Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018


Latvia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. The Latvian broadcaster Latvijas Televīzija organized the national final Supernova 2018 in order to select the Latvian entry for the 2018 contest in Lisbon, Portugal.

Background

Prior to the 2018 Contest, Latvia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest eighteen times since its first entry in 2000. Latvia won the contest once in 2002 with the song "I Wanna" performed by Marie N. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the, Latvia was able to qualify to compete in the final between 2005 and 2008. Between 2009 and 2014, the nation had failed to qualify to the final for six consecutive years. In the 2015 contest, Latvia managed to qualify to the final with the song "Love Injected" performed by Aminata, which placed 6th in the final, scoring 186 points, giving them their best placing since 2005. In 2017, Latvia was represented by Triana Park and the song "Line", but the country did not qualify for the final.
The Latvian national broadcaster, Latvijas Televīzija, broadcasts the event within Latvia and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. Latvia has selected their entries for the Eurovision Song Contest through a national final. Since their debut in 2000 until 2012, LTV had organised the selection show Eirodziesma. In a response to the nation's failure to qualify to the final at Eurovision since 2008, between 2013 and 2014, the competition was rebranded and retooled as Dziesma. However, after failing to produce successful entries those two years, LTV developed the Supernova national final in order to select their 2015 entry. The competition produced two Latvian entries in 2015 and 2016 that managed to qualify the nation to the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. In 2018, LTV announced that the Supernova format would return once again to select the Latvian entry.

Before Eurovision

''Supernova 2018''

Supernova 2018 was the fourth edition of Supernova, the music competition that selects Latvia's entries for the Eurovision Song Contest. The competition commenced on 3 February 2018 and concluded with a final on 24 February 2018.

Format

The format of the competition consisted of four shows: three semi-finals and a final. The four shows took place at the LTV studios in Riga and were hosted by Justs Sirmais and Dagmāra Legante. The three semi-finals, held on 3 February, 10 February and 17 February 2018, each featured seven competing entries from which two were selected to advance to the final from each show. The final, held on 24 February 2018, selected the Latvian entry for Lisbon from the remaining six entries. In addition to that, LTV reserved the right to advance a wildcard act to the final out of the remaining non-qualifying acts from the semi-finals.
Results during the semi-final and final shows were determined by a jury panel and votes from the public. The jury vote was calculated by having each member of the jury rank each song from first to six. The song that came in first place would get one point, while the song that came in last place would get six points. These results were combined with the public vote which ranked the songs based on the number of votes each entry received. Therefore, the song with the fewest points would achieve first place. Viewers were able to vote via telephone, SMS, online and on Spotify. The online vote conducted through the official Supernova website allowed users to vote once per each accepted social network account: Draugiem.lv, Facebook and Twitter. Votes conducted through Spotify were based on unique listener counts, with each stream counting as one vote for each entry.

Competing entries

Artists and songwriters were able to submit their entries to the broadcaster between 6 September 2017 and 15 October 2017. 93 songs were submitted at the conclusion of the submission period, from which 63 were shortlisted for an online vote by a jury panel of music experts appointed by LTV. The online vote ran between 18 October 2017 and 29 October 2017, enabling users to listen to the 71 entries while the performers remained anonymous. Users were able to rate the songs by either selecting the “Like” or “Dislike” option for each entry. The jury panel evaluated the shortlisted entries, taking the results of the online voting into consideration, and selected 33 entries for the live hearing. The audition round took place on 5 November 2017 at the Alfa Park in Riga and featured the 33 shortlisted entries. The jury panel evaluated the performances and selected 21 entries for the competition. The jury panel consisted of Ilze Jansone, Rūdolfs Budze–DJ Rudd, Toms Grēviņš and Jolanta Gulbe. The selected performers and songs were determined by 9 November 2017. The competing artists and songs were announced on 6 December 2017.
ArtistSong 'Composer
Agnese Stengrevics"You Are My World"Helvijs Stengrevics, Agnese Stengrevics
DVINES"More Than Meets the Eye"DVINES, Pēteris Pāšs, Andris Strazds, Kaspars Ansons
Ed Rallidae"What I Had with You"Aminata Savadogo, Kaspars Ansons
Edgars Kreilis"Younger Days"Edgars Kreilis, Kaspars Ansons
Hypnotic"Pray"Sabīne Geiba, Beatrise Heislere, Ruslans Kuksinovičs
In My Head"Sunset"Evija Smagare, Armands Varslavāns, Rūdolfs Iļķēns
Jenny May"Soledad" 'Maija Stuģe, Martin Karl Hägglund, Martin Björn Hanzén, Tim Erik Åström, Michael Javier Hernan Barraza Alfaro
Katrīna Gupalo & The Black Birds"Intoxicating Caramel"Katrīna Gupalo
Katrine Lukins"Running Red Lights"Katrine Lukins, Andris Lūkins, Kaspars Ansons
Kris & Oz"Morning Flight"Artūrs Osipovs, Kristīne Morina, Kristīne Sisējeva, Aleksandrs Solovjovs
Laura Rizzotto"Funny Girl"Laura Rizzotto
Lauris Valters"Lovers Bliss"Lauris Valters, Reinis Briģis
Liene Greifāne"Walk the Talk"Liene Greifāne, Ylva Persson, Linda Persson
MADARA"Esamība" Madara Fogelmane
Markus Riva"This Time"Markus Riva, Kaspars Ansons, Edgars Krastiņš, Quincy Thompson
MIONIA"You"Maija Līcīte
Monta"1000 Roses"Monta Ķimene
Rahu the Fool"Oh Longriver"Pēteris Narubins, Rahu the Fool
Riga Reggae"Stop the War U2"Horens Stalbe, Vladimirs Eglītis, Mārtiņš Burkevics, Renarts Braufmanis
Ritvars"Who's Counting?"Rihards Lībietis, Mārcis Vasiļevskis, Toms Lisments, Kristīne Pleša, Erna Daugaviete, Toms Kursītis, Mārtiņš Miļevskis, Dāvis Bindemanis, Sabīne Žuga
Sudden Lights"Just Fine"Andrejs Reinis Zitmanis, Kārlis Matīss Zitmanis, Mārtiņš Matīss Zemītis, Kārlis Vārtiņš

Shows

Semi-final 1

The first semi-final took place on 3 February 2018. Seven of the competing entries performed, and two qualified to the final via a combination of votes from a jury panel and the Latvian public.
Semi-final 2
The second semi-final took place on 10 February 2018. Seven of the competing entries performed, and two qualified to the final via a combination of votes from a jury panel and the Latvian public. MADARA and Ritvars were announced as the two qualifiers during the second semi-final. However it was later announced that there had been technical errors in the online vote, leading to Markus Riva's non-qualification and Ritvars' qualification. As a result of this, both Riva and Ritvars were allowed by the producers to qualify to the final due to the errors being internal.
Semi-final 3
The third semi-final took place on 17 February 2018. Seven of the competing entries performed, and two qualified to the final via a combination of votes from a jury panel and the Latvian public.
Final
The final took place on 24 February 2018. The seven entries that qualified from the semi-finals and a wildcard selected from the remaining non-qualifying acts competed. "Funny Girl" performed by Laura Rizzotto was declared the winner via the combination of votes from a jury panel and the Latvian public.

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 29 January 2018, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Latvia was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 10 May 2018, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.
Once all the competing songs for the 2018 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Latvia was set to perform in position 14, following the entry from Hungary and preceding the entry from Sweden.

Semi-final

Voting

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.

Points awarded to Latvia

Points awarded by Latvia

Split voting results

The following five members comprised the Latvian jury: