danielsen returned as executive producer, while Eila Kekkonen left her spot has director, beeing replaced by an iconic name in the contest, Annie McLoad. The coordinator would be, again, Alexander Ahlberg.

42 countries participated in the contest. Russia was the first to withdraw, stating that the contest wasn't interesting at this point. Bulgaria, three times winner, followed-up stating that the broadcaster went broke after financing Vik Vitanova too many times. Cyprus and Greece withdraw together due to miscommunications with the organizers. Malta went broke and couldn't pay the fee. The last to withdraw and surprised a lot of people, was Spain, they justified missing this edition because of the horrible results they have been having recently. This edition was the first in ages to have new nations participating, the first one to announce the debut was the territory of the Isle of Man, this territory tried to enter the contest many times but never managed, but this time they did it. The second one was the african nation of Cape Verde, this was the second non-Saahrian country to participate in LVL after South Africa. Four nations returned, Italy returned after 1 year in abscense, Faroe Islands finally exited the protest and returned (Greenland didn't express interesst), Japan returned to amaze the fans and Algeria returned after noticing the permanence of Morocco in the contest.

Semi-Final 1
, and  would vote in this Semi Final. It took place on Tuesday 25 November 2003.

Semi-Final 2
and would vote in this Semi Final. It took place on Tuesday 25 November 2003.