Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest

Latvia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 20 times since making its debut at the contest in 2000, where the group Brainstorm finished third with the song "My Star". Latvia won the contest in 2002, with Marie N and the song "I Wanna", defeating Malta by 12 points. Latvia is the second former Soviet country to win the contest. The 2003 contest was held in the Latvian capital Riga. The country achieved its third top 10 result in 2005, when Walters and Kazha finished fifth with "The War Is Not Over".

Latvia
Member station	LTV
National selection events	National final Eirodziesma 2000–2012 Dziesma 2013–2014 Supernova 2015–2020 Internal selection 2021
Participation summary
Appearances	20 (10 finals)
First appearance	2000
Best result	1st: 2002
External links
LTV page
Latvia's page at Eurovision.tv
For the most recent participation see Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020

Latvia did not participate in the final from 2009 to 2014, when they failed to qualify from the semi-finals for six consecutive years, including finishing last on three occasions, in 2009, 2010 and 2013.[1][2] Latvia qualified for the final for the first time since 2008 at the 2015 contest with Aminata and the song "Love Injected". Her sixth place in the final is Latvia's fourth top 10 finish and best result in the contest since 2005. Latvia made its 10th appearance in the final in 2016.

Contestants

Latvia has had seventeen Eurovision entries since its debut. All of Latvia's entries have been performed in English, except for three entries. In 2004 Fomins & Kleins performed "Dziesma par laimi" in Latvian, in 2007 Bonaparti.lv performed Questa Notte in Italian and in 2009 Intars Busulis, having won Eirodziesma 2009 with "Sastrēgums" in Latvian, performed the song in Russian as "Probka" (Пробка).[3]

To select the 2017 Latvian Eurovision entry, Spotify data was included in national Eurovision vote.[4]

Table key

1	Winner
2	Second place
3	Third place
◁	Last place
X	Entry selected but did not compete

Year	Artist	Language	Title	Final	Points	Semi	Points
2000	Brainstorm	English	"My Star"	3	136	No semi-finals
2001	Arnis Mednis	English	"Too Much"	18	16
2002	Marie N	English	"I Wanna"	1	176
2003	F.L.Y.	English	"Hello From Mars"	24	5
2004	Fomins and Kleins	Latvian	"Dziesma par laimi"	Failed to qualify		17	23
2005	Walters and Kazha	English	"The War Is Not Over"	5	153	10	85
2006	Vocal Group Cosmos	English	"I Hear Your Heart"	16	30	Top 11 previous year[lower-alpha 1]
2007	Bonaparti.lv	Italian	"Questa notte"	16	54	5	168
2008	Pirates of the Sea	English	"Wolves of the Sea"	12	83	6	86
2009	Intars Busulis	Russian	"Probka" (Пробка)	Failed to qualify		19 ◁	7
2010	Aisha	English	"What For?"			17 ◁	11
2011	Musiqq	English	"Angel in Disguise"			17	25
2012	Anmary	English	"Beautiful Song"			16	17
2013	PeR	English	"Here We Go"			17 ◁	13
2014	Aarzemnieki	English[lower-alpha 2]	"Cake to Bake"			13	33
2015	Aminata	English	"Love Injected"	6	186	2	155
2016	Justs	English	"Heartbeat"	15	132	8	132
2017	Triana Park	English	"Line"	Failed to qualify		18 ◁	21
2018	Laura Rizzotto	English	"Funny Girl"			12	106
2019	Carousel	English	"That Night"			15	50
2020	Samanta Tīna	English	"Still Breathing"	Contest cancelled[lower-alpha 3] X
2021	Samanta Tīna

Hostings

Year	Location	Venue	Presenters
2003	Riga	Skonto Hall	Marija Naumova and Renārs Kaupers

Related involvement

Heads of delegation

Year	Head of delegation	Ref.
2018	Zita Kaminska	[6]

Commentators and spokespersons

Year	Commentator	Spokesperson	Ref.
1998	Unknown	Did not participate	[7]
1999			[7]
2000	Kārlis Streips	Lauris Reiniks
2001		Renārs Kaupers
2002		Ēriks Niedra
2003		Ģirts Līcis	[8]
2004		Lauris Reiniks	[9]
2005		Marie N	[10]
2006		Mārtiņš Freimanis	[11]
2007		Janis Šipkevics
2008		Kristīne Virsnīte	[12]
2009		Roberto Meloni
2010		Kārlis Būmeisters
2011	Valters Frīdenbergs, Uģis Joksts	Aisha	[13]
2012	Valters Frīdenbergs (all), Kārlis Būmeisters (final)	Valters Frīdenbergs	[14][15]
2013		Anmary	[16][17]
2014	Valters and Kaža	Ralfs Eilands	[18][19]
2015	Valters Frīdenbergs (all), Toms Grēviņš (final)	Markus Riva	[20][21]
2016		Toms Grēviņš	[22][23]
2017		Aminata Savadogo	[24][25]
2018	Toms Grēviņš (all), Magnuss Eriņš (final)	Dagmāra Legante	[23][26]
2019	Toms Grēviņš, Ketija Šēnberga	Laura Rizzotto	[27][28]

