Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest

Latvia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 23 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 in the Eurovision Song Contest
Latvia
Participating broadcasterLatvijas Televīzija (LTV)
Participation summary
Appearances23 (10 finals)
First appearance2000
Highest placement1st: 2002
Host2003
Related articles
Supernova
External links
LTV page
Latvia's page at Eurovision.tv Edit this at Wikidata
For the most recent participation see
Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023

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.

Latvia has the distinction of having finished last in the Eurovision semi-finals more than any other country. Since its introduction in 2004, Latvia has finished last in five semi-finals, with Intars Busulis (2009), Aisha (2010), PeR (2013), Triana Park (2017) and Samanta Tīna (2021).

Participation overview

All of Latvia's entries have been performed in English, except for three entries. In 2004, Fomins and 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".[3] With the exception of "The Moon Is Rising" by Samanta Tīna in 2021,[lower-alpha 1] all Latvian Eurovision entries have been chosen through a national final.

Table key
1 First place
2 Second place
3 Third place
◁ Last place
X Entry selected but did not compete
Year Artist Song Language Final Points Semi Points
2000 Brainstorm "My Star" English 3 136 No semi-finals
2001 Arnis Mednis "Too Much" English 18 16
2002 Marie N "I Wanna" English 1 176
2003 F.L.Y. "Hello from Mars" English 24 5
2004 Fomins and Kleins "Dziesma par laimi" Latvian Failed to qualify 17 23
2005 Walters and Kazha "The War Is Not Over" English 5 153 10 85
2006 Vocal Group Cosmos "I Hear Your Heart" English 16 30 Top 11 in 2005 final[lower-alpha 2]
2007 Bonaparti.lv "Questa notte" Italian 16 54 5 168
2008 Pirates of the Sea "Wolves of the Sea" English 12 83 6 86
2009 Intars Busulis "Probka" (Пробка) Russian Failed to qualify 19 ◁ 7
2010 Aisha "What For?" English 17 ◁ 11
2011 Musiqq "Angel in Disguise" English 17 25
2012 Anmary "Beautiful Song" English 16 17
2013 PeR "Here We Go" English 17 ◁ 13
2014 Aarzemnieki "Cake to Bake" English[lower-alpha 3] 13 33
2015 Aminata "Love Injected" English 6 186 2 155
2016 Justs "Heartbeat" English 15 132 8 132
2017 Triana Park "Line" English Failed to qualify 18 ◁ 21
2018 Laura Rizzotto "Funny Girl" English 12 106
2019 Carousel "That Night" English 15 50
2020 Samanta Tīna "Still Breathing" English Contest cancelled[lower-alpha 4] X
2021 Samanta Tīna "The Moon Is Rising" English Failed to qualify 17 ◁ 14
2022 Citi Zēni "Eat Your Salad" English 14 55
2023 Sudden Lights "Aijā" English[lower-alpha 3] 11 34
2024 TBD February 2024 †[4] Upcoming †

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

Heads of delegation
Year Head of delegation Ref.
2018 Zita Kaminska
[5]
2023 Guntars Gulbiņš
[6]

Commentators and spokespersons
Year Commentator Spokesperson Ref.
1998 Kārlis StreipsDid not participate
[7][8][9]
1999
[10][11][12]
2000 Lauris Reiniks
[10][13]
2001 Renārs Kaupers
[14][15]
2002 Ēriks Niedra
[16][17]
2003 Ģirts Līcis
[18][19][20]
2004 Lauris Reiniks
[21][22]
2005 Marie N
[23][24]
2006 Mārtiņš Freimanis
[25][26][27]
2007 Janis Šipkevics
[28][29]
2008 Kristīne Virsnīte
[30][31][32]
2009 Roberto Meloni
[33]
2010 Kārlis Būmeisters
2011 Valters Frīdenbergs, Uģis JokstsAisha
[34]
2012 Valters Frīdenbergs (all), Kārlis Būmeisters (final)Valters Frīdenbergs
[35][36]
2013 Anmary
[37][38]
2014 Valters and KažaRalfs Eilands
[39][40]
2015 Valters Frīdenbergs (all), Toms Grēviņš (final)Markus Riva
[41][42]
2016 Toms Grēviņš
[43][44]
2017 Aminata Savadogo
[45][46]
2018 Toms Grēviņš (all), Magnuss Eriņš (final)Dagmāra Legante
[44][47]
2019 Toms Grēviņš, Ketija ŠēnbergaLaura Rizzotto
[48][49]
2021 Toms Grēviņš (all), Marija Naumova (final)Aminata Savadogo
[50][51][52][53]
2022 Toms Grēviņš, Lauris ReiniksSamanta Tīna
[54][55]
2023 Toms Grēviņš (all), Lauris Reiniks (final)Jānis Pētersons
[56][57]
Lauris ReiniksMarija NaumovaKārlis BūmeistarsValters Frīdenbergs
  • Karlis Streips is the first Latvian Eurovision commentator in history. He provided Eurovision Song Contest commentary until 2011
    Karlis Streips is the first Latvian Eurovision commentator in history. He provided Eurovision Song Contest commentary until 2011
  • Valters Frīdenbergs was lead commentator from 2011 until his illness and death in 2018
    Valters Frīdenbergs was lead commentator from 2011 until his illness and death in 2018
  • Toms Grēviņš has been lead Latvian commentator since 2018
    Toms Grēviņš has been lead Latvian commentator since 2018

Photogallery

See also

Notes
  1. Tīna won Supernova in 2020, but that year's Eurovision was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and she was later internally selected to represent her country in the following year instead.
  2. 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.
  3. Contains phrases in Latvian
  4. The 2020 contest was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

References
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  2. "Eurovision Song Contest Semi-Final 2013 (2)". Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 22 May 2014.
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