LATVIA– LIVE BLOG of  Supernova

Final from 20:25 CET!!!

Latvia– Join us today at 20:25 CET for our LIVE rolling blog of the Final of Supernova 2018 where 8 acts will compete for the golden ticket to Lisbon in May and go on to represent their country in Eurovision 2018. The Final  is being beamed live from LTV Studio 6 in Riga.

You can watch the show live here at 20:25 CET. Just refresh our page here to get the views, comments and points of view from Andrew Main who you will know from previous musings  here at Eurovision Ireland and his sparkling charm and witty repartee should keep you entertained… or bored to hell, who knows!!

The 8 Acts tonight are :

1.  Edgars Kreilis – Younger Days
2. Liene Greifāne – Walk the Talk
3. MADARA – Esamība
4. Markus Riva – This Time
5. Ritvars – Who’s Counting?
6. Lauris Valters – Lovers Bliss
7. Laura Rizzotto -Funny Girl
8. Sudden Lights – Just Fine (Won place with wildcard)

The overall winner will be decided by a combination of votes from a jury of music professionals and the Latvian public. Soon we will find out who will succeed in taking on the Latvian golden ticket from Triana Park who finished 18th in the 1st Semi Final last year. and failed to qualify for the Final.

So sit back and get ready for Andrew to give you his spin on tonight’s offerings from Latvia – JUST REFRESH THE PAGE for the up to date comments – at your own risk!

ROLLING BLOG

Welcome to Supernova Live Final. Just waiting for the live feed from LTV.TV to come alive. There are eight songs tonight but the Latvians know how to stretch things out so expect lots of ad breaks and perhaps a bit of beaver along the way too.

And we are live and Justs from 2016 is joint hosting with Dagmar Legante. We now have Ralfs Eiland singing a little ditty called Eurovision. I think he is a comedian too. He was also in the group PER that are also big in Latvian circles. He is now singing a medley of Latvian Eurovision songs along with Justs. We are introduced to the Jury. One of them speaks English.

Song 1 – Sudden Lights – Just Fine

Our first song tonight failed to qualify for the Final in the first Semi Final but last week won the Wildcard vote. So here we have the group Sudden Lights opening the show. We have 4 guys on the stage with a gentle sounding song with lots of breathiness to it. It then starts to build nicely into a very melodic sounding mid tempo pop song. It has a brief moment of rockiness then falls back to the breathiness. I actually quite like the song and performance. Pleasant to the ear without being an instant blockbuster.

 The judges give their thoughts on the song. The English speaking judge thinks they deserve their place in the final. He personally likes that kind of music and really enjoyed their performance.  Although he thinks the shortness of the song at 2mins 30 sec may work against it.

Song 2 – Ritvars – Who’s Counting?

Ritvars looks like an office executive dressed in a sombre suit and glasses. He is  accompanied by a couple of girls on backing vocals. The song itself is very slow to start, But a bit of a beat does kick in eventually. It is very laid back and quite unusual. The performance although also laid back is very polished. Its dark and moody and I surprised to find myself quite liking it.

The Jury speak again and the English speaker was surprised by the performance and found the approach to be deep and dark along with Ritvars voice.  He didn’t rate the song when he listened to the track beforehand but was impressed by the live performance.

Song 3 – MADARA – Esamība

MADARA is a lady with a big instrument. A cello to be precise. She wears a big blue and green dress while seated centre stage with it. Her voice is really quite lovely. Her self penned song is full of moods and angst. I love the fact it has the cello in it as a major component and her soaring vocals enhance this rather understated song nicely. Lovely.

The jury give their opinions once again. The English speaking jurer was worried that it being in Latvian would mean he couldn’t relate to the song. But he thought the performance was great and quite unique. He thinks its different to anything else to be heard tonight.

Song 4 – Liene Greifāne – Walk the Talk

Liene is a very colourful performer  but she is all dolled up for the final tonight. Wearing  a long flowing white dress with feathers on the shoulder. Her rather bouncy song is certainly the most up tempo we have heard so far.  She sings confidently and well. She then has a flounce around with a male dancer and starts wailing, not a nice part of the song for me. But the crowd seemed to like her.

The Jury give there thoughts again. Foreign Jurer said He was glad for the uptempo song and thought it very generic for Eurovision. He enjoyed it but felt they  would have to think about how they transfer the choreography onto a bigger stage in Lisbon if she wins tonight.

Song 5 – Lauris Valters – Lovers Bliss

Not his first time in Supernova Lauris looks very confident in his performance. His song soon builds into a very jazzy pop song which chugs along in quite a funky fashion,  it certainly stands out on this as a good thing for me. I don’t think its going to be a winner though.

The jury think its a bit of a slow grower. The foreign judge though the song was much better than his effort last year. He liked his style of performance which enhanced the overall layers of the song itself.

Song 6 – Edgars Kreilis – Younger Days

Another song self penned by the singer Edgars. He is dressed in a long charcoal grey coat. He sure is a bit of looker which may attract the female voting element. His song is very modern and catchy and goes along at a nice pace. His stage presence and vocal performance help this song to be noticed by the voters. This may have a chance you know.

The English speaking jury guy who is from Sweden by the way thinks this is a very modern electropop song and reaches out to a broader audience. he thinks this would do well at Eurovision and would get played on pop channels on the radio.

Song 7 – Laura Rizzotto -Funny Girl

I have lost the feed with my crappy internet so bear with me. Laura up next dressed all in red with lots of red backdrop. Her song is highly fancied but although its well sung and performed I don’t really see the hype in it at all. It is quite Diva ish in its style. Not particularly modern either but stuff like this has done well at Eurovision in the past but perhaps not this year.

The Swede thinks the song was very powerful and the best of the night.

Song 8 – Markus Riva – This Time

The last song tonight. This song originally didn’t make the final but after the votes in the Semi Final were checked it was found there was a problem and Markus actually finished 2nd so he was put through. Another modern pop song this wouldn’t be out of place in Sweden. He sounds a bit nervous early on in but does improve as he settles into it.  It is certainly easy on my ear as he is on the eye. Being on last may give him a slight advantage in the memory banks of the voters.

More problems with my feed but at least I managed to hear all the songs. Lets hope it holds out ok for the results.

Well I really did miss about 5 minutes of the show there. But came in just before they started looking at the run through recap of all the songs. So it must be time to vote and choose your winner Latvia.

I am now having to rely on even writing this on my phone as there is no internet in my apartment. I will try to bring you the result though.

The winner is Laura Rizzotto with Funny Girl.

Sudden Lights were 2nd and MADARA 3rd.

Apologies on the lack of words at the end but ended up having to watch the stream for the result then blog it into this article.

Do you think Laura is the right choice for Latvia?  Thanks again and goodnight.

Author – Andrew James Main

Source: Eurovision Ireland, LTV