Photogallery

• 
  Marie N performing "I Wanna" in Tallinn (2002)
• 
  Bonaparti.lv performing "Questa notte" in Helsinki (2007)
• 
  Pirates of the Sea performing "Wolves of the Sea" in Belgrade (2008)
• 
  Aisha in Oslo (2010)
• 
  Musiqq performing "Angel in Disguise" in Düsseldorf (2011)
• 
  PeR performing "Here We Go" in Malmö (2013)
• 
  Aarzemnieki performing "Cake to Bake" in Copenhagen (2014)
• 
  Aminata performing "Love Injected" in Vienna (2015)
• 
  Justs performing "Heartbeat" in Stockholm (2016)
• 
  Triana Park performing "Line" in Kiev (2017)
• 
  Laura Rizzotto performing "Funny Girl" in Lisbon (2018)

Notes

1. According to the then-Eurovision rules, the top ten non-Big Four countries from the previous year along with the Big Four automatically qualified for the grand final without having to compete in semi-finals. For example, if Germany and France placed inside the top ten, the 11th and 12th spots were advanced to next year's grand final along with all countries ranked in the top ten.
2. Contains some phrases in Latvian.[5]
3. The 2020 contest was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

References

1. "Eurovision Song Contest 2009 Semi-Final (2)". Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 22 May 2014.
2. "Eurovision Song Contest Semi-Final 2013 (2)". Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 22 May 2014.
3. Floras, Stella (2009-03-01). "Latvia: Sastregums to be performed in Russian". ESCToday. Retrieved 2009-03-01.
4. "Latvia to include Spotify data in national Eurovision vote". eng.lsm.lv. 24 October 2016. Retrieved 12 November 2016.
5. "Aarzemnieki - Latvia — Copenhagen 2014 - Eurovision Song Contest". eurovision.tv. EBU. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
6. "THE VOTING RESULTS OF THE 2ND SEASON OF DEPI EVRATESIL". eurovision.am. 26 February 2018. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
7. "Diva.lv - Eirovīzijas Dziesmu konkursa Nacionālā atlase". www.diva.lv. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
8. Bakker, Sietse (22 May 2003). "Girts Licis: press conferences and Latvian votes". ESCToday. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
9. Bakker, Sietse (14 May 2004). "And here are the votes from... the spokespersons". ESCToday. Archived from the original on 29 January 2007. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
10. Philips, Roel (17 May 2005). "The 39 spokespersons!". ESCToday. Archived from the original on 19 December 2005. Retrieved 24 February 2006.
11. Bakker, Sietse (20 May 2006). "Meet the spokespersons for tonight's voting!". ESCToday. Archived from the original on 3 June 2006. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
12. "Eirovīzijā triumfē Dima Bilans no Krievijas, Pirāti – vienpadsmitie / divpadsmitie". eirovizija.lv. Archived from the original on 12 June 2008. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
13. "Eirovīziju vairs nekomentēs Streips; Latvijas balsojumu paziņos Aisha" [Streip will no longer commentate on Eurovision; Latvia's vote will be announced by Aisha]. nra.lv (in Latvian). 29 April 2011. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
14. "Anmary šovakar aizstāvēs Latvijas godu Eirovīzijā" [Anmary will defend Latvia's honor at Eurovision tonight]. tvnet.lv (in Latvian). 22 May 2012. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
15. "Noskaties, kādas dziesmas piedalīsies Eirovīzijas finālā" [See which songs will take part in the Eurovision final]. jauns.lv (in Latvian). 26 May 2012. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
16. "LTV atklāj, kas komentēs 'Eirovīzijas' tiešraides" [LTV reveals who will commentate on the 'Eurovision' live broadcast]. Delfi (in Latvian). 9 May 2013. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
17. Granger, Anthony (9 May 2013). "Latvia: Anmary Will Announce The Votes". Eurovoix. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
18. "'Eirovīziju' atkal komentēs Valters un Kaža" ['Eurovision' will again be commented on by Valters and Kaža]. Delfi (in Latvian). 4 May 2014. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
19. Granger, Anthony (10 May 2014). "ESC'14: Voting Order Announced". Eurovoix. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
20. "Eirovīziju komentēs Grēviņš un Frīdenbergs" [Grevins and Friedenberg will commentate on Eurovision]. skaties.lv (in Latvian). 7 May 2015. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
21. Granger, Anthony (23 May 2015). "Latvia: Markus Riva Is This Years Spokesperson". Eurovoix. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
22. "Zināmi pirmie desmit 'Eirovīzijas' finālisti; Igaunija no cīņas izstājas" [First ten 'Eurovision' finalists are known; Estonia leaves the battle]. Delfi (in Latvian). 10 May 2016. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
23. Granger, Anthony (21 April 2018). "Latvia: Toms Grēviņš Takes Over As Lead Commentator". Eurovoix. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
24. "Zināms, kas komentēs 'Eirovīzijas' tiešraides" [It is known who will commentate on 'Eurovision' live]. Delfi (in Latvian). 27 April 2017. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
25. Granger, Anthony (28 April 2017). "Latvia: Aminata Announced as Spokesperson". Eurovoix. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
26. ""May we have your votes please?"". eurovision.tv. EBU. 11 May 2018. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
27. "Rit Eirovīzijas dziesmu konkursa fināls; notiek punktu sadalīšana". theworldnews.net (in Latvian). 18 May 2019. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
28. "Eurovision 2019 Spokespersons – Who will announce the points?". eurovisionworld.com. 18 May 2019. Retrieved 5 December 2019.

External links

• Points to and from Latvia eurovisioncovers.co.uk