It's February 3 and it's time to buckle in and get ready for the semi final of the Latvian National Final for The Eurovision Song Contest! The venue is a slightly more upmarket LTV Studio 6 in Riga, and hosts Ketija Senberga and Lauris Reiniks (Of FLY fame(?) are full of beans and ready to go! So.. lets..
We open with Agnese Rakovska who we may remember from Triana Park, and their last placing trance track 'Line'. This time her song is called AI and well, it's a mess. The vocals are all over the shop and she looks rather odd wearing her ill fitting blue bird with her raver boots. It's a shame because the mood of the song is kinda good. She does not progress to the final
Second to hit the stage is Patricia Spale with her folky number 'Heaven's Raining Down On Me''. While I appreciate a bit of folk, and Latvia's penchant for some 'real music/'this is kinda tedious and very dull. The jury and televote agree and this stays in the semi
The third act is B/H with their song Ámssterdam''. This is upbeat, fun and very heavily influenced by the roop. However the song itself falls a bit flat despite the band having the time of their life trying to sell it. This one also stays in the semi.
The Fourth act to hit the stage is young artist Alekss Silvers with his ... hard to explain track, for the show. There's a lot of posing going on, and a bit of dancing, and the boy can sing. I just can't figure out whether I like the song or hate it. Oh Latvia, you never disappoint! This one moves forward to the final.
The fifth song is Jar of Kings with their tune 'Wildfire'. I feel like I've been transported back to 1992 with this rock banger. Sadly, I think the artist is bloody terrible and the public seem to agree. This one will stay here in the semi, and hopefully out of my mind, forever
Song six is Saint Levica with her rather bizarre track, tick-tock, It floats along from pop into rap, and back again, which sounds easy right? Not when you're in Latvia! .It's hard to explain, and i'm left quite confused, but it progresses through. Good, because this will need a few listens
Number seven, the lovely Sasha Sil with the oh so nice, love is a language. Everything about this is pretty, beige and very forgettable. This one stays put in the semi.
Track eight is Papira Lidmasinas with Mind breaker. A quirky upbeat track that is all about a nasty cheating girlfriend. She has a chat with him on the phone about it during the song too. It's nice, but there's something missing to really make this stand out. It progresses to the final
The ninth artist to perform is Avei with Mine. It's all very sexy and current but the song is pretty demanding vocally and I'm not sure Avei is up to the challenge. This gets through to the final
Next up is Ecto with their track outsider. It's all very bleepy and the guys have black cardboard slips covering their eyes. It all comes across as pretentious and I can't stand it. It qualifies
Song eleven is Dons with Hollow. It's still. It's moving and Don's pulls you into his inner turmoil pretty quickly and easily. An excellent performance and I'm calling it the one to beat. He qualifies to the final
The twelfth act ( i am re-energised after Dons) is Katrina Gupalo with the cutesy Cat Song. It's horrendous. Katrina prances and purrs around the stage, song loaded with çat' innuendo'. I can't stand this, but we are in Latvia, and they are going to love it. They do, it qualifies. i'll lose my breakfast if this beats Dons in the final
Song thirteen and it's Funkinbiz with their song Na chystu Vodu.. It's as described on the packet, a loud funk number that starts and ends nowhere, but somehow, guessing Latvia's love for groovy, passes to the final
The penultimate song is by Vestules and it's called Kur. The interesting hairstyle of the pianist instantly grabs attention until wham, the sublime vocals kick in by the female singer. After the first third, the duo shifts, in a dramatic way, to have the pianist at the lead for the second verse. Then the harmonies, then a build to a big finish. This was excellent. Now Dons has a fight on his hands, just not that cat song!!
The last song (thankfully) for the evening is from Edvards Strazdins called rock n roll supernova and it kind of feels like an outro to the night's proceedings. pleasant and a little weird, but nothing great.
A guest performance by Alika and Lithuania's Gabrielius Vagelis rounds out the night's entertainment and we now know who we are rooting for in next week's grand final. Will it be solemn Dons, The powerhouse Duo, or the clumsy cat song, or something totally left field? One thing we know about Latvia, is that we can never count on anything, so stay tuned!