Let’s see what Latvia has cooked up for us, shall we? I mean, I already know that there are plenty of great options in the running, so I’m excited to watch and discuss them.
Just one, for some reason.
As always, LTV don’t dawdle and get right into the heat of things. They introduce the artists and their songs and that’s basically it. It took them just a little over 10 minutes to do everything they needed. So let’s go on and listen to the songs, yay.
This is just ok. It doesn’t grip me too much, though it doesn’t annoy me either. It’s a song that exists for no particular reason, and she’s a bit breathy at times. Though I kinda liked the vertical heart bed staging.
Indie rock? Latvia, you’re just spoiling me. It has an amazing build-up and shows that you can start quiet and go loud without being annoying. The difference is that you can just feel that it’ll build up over time right from the start. Everything about this song just tickles my brain in all the right ways. And I really like the vocalist: I was afraid she’d sound bad live, but she sounded really good instead. I really hope this at least qualifies for the final.
This was a bit hard to sit through. Justs had none of his vocal prowess from 2016. He acted and sounded drunk as hell as if he had no vocal or bodily control. The sad thing is that the song actually had a lot of potential, so watching it crash and burn live was painful.
Also, everyone knows that you’re supposed to at least wait until the ninth song to get drunk.
Sadly, this did not live up to the studio version. They still sounded good, but not quite good enough to immerse myself into the song. I do like the interpretive dancing because it makes this stand out from all the other duets. And the song is just incredible, it’s so intricate and melancholic. I don’t even need to read the lyrics to properly understand this. It’s one of those songs that make me feel like I get lost in them. It just wraps around me and envelops my brain in its atmosphere.
This was very rough. She tried to sing in a lower register than she was comfortable with, which really messed the song up combined with her pronunciation of English which left a lot to be desired. It’s a shame though as the song had enough potential, but it was all wasted.
Hello, KEiiN- oh wait, wrong country. You can’t blame me when it sounds very close to Damdiggida. Well, ok, like Damdiggida, but executed in a much better way. It was a lot less annoying than the studio version, though I don’t like the staging at all. I’m genuinely surprised it’s so tolerable.
This was highly annoying. The song itself was very generic, but it had these annoying “eee-EEE-eee-EEE” parts that really killed me. I really hate songs that teeter between generic and annoying. At least I can ignore a fully generic song. It was seriously even worse than in the studio.
This was a lovely song, totally not something for Eurovision, but I wonder how I managed to ignore it before. It’s just a vibey sort of song that’s perfect for a playlist.
I think this is great. It’s very dynamic and energetic and uses synths really well. She’s a great performer, too, and totally sells this song. Unfortunately, the staging isn’t good at all. The human centipede at the start was absolutely unnecessary.
The song is honestly a total banger. The genre and language mixing really work here, which is a great achievement as they rarely work in isolation and work even worse when combined together. Do you know what doesn’t work, though? The live performance. It just looks too creepy and self-indulgent: the ladies backing him look like they’re worshipping him, which makes this an unenjoyable experience overall. And then there’s the fact that this is around 80% playback, which I just can’t condone.
There are some decent parts here, but overall it just feels like a Melfest song that NQs from heat 3. She also has a veyr nasally voice, which is something I don’t like at all. It also looked very generic as well. I can’t say I enjoyed it too much.
Whoa, he performed it really well. This was a proper rock performance, so props to him for pulling it off. It really looked like a concert, and I think it would stand a good chance of doing well in Basel as there’s a lot of potential for an outstanding live performance here.
Of course, there had to be a song with verses I prefer to the choruses in Supernova as well. I really like his deep voice in the verses, but he goes higher in the chorus, which destroys the lovely atmosphere it creates. Still, it would be a shame if it stayed in the semifinal.
Sadly, this was a rare girlbop I liked that was taken away from me. The performer got ill just before the semi and had to withdraw. It wasn’t anything special, but I thought it sounded very pleasant and I was looking forward to seeing it live.
This was fairly nice. The music is cool and ethereal, but her pronunciation of English is fairly weak, which leads to her sounding like she’s singing in cursive. Also, I don’t think this firey staging fits the song at all.
Oh my got they sounded perfectly and the staging was gorgeous too. This is already perfect as is and needs to win and go to Eurovision. This will get a good result, just you wait. Or I could be totally wrong, but I’m 100% sure it would really stand out and create a qualification streak for Latvia for the first time since 2016.
She sounded heavily off-beat for most of the song, which made it quite hard to sit through. And I actually do like the song itself, especially the second half, but none of this potential shone through, sadly. But there’s nothing to hate about this, either.
This was very bad. She has the kind of voice that can theoretically work for some songs, but definitely not for something like this. It really does sound like a bad cover of a Taylor Swift song. The only parts I liked were the ones where she went “ooh la la la, la la la la” and that’s it. All the other parts were annoying.
This was quite an underwhelming live performance. Early on, this was my absolute favourite of this selection until falling a bit, but the performance made it completely nosedive in my rankings. The vocals were too weak to carry this kind of song, and the staging looked a little bleak.
