The warm up laps in the Baltics started today with the first semifinal in the Latvian selection process named Eirodzeisma 2012. Ten participants competed to earn their place in the semifinal where only half could make. Andris Ābelīte, member of Bonaparti.lv, who represented the Baltic country in 2007 also succeeded to qualify.
Today, the first heat in semifinal stage kicked off in Eirodziesma today with the first semifinal show. Ten participants in total fought for the five tickets to the final night. As there were ten performances, the broadcaster let them sing only half part of the songs not to make the first show boring.
The Songs:
Song 1: Atis Ievis – Dancer
First song of the first semifinal was a mid-tempo almost a ballad song where he announces his feelings to a beautiful dancer. Atis with his three backing female vocals performed the song very
well. In the concept of the song, there were also given some flashbacks
with old pictures.
Song 2: Nikolajs Puzikovs – Mīlestības Nevar Būt Par Daudz
The song is written and composed by very famous names in Latvia, Arturs Palkevics and Guntars Racs. Nikolajs’ song is a typical mid-tempo pop song, which reminds of Tie-break‘s Du Bist from the Eurovision Song Contest in 2004. The title of the song means "love can’t be that much". Nikolajs sang his song with his three backing vocals who were also young and dressed the same with Nikolajs- if this is a coincidence, they were definitely playing like Tie-Break.
Song 3: Maia – No Limits to Dream
Maia used to be known as a soloist of the group Maija’s Marvellous up to now. She is all her own at this performance but no worries for the fans of the group, the rest of the members are still in her plans as this song was composed by them. Her sound reminds us of Icelandic, Silvia Night from Eurovision Song Contest in 2006, but this time there is more cheerful song at the stage. Her choreography was a flower which was Maia, and the pollens which were her four dancers and they gave life to our flower Maia at the end of the performance. It was quite interesting.
After first three acts, we went on watching advertises for a while and some of them were quite modest and interesting.
Song 4: Samantha Tina & Davids Kalandija – I Want you Back
Young talents come together to perform this pure ballad song. They had been tipped as one of the qualifiers before the show started. Samantha who dressed all in black, started the song sitting in a chair just next to a table which includes a bottle of white wine then she stood up and joined Davids while singing. They performed not to be gone down tonight.
Song 5: Angelina & Alisa May – Rollin’ Up
The fifth act will be presented in an uptempo RnB style by the duo. In the lyrics Angelina and Alisa ask each other whether they are rollin’ up or down. The duo acted like some plastic Barbie toys during their performances. It was another interesting act though.
Song 6: Laura Bicane & Romans Sladzis – Freakin’ Out
The sixth song was sang by famous Laura who won many talent shows and awards, and played by the musicians and guitarist Romans Sladzis. They were stand by at the stage as a great group. The duo were in harmony quite much which brought us the best performance so far up to now! The song could be the winner of the night, maybe the winner of Eirodziesma 2012. But it is fun when you can’t predict, isn’t it?
Song 7: Paula Dukurs – Celebration
The lyrics and music of the song Celebration came out at the time Paula approached her 18th birthday. As it was her birthday, she brought her cake to the stage. Oh what?!? She dressed in that birthday cake? Anyway, as she says in this song: "Celebrate Hurray, Hurray!"
We went for another advertising programme which were about full of official partners of Eirodziesma, Turkish Airlines and VisitVentspils. Turkish Airlines’ advert face was 2003 Eurovision Song Contest winner, Sertab Erener tonight.
Song 8: Andris Ābelīte – We Can Change the World
Andris represented Latvia at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2007 as a member of
the male group Bonaparty.lv and honoured his country in the final. This
time, he makes a return to Eirodziesma as a solo singer.
The song We Can Change the World can be classified as a ballad, which sounds like it is coming from a musical and it has potential to win this edition of Eirodziesma and be a classic in the history! He definitely showed this potential with his class at the stage today…
Song 9: Ruta Duduma – My World
The song My World is the first act in Ruta’s career as she never composed a song before. But it was obviously one of the best today that would start the fire for some other great songs.. After the great performance of Ruta with her guitar, she became another favourite of the night, who knows – maybe the whole Eirodziesma?
Song 10: Group ‘PeR’ – Disco Superfly
As the reason of the foundation of PeR, the last act in Latvian first semi-final Disco Superfly was an beatbox song. They reminds us last year’s Irish representative group Jedward but obviously they were more sarcastic with their performances. Four puffy haired female vocals accompanied them on their performances. This catchy song was also tipped to have a place in the final before the show.
The Show:
The show started at 20.20 CET broadcasted live by the national
broadcaster LTV’s first channel, LTV1. Unfortunately the stream was
only available in Latvia. Our hosts of the night were two famous faces
in Latvia, Christine and Walter Virsnīte Fridenbergs, the
show took place in NA Studios in Ventspils. The duo collabrated the show
in front of a broad that official providers of the show, Turkish
Airlines and LTV logos written on. They announced each artists with their backgrounds and after each performance, the participants came to see them in front of the board where they were interviewed.
The Voting:
The results were shaped after the over all scores of televoting and
jury with ten members. Televoting started after the last act finished their performance and lasted 15 minutes. All the songs were shown shortly again and again.
This year a different system in jury choices are being used for the first time in the history of Eirodziesma. Different
names are being appeared for each show, which means that in the first
semifinal. In second semifinal and final, we will be able to meet a total
of thirty professional names in jury seats. Each jury member was presented to the audience after televoting had finished. One of the jury member was vocal of last year’s Latvian representative group, Musiqq. Our host of the night, Walter and Christine, also interviewed them.
All the participants came back to stage again to hear the results. After they interviewed for the last time, the jury results were:
- Rolling up – 1 points
- Mīlestības Nevar Būt Par Daudz- 2 points
- Freaking Out – 3 points
- Dancer – 4 points
- We Can Change the World – 5 points
- My World – 6 points
- No Limits to Dream – 7 points
- I Want You Back – 8 points
- Disco Superfly – 10 points
- Celebration – 12 points
Five envolopes were given to hosts to be announced randomly. The finalists were:
- I Want You Back – Samantha Tina & Davids Kalandija
- Disco Superfly – PeR
- We Can Change the World – Andris Ābelīte
- My World – Ruta Duduma
- Celebration – Paula Dukurs
Please note that the second semifinal of Eirodziesma 2012 will be held next week.
