Those of you who follow us regularly will know that we, at Eurovision Ireland, have been looking at the highs and lows of each country in the years they have taken part in the Eurovision Song Contest. Today, we are focusing on one of Eurovision’s more recent countries to have joined the contest, Latvia.

Participation History

You only have to go right back to the start of this century when Brainstorm represented Latvia in their first ever Eurovision Song contest in 2000 in Stockholm , Sweden. To the surprise of many , Brainstorm found their way into the hearts of fans across Europe and came a credible 3rd place.Their lead singer, Reinars Kaupers co-hosted Eurovision 2003 in Riga and joined Katrina from Katrina and the Waves.who won for the UK in 1997, in presenting the Congratulations :50 years of Eurovision show in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2005. Since that year, the country has had mixed fortunes in the competition , in recent years struggling to make it out of their semi final into the Grand Final

Latvia’s highs at Eurovision

To date , Latvia have just one win, which came on 2002, in Tallinn, Estonia when Marie N sang her way to victory with the cabaret style song ” I wanna”.She narrowly beat Malta, who were also looking for their first victory at the contest. Marie N , co-hosted the 2003 contest in Riga together with Reinars Kaupers.

Sadly for Latvia, there haven’t been too many more highs in the contest. In 2005 they managed to finish a respectable 5th place when Walters and Kazha , using sign language as part of their performance , sang “The war is not over ” in Kyiv,Ukraine.

Latvia came close to the top 5 again in 2015, when Aminata finished 6th in Vienna, Austria.She also came second in her Semi Final .

The last time Latvia qualified for the Grand Final was in 2016 , when Justs represented the nation in Stockholm , Sweden, with “Heartbeat”, a song written by the previous years representative, Aminata .Sadly he only made it to 15th place in the Grand Final.

Latvia’s lows at Eurovision.

It’s fair to say that there have been far more lows than highs for Latvia in their time at Eurovision so far, perhaps a little unfairly on some occasions. Since the introduction of the Semi Final system in 2004,Latvia hold the unfortunate record of 13 non qualifications and also unfortunately has the record of 5 last place finishes in the semi -finals. Let’s have a look at some of those non-qualifications.

In the very first semi final in Istanbul, Turkey Formins and Kleins brought their song “Dziema par Laimi” , sung in the Latvian language to the contest. Unfortunately, they failed to make it to the Grand Final, finishing 17th in the Semi Final.

In 2010 Aisha went to Oslo, hoping not to repeat the previous year’s bad result of last in the Semi final . She sang “What for? “Unfortunately, Aisha may well have been asking the song title’s question by the end of the night as Europe didn’t oblige and she finished last with just 11 points.

In 2011, Musiqq with “Angel in disguise ” tried to break the non -qualification trend in Dusseldorf , Germany. Unfortunately , although not coming last , they were still a long way from those qualification spots, finishing 17th .

In 2012, Anmary with her song “Beautiful Song”, in which she made references to Johnny Logan and Mick Jagger . Sadly, references to famous singers didn’t help to get her out of the Semi-Final.

In 2013 , PeR with “Here we go” also failed to make it out of the semi, finishing in what was now becoming amongst the common finishing places for Latvia, 17th and on this occasion in last place!

In 2014 Aarzemnieki came to Copenhagen with a quirky little number called “Cake to Bake”. Although they didn’t get to the final they were at least slightly more successful than their predecessors, coming 13th in their Semi Final .

After two years in 2015 and 2016 where the trend of non -qualifications was temporarily broken, it was back to the old trend in 2017 when Triana Park, to the surprise of some , failed to make it to the final in Kyiv , Ukraine, with their song “Line”.They finished 18th and last place in Semi Final 1.

Following the cancellation of the contest in 2020 due to the Covid 19 pandemic, in 2021 ,Samanta Tina,went to Rotterdam hoping to change Latvia’s fortunes , with her song “The moon is Rising”. Sadly , all she got was another last place for the nation in her Semi Final with just 14 points.

This year, it was hoped that Sudden Lights with their song “Aija” would improve Latvian fortunes in Liverpool. Sadly,another non -qualification , but they did at least get much closer to the final than many of their predecessors.

So, those are the highs and lows of Latvia at Eurovision. Unfortunately with more lows than highs. Will their fortunes improve next year in Malmø,Sweden?

Let us know what you think of Latvia at Eurovision by leaving us a comment in our comments box. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter.

Author: Sarah Rudman

Source : Eurovision.TV ,You Tube,Latvijas Televizija