What can I say except that this is a typical Markus Riva song? He even performed it topless, which is so cliche. I didn’t think it was horrible though, which is already an achievement for him.
This was a lovely lineup. Not just lovely, in fact, but absolutely great. There were more good songs in here than just songs in general in other NFs. I genuinely never thought I’d live to see the day when Supernova ends up being one of my favourite selections.
The intermediate televote result scared me a little, but since I’m writing this knowing the outcome of the final, I’m very certain it changed in the semi as well.
Let’s go over the entries that qualified for the final once again. I’m watching the recording, though, so as always, I’ll only be focusing on the songs.
Yeah, I actually do like this. He’s definitely a really competent and charismatic live performer with the energy needed to pull off this kinda Britpop-feeling song. This has grown on me a lot after the live performance in the semifinal to the point where I wouldn’t have been upset if it won.
I’m so happy my niche favourite qualified. Sure, it never stood any chance to win, but it’s not like that matters to me. This has brilliant synthwork that creates a very intriguing atmosphere. Combined with a really strong live performance (though I’m still not a fan of the staging), I’m not surprised it went to the final, which was already a win in my eyes.
This was still underwhelming. The musical vibes are there, even if it has more of a celtic vibe, but the weird canvas wave thingy really took me out of it because it looked incredibly cheap. And the random whispers, especially at the end, put me off as well. Still, I’ll be keeping the studio cut because it has great vibes.
Even in the final, I still found this surprisingly tolerable, especially compared to Eat Your Salad. Not being in English probably helps, but it’s generally a lot less headache-inducing. I still didn’t like it too much, though, but I wouldn’t be extremely upset if it had won.
I still love it, and I’m ecstatic that it’s in the final. This is indeed an entry made specifically for me (as I told my friend Cookiefonster). It was an immediate keeper for me. I was blown away by it in the semi-final, and I still love it in the final. Listening to it just tickles my brain in all the right ways. It was interesting to read Cookie’s review explaining why it does that, as I don’t have any understanding of musical theory. All I can say is that I was immediately intrigued by it the moment I heard it because of how intricate and complex it sounded.
That said, this probably wouldn’t have been a great choice for Eurovision. Thinking about this objectively, it’s just too niche to do well or even qualify at all (especially without any jury support). But national finals aren’t just about going to Eurovision, but also about promoting yourself - and you can bet I’ll be following Tepat in the future (and KoBra too, btw).
He changed the staging! Well, tweaked, not redid it from scratch. There are additional ladies with actual microphones to sing the chorus, and the dancers look a lot more independent. This alone made me enjoy this about 72.3918481% more (this is a number I made up). Now, it looks like he and the ladies are equals and are playing with each other. It’s incredible how some tweaks can make me feel a lot more positive about a song.
And the song itself is really cool, too. I usually dislike genre mixing, but this song actually manages to pull them off. As I’ve said before, I have a soft spot for folk mixed with other genres, which is probably why I liked this so much. And it’s unsurprising that this won the televote: all Latvians I know really loved the song.
This sure is a Markus Riva song. I swear, this man has one style of music he knows and he sticks to this at every opportunity. Except he’s topless in this one because the thinks he’s soooooooo sexy. Well, he isn’t: I’ve seen a thousand other men that look like his clones on Instagram (back when I used Instagram).
While this isn’t my absolute favourite song of Supernova, this is my favourite performance of a song. This is a full, Eurovision-ready package. They sounded even better in the final than they did in the semi (probably thanks to a confidence boost from qualifying). It’s a genuinely impressive performance to pull off, but they managed to do it. And they aren’t even standing still to make it easier for themselves - they’re moving around, bending their bodies and doing all sorts of other acrobatics. I’ll eat my hat if this doesn’t qualify in May (ok, I don’t actually own a hat, so I’ll buy and then eat a hat).
Still chill, still vibey. I think I undersold it a little in my semifinal review because this could actually do something in Eurovision. There’s always an audience for songs like this, like me - and, apparently, a lot of Latvians as this is making rounds on Latvian Spotify. I’m really happy about this, it deserves more attention. If the juries were still voting in the semifinals, I would’ve said that this is a very strong qualifier. In general, if Portugal 2021 was a safe qualifier with the televote, I don’t see why this can’t have been too.
This song teeters between being generic and irritating for me. The verses completely pass me by, which is fine - I can live with generic. But the chorus still irritates me - probably even more than in the semi-final. I just can’t stand the “heartbee-EE-ee-EE” part at all, especially the weird pre-recorded vocals that play during it. It seriously sounds like something I’d hear in DMGP. At least Emilija seems like a lovely person (judging by her statement after she finished second in support of Tautumeitas - please take note, everyone, this is how you should act after not winning), and I’ll support her coming back next year/in two years/whenever. It would be preferable to Markus Riva coming back again.
Great show. LTV should be proud of picking a lineup like this. Of course, there were songs I didn’t enjoy, but my rankings have a very clear split: my 9th place and above are all well above average, my 10th-14th are also fine enough, while everything 15th and below isn’t to my taste at all. Seriously, I never thought that Supernova would be one of my favourite NFs of the season.