Latvia are one of Eurovision's youngest, yet most successful participants.  Their debut entry in 2000 managed 3rd place - quite a big surprise  considering it's quirkiness.  In 2001, they slumped alot, but managed to get to the 2002 Contest by the skin of thier teeth, only because Portugal chose not to participate.  This proved very fortunate for the Latvians, as 2002 saw them reign victorious on just their third attempt with Marie N's 'I Wanna'.  I personally wasn't convinced by this slightly political win, surely Malta should have been the hosts of Eurovision 2003?  Well that's neither here nor there, but either way, Latvia were hosting the 2003 Contest, and was very professionally done.  Unfortunately their 4th attempt at Eurovision was very poorly received, finishing 24th out of 26 with just 5 points (I thought it was rather good) and then found themselves in the Semi-Final for 2004 where they failed to qualify with 17th place.  2005 saw a happy return to form.  The delightful duo Walters and Kazha scraped through the Semi in 10th place, but due to such a good draw, they turned into the surprise package of the night, and early on seemed close to winning.  They bettered 10th and finished in 5th, finding themselves directly qualified to the 2006 Final where they entered a capella group Cosmos, with a very silly song that wasn't very well recieved.  They finished 16th and Latvia consequently find themselves in this year's Semi-Final.

 

 

One of the classier entries this year comes from Latvia in the form of classical music maestros bonaparti.lv.  Six men – a mixture of the older and younger generation will bring us what promises to be a powerful rendition of ‘Questa Notte’.  The song is, in my opinion, a very strong one – with a rousing key change and magnificent harmonies.  The song starts off slow and gently and, one voice at a time, erupts into a powerful array of harmonies, strong vocals and a sexy hint of the Italian.  I really don’t think this is one to discount this year, and being last up in the Semi will do this the world of good.  My only quibble is some of the men – the older ones aren’t very nice eye candy, and the younger ones don’t do much to make up for it, but they should all give a professional and powerful enough performance to propel Latvia well into the Final.

 

Getting to choose their performing position would probably have benefitted Latvia more than any other country.  Up last, they will be resonnating in the voters ears.  It's a great tune that should pick up a lot of votes to make it comfortably into the Final.  Once there it all depends on the draw, but I think Latvia will either get lost among the competition or go on to win the whole thing.  I'ts more likely they'll get lost though, so I'm predicting a mid-table result for the Final - unless they pull last place again.

 

 

Bonaparti.lv gave a classy and professionally polished performance which should stand out from the crowd.  I love it, it was beautiful and rousing, and should appeal across the board.  Go Latvia!!

 

 

Latvia were one of my favourite performances of the whole show and in both evenings the gentlemen from Bonaparti.lv offered professionally sound performances.  The song built up to its rousing chorus appropriately on each occasion and the men (though not the prettiest) looked very well indeed.  Coming last in the running order, Latvia’s entry was certainly resonating in the voting public’s ears when the voting started and rightly so made it through comfortably in 5^th place.  The draw however, seemed to really work to their advantage in the Semi-Final, as when performing in 14^th place in the running order in the Final, they could only muster up enough points to wind up in 16^th place with 54 points – much less than I feel they deserved.  This will always be one of my favourite performances to watch, but the draw in the Semi-Final definitely benefited this song as it was one of those which were perfect to finish off the show.  It seemed my prediction for the Semi was correct, but predicting Latvia was winners was obviously a big mistake.  Oh well, I guess that’s a right and wrong!