Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019
Latvia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. The Latvian broadcaster Latvijas Televīzija organised the national final Supernova 2019 in order to select the Latvian entry for the 2019 contest in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Background
Prior to the 2019 contest, Latvia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest nineteen times since its first entry in 2000. Latvia won the contest once in 2002 with the song "I Wanna" performed by Marie N. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the, Latvia was able to qualify to compete in the final between 2005 and 2008. Between 2009 and 2014, the nation had failed to qualify to the final for six consecutive years. In the 2015 contest, Latvia managed to qualify to the final with the song "Love Injected" performed by Aminata, which placed 6th in the final, scoring 186 points, giving them their best placing since 2005. In 2018, Latvia was represented by Laura Rizzotto and the song "Funny Girl", but the country did not qualify for the final and finished twelfth in the second semi-final with 106 points.The Latvian national broadcaster, Latvijas Televīzija, broadcasts the event within Latvia and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. Latvia has selected their entries for the Eurovision Song Contest through a national final. Since their debut in 2000 until 2012, LTV had organised the selection show Eirodziesma. In a response to the nation's failure to qualify to the final at Eurovision since 2008, between 2013 and 2014, the competition was rebranded and retooled as Dziesma. However, after failing to produce successful entries those two years, LTV developed the Supernova national final in order to select their 2015 entry. The competition produced two Latvian entries in 2015 and 2016 that managed to qualify the nation to the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. In 2019, LTV announced that the Supernova format would return once again to select the Latvian entry.
Before Eurovision
''Supernova 2019''
Supernova 2019 was the fifth edition of Supernova, the music competition that selects Latvia's entries for the Eurovision Song Contest. The competition commenced on 26 February 2019 and concluded with a final on 16 February 2019.Format
The format of the competition consisted of four shows: two semi-finals and a final. The three shows took place at the LTV studios in Riga and were hosted by Dagmāra Legante, Ketija Šēnberga and Mārtiņš Kapzems. The two semi-finals, held on 26 January and 2 February 2019, each featured eight competing entries from which four were selected to advance to the final from each show. The final, held on 16 February 2019, selected the Latvian entry for Tel Aviv from the remaining eight entries. In addition to that, LTV reserved the right to advance a wildcard act to the final out of the remaining non-qualifying acts from the semi-finals.Results during the semi-final and final shows were determined by a jury panel and votes from the public. The jury vote was calculated by having each member of the jury rank each song from first to six. The song that came in first place would get one point, while the song that came in last place would get eight points. These results were combined with the public vote which ranked the songs based on the number of votes each entry received. Therefore, the song with the fewest points would achieve first place. Viewers were able to vote via telephone, SMS, online, Spotify and in-person at the "Alfa" shopping center. The online vote conducted through the official Supernova website allowed users to vote once per each accepted social network account: Draugiem.lv, Facebook and Twitter. Votes conducted through Spotify were based on unique listener counts, with each stream counting as one vote for each entry.
The jury participated in each show by providing feedback to the competing artists and selecting entries to advance in the competition. The panel consisted of:
- Rūdolfs Budze–DJ Rudd – DJ and producer
- Artis Dvarionas – producer at Radio SWH
- Linda Leen – singer, songwriter and producer
- Ralfs Eilands – musician, member of 2013 Latvian Eurovision entrants PeR
- Petri Mannonen – representative of Universal Music Finland and the Baltics
Competing entries
Shows
Semi-final 1
The first semi-final took place on 26 January 2019. Eight of the competing entries performed, and four qualified to the final via a combination of votes from a jury panel and the Latvian public.| Draw | Artist | Song | Jury | Televote | Total | Place |
| 1 | Kris & Oz | "Midnight Streets" | 8 | 8 | 16 | 8 |
| 2 | Alekss Silvērs | "Fireworks" | 6 | 7 | 13 | 7 |
| 3 | Līga Rīdere | "Būšu tepat" | 6 | 5 | 11 | 6 |
| 4 | Laime Pilnīga | "Awe" | 1 | 3 | 4 | 1 |
| 5 | Edgars Kreilis | "Cherry Absinthe" | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| 6 | Elza Rozentāle | "You Came on Tiptoe" | 5 | 6 | 11 | 6 |
| 7 | Aivo Oskis | "Somebody's Got My Lover" | 3 | 4 | 7 | 4 |
| 8 | Samanta Tīna | "Cutting the Wire" | 4 | 1 | 5 | 3 |
Semi-final 2
The second semi-final took place on 2 February 2019. Eight of the competing entries performed, and four qualified to the final via a combination of votes from a jury panel and the Latvian public.| Draw | Artist | Song | Jury | Televote | Total | Place |
| 1 | Dziļi Violets feat. Kozmens | "Tautasdziesma" | 4 | 4 | 8 | 4 |
| 2 | Peress | "Smaragdi un pelni" | 2 | 8 | 10 | 5 |
| 3 | Laika Upe | "Listen to the Way that I Breathe" | 8 | 6 | 14 | 8 |
| 4 | Carousel | "That Night" | 1 | 3 | 4 | 1 |
| 5 | Kristiāna | "Remedy" | 5 | 7 | 12 | 6 |
| 6 | Double Faced Eels | "Fire" | 3 | 2 | 5 | 2 |
| 7 | Adriana Miglāne | "Scared of Love" | 7 | 5 | 12 | 6 |
| 8 | Markus Riva | "You Make Me So Crazy" | 5 | 1 | 6 | 3 |
Final
The final took place on 16 February 2019. The eight entries that qualified from the semi-finals competed, and "That Night" performed by Carousel was declared the winner via the combination of votes from a jury panel and the Latvian public.At Eurovision
According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 28 January 2019, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Latvia was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 16 May 2019, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.Once all the competing songs for the 2019 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Latvia was set to perform in position 5, following the entry from Switzerland and preceding the entry from Romania.
Semi-final
Latvia performed fifth in the second semi-final, following the entry from Switzerland and preceding the entry from Romania. At the end of the show, Latvia was not announced among the top 10 entries in the second semi-final and therefore failed to qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Latvia placed fifteenth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 50 points: 13 points from the televoting and 37 points from the juries.Voting
Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results will be released shortly after the grand final.Points awarded to Latvia
Points awarded by Latvia
Split voting results
The following five members comprised the Latvian jury:- Rūdolfs Budze – Chairperson – head of music department, DJ, producer, songwriter
- Zigfrīds Muktupāvels – singer, instrumentalist, violinist, represented Latvia in the 2007 contest as part of Bonaparti.lv
- Aldis Hofmanis – music manager
- Ilze Jansone – producer
- Adriana Miglāne – singer, songwriter