After considering withdrawing from the 2009 contest last year, Latvia held the semifinal and final of their selection contest, the Eirodziesma, this weekend. Friday evening saw twenty songs reduced to ten for Saturdays final.
The full list of the twenty semifinal participants is below. The songs which qualified for the final are in italics.
Camillas – Time Goes
Dace Planare & Fridis – Running Around
Girts Zeibulinš – Place To Be
Johnny Salamander – Party
Miks Dukurs – Aizejot
Iveta Baumane & Ivo Grisninš-Grislis – Tic Tac
Ginta Eke – Be Yourself
Natalija Tumševica – Dynamite
Trianas Parks – Call Me Any Time You Need A Problem
Intars Busulis – Sastregumi
Kristina Zaharova & Annija Putnina – Angel of Mine
Astra – Have To Say Goodbye
Edijs Šnipke – Make My Day
Ketta – Without You
Policistas – In Love We Trust
Fidji – Don’t Want To Say Goodbye
Aisha featuring G-Point – Hey, Hey
Simply 4 – When the Sun Is Going Down
Sabine Berezina Feat. Per – Bye, Bye
Valters Fridenbergs – For A Better Tomorrow
In tonight’s final, the first hurdle to be overcome for the ten acts would be to be one of three songs to qualify for the Super Final.
Simply 4 – When the Sun Is Going Down – This is a boy band style ballad, whose chorus wouldn’t be out of place sung by a football team as an anthem for the World Cup
Aisha featuring G-Point – Hey, Hey – This is rock music, girl style. Aisha is full of energy, making full use of the space available on the stage.
Kristina Zaharova & Annija Putnina – Angel of Mine – In a complete contrast to what has just been on stage, this song is a very gentle ballad
Sabine Berezina Feat. Per – Bye, Bye – This starts off sounding like another ballad before a male voice makes it clear that this won’t be the case. In the end, it’s a mid tempo song with the slightest hint of country.
Iveta Baumane & Ivo Grisninš-Grislis – Tic Tac – Both the song and the performance are reminiscent of eighties and early nineties Eurovision songs. It moves along effortlessly and the two singers follow each other around the stage.
Intars Busulis – Sastregumi – This is essentially a rock song, but there is a feeling this isn’t the most serious of songs in the final tonight.
Natalija Tumševica – Dynamite – Another piece of rock music. The stage presentation is strong and the votes of red-blooded male Latvians is probably in the bag.
Camillas – Time Goes – This is certainly different. The song relies on the strength of the vocal, having an arrangement, lead by a double bass, which is very much in the background.
Trianas Parks – Call Me Any Time You Need A Problem – Something else just a little bit out of the ordinary, lots of dancing, strange outfits and too much make-up are very evident in this up tempo, slightly rocky song.
Ketta – Without You – A bit of eighties electro to end proceedings. This is a strong song with a good presentation to match. Add to that the fact it is on last, and it can’t be discounted.
After the public phone vote, the three songs which qualified for the Super Final were;
Intars Busulis- Sastregums
Natalija Tumsevica – Dynamite
Annija & Kristina – Angel of Mine
The phone voting process started again and, after the lead alternated, the results were as follows;
1st – Intars Busulis – Sastregumi
2nd – Annija & Kristina – Angel of Mine
3rd – Natalija Tumsevica – Dynamite
So Intars Busulis will represent Latvia in the second semifinal on 14th May. You can watch the top three songs below and judge for yourself if the Latvian public made the right choice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1Cm4dH8zD8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIIRDeNi5Ug
