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 unfortunate, 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.

 

 

Cosmos are an a cappella group of six young men, some of which are very good looking, and some of which are really rather ugly (I think the guy with the long hair resembles an Oompa Loompa from the original Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory).  The boys can sing, and at their live final gave what I thought was a rather endearing and enjoyable performance, despite having such a cringeworthy song.  On that matter, I'm really not a fan of the song at all, it does very little for me, in fact, it gives me a bit of a headache.  Nonetheless, the live performance is a 'song-enhancing' one and it should be rather enjoyable, yet inoffensive.

 

 

There's an outside chance that this could do well, but I really can't see Europe going for this.  It is however, a tricky one to call, the performance is good, and could pull them through, but I'm still of the opinion that if FLY couldn't do it in 2003 then this can't either.  It really is a hard one to call, it could do well, but it could bomb.  Looking at the competition, I think it'll bomb, but Europe could like it's light-heartedness and it's final position could surprise.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

 

 

I don't think anything will change here.  But maybe I was wrong to put them very close to the bottom, I think just in the top twenty's more likely.

 

 

Rolling in in 16th place wasn't really that bad a showing for a song like this at all.  The performance was certainly interesting, but by no means special or deserving of victory.  So coming in at 16th place is roughly just for this entry.  The boys sang well but at the end of the song I doubt many were left stunned or amazed, and any votes they achieved were probably more likely for comedy value rather than for singer and song.  It all came together rather well on stage... although the robot was rather pathetic and uncalled for.  The nicest touch was the the little helium filled heart balloon one of the boys set free from their coat pocket - it typified the song - light hearted!  All in all, this wasn't bad, but was never a contender for victory - not even on the night.  My prediction was reasonably close - not doing quite so poorly as 18th - 20th place as I had initialy suspected.  Better luck next time though Latvia - you have won the thing before and have mustered up several top tens, so you're capable of much, much better than this :o)