Latvia’s national final, Supernova, has been running since 2015 (barring last year when the 2020 winner was awarded the Eurovision place automatically) and in the first two years gave Latvia some success again at the contest, after a long period of poor results. However, since 2017, it’s been a return to that poor form and no winner of Supernova has qualified for the Eurovision final in that time.
The good news for Latvia is that the most successful contestant from Supernova is back this year. The bad news is that overall this is not a high quality final – too many oddball entries that lack the humour or depth to do well at the contest, or else just mediocre entries.
The favourite: Aminata “I’m Letting You Go”
Fans of Eurovision will be familiar with Aminata – she won the first Supernova in 2015 with “Love Injected” and went on to get 6th place at Eurovision that year – Latvia’s fourth best result and their best since 2005. Aminata was also the writer and co-producer of next year’s Supernova winner, Justs’ “Heartbeat“, which again qualified for the contest final, finishing 15th.
She’s back again with a more traditional ballad that is stripped back to focus on her impressive voice. It’s easily the highest quality song and performance in the Latvian selection this year, even when having to be performed from her own home for the semi-finals (thanks to catching Covid-19). It would obviously be lovely to see her back at Eurovision, though I fear the song may not stack up so well when faced with the much stiffer competition of the contest.
The oddball entry: Citi Zēni “Eat Your Salad”
Perhaps I should call this “the oddball entry most likely to win” given there are a fair few in the final. However, I think this is the one most likely to succeed if one of that bunch were to win. It generated a lot of attention when it was first released prior to the selection shows, with some distinctly provocative lyrics. Those have been toned down for the live selection performances, but the notoriety may yet carry this to a win. If that is the case, don’t expect Latvia to be making a return to the Eurovision final just yet…
The final takes place from 7.05pm UK time on Saturday 12 February. The show can be watched via broadcaster LTV’s website.