Latvia – Supernova, the Latvian National Final, concluded tonight. 8 songs competed for a chance to represent the country in Lisbon and Laura Rizzoto won with “Funny girl“!
The show was hosted by Dagmāra Legante and Justs Sirmais (Eurovision 2016). This was tonight’s line-up:
- Sudden Lights – Just fine
- Lauris Valters – Lovers bliss
- MADARA – Esamība
- Ritvars – Who’s counting?
- Liene Greifane – Walk the talk
- Edgars Kreilis – Younger days
- Laura Rizzotto – Funny girl
- Markus Riva – This time
We had some lovely interval acts by Instrumentii (ETSC 1) and Brainstorm (Eurovision 2000). Also a great duet between Justs (Eurovision 2016) and Ralph of PeR (Eurovision 2013) doing a funny take on Latvian medley. Then they revealed the results. It was a 50% jury and 50% televote decision which was never going to be good to Sudden Lights, who won their semi’s televote but didn’t even qualify because of the juries. However, they got a wildcard for tonight’s show! Madara was 3rd leaving Sudden Lights and Laura battle it out! In the end it was revealed that Laura won!
This is the winning performance!
What do you think of the winning entry? And what do you think of its chances in the contest? Share your comments with us!
The Eurovision Times 
Offtopic, the audio version of Montenegro:
Better than Serbia by miles… candid…great Balkan ballad…I can even put it higher
This gave me chills…This guy needs to work with a pro for his staging…Stage presence is everything and that is the only thing he is lacking at the moment
It sounds better here. This entry is among the ones that really grow on me. He needs to talk to Laura Rizzotto in order to learn a few things about projecting confidence.
*can really…
It sounds much better in studio version. He needs stronger backings to add more oomph imo. Good night.
Who will decide tomorrow? Armenia, Romania and that’s it, correct?
yup ;)
Thanks.
Back from theatre where I had been… waiting for Godot…
No comments on tonight’s results seriously.
So far:
like/really like
01. HUNGARY
02. FRANCE
03. ALBANIA*
04. ITALY
05. GREECE
06. LATVIA
07. GERMANY
so and so
08. SERBIA
09. SWITZERLAND
10. DENMARK
11. UNITED KINGDOM
don’t like
12. CZECHIA
13. BELARUS
14. MONTENEGRO
15. MOLDOVA
16. MALTA
17. UKRAINE
18. SLOVENIA
19. SPAIN
Excellent choice Latvia!
This is a song to watch out – visually, vocally and vibe-wise.
This goes straight to my Top 5.
1)France
2)Italy
3)Slovenia
4)Latvia
5)Greece
6)Serbia
7)Czech Republic
8)Hungary
9)Albania
10)Belarus
11)Ukraine
12)Spain
13)Germany
14)Switzerland
15)Moldova
16)Montenegro
17)Malta
18)Denmark
19)UK
For tomorrow:
Romania: Feli or Jukebox/Bella Santiago
Armenia: Sevak or anyonebutMgerArmenia
This is quite a good entry for Latvia, but I’m disappointed with the winner as they had much better options…
Holy shit you guys :|
This night just made sure ESC 2018 is gonna be amazing. :)
Four out of Five NF winners went as I wanted, only Madara couldn’t make it. Laura was a distant second, but it was my guess on who was gonna win, so I won in a way.
I was bracing all day for a horribly boring Gergely win, but when AWS took it I literally yelled. I was dying for a quality hard rock entry for a while and I got it! My most liked song from Hungary since 2014.
Melovin made it easy, and he gave us one of the best camera angles in a long time. That endless flight of stairs was excellent. And it’s one of the few songs I’d consider flawless.
Moldova had one job and they made it. Slovenia was a pleasant surprise (I still think BQL should go for them, but this wasn’t the song. Lea’s song was much more unique).
Overall, this was an excellent Eurovision day and I’m over the moon :)
LOL. It is the opposite for me :p
It works when most of the NFs aren’t as shining or there is only one obivous choice :P
There were someone I liked but we don’t agree either :p
For tomorrow:
ARMENIA:
-Asmik is a nice choice if you want the modern pop. I am more open to Sevak since the horrible Gergely destiny was avoided in Hungary. Kamil… it’s so bad it’s good, but still, better chose a better song.
ROMANIA:
1) Feli
2) Feli
3) Feli
Approximately,but still not definite:
1) Czech Republic
2) Ukraine
3) France
4) Denmark
5) Belarus
6) Hungary
7) Italy
8) Slovenia
9) Greece
10) Moldova
11) Switzerland
12) Spain
13) Serbia
14) Germany
15) Malta
16) Albania
17) Latvia
18) Montenegro
19) UK
Congrats to Laura! I was cheering for Esamiba, however, I fell in love with Laura’s live tonight. I think its’ incredibly irresistible, she sells the song well and enchants you. Although the studio version kind of lacks oomph, the song itself was built for the stage and works great live. The stage show/camera work worked really well here. I actually think this has a chance to get a really good result for Latvia, especially since juries will eat this up.
Since this is the final article for tonight, here are my full rankings:
1. Italy
2. France
3. Czech Republic
4. Ukraine
5. Albania
6. Switzerland
7. Latvia
8. Denmark
9. Serbia
10. Moldova
11. Montenegro
12. Greece
13. Germany
14. Slovenia
15. Spain
16. Belarus
17. Hungary
18. United Kingdom
19. Malta
oh wow same top 4 exactly!
Greece is your 5th, right? I’m a bit lower on Greece than most here, although it’s probably their best song since 2013.
Albania is 5th right now, but it will hinge on the revamp.
*my 5th
My top 5 at the moment looks like this:
1. France
2. Italy
3. Czech Republic
4. Ukraine
5. Greece
I’ll sort out tomorrow the rest of my ranking.
exactly same top 5 :'( well maybe I have Italy first, it depends on my mood between my top 2
Great!
It’s close between my 2-4, France will be hard to beat for me. Italy sounds better in studio version, but live is not at that level, I can’t find the live from Sanremo anymore, btw.
Since we pretty much know every song competing in nfs this year I can safely say that by far my nf winner of the season has been decided :
Nobody could beat this class, lyrics and raw emotion delivered. Thank you Sarah.
Random post of the day: Bambi reduced to one page:
“Funny Girl” screams a very good placement in Lisbon imo and though I preferred both Esamiba and Just fine, song-wise, this is definitely a performance to watch out in May. It oozes confidence and engages you till the end.
So far :
1. ITA
2. LVA (NEW)
3. FRA
4. UKR (NEW)
5. CZE
6. SVN (NEW)
7. ESP
8. CHE
9. SRB
10. DNK
11. DEU
12. BLR
13. HUN (NEW)
14, ALB
15. MNE
16. MLT
17. UK
18. MDA (NEW)
I hope for Kamil Show, Lusine or Nemra in Armenia tomorrow..
I hope for Dora Gaitanovici in Romania…
I hope fr good semi in FdC!
I’ll post those articles in a few! I’m hungry now, I’ve just ranked MF 2018 :o
GREAT, I have just rad your ranking.. :D
I have listened to Polsih hopefuls…quite weak lineup..there is one that is huge fave..you will see when check them..
Poland first hearing:
01 Gromee feat. Lukas Meijer – “Light Me Up”: mef, unoriginal pol that’ll sound bad live I fear
02 Isabell Otrębus – “Delirium”: It’s a decent song, it needs a strong vocal live though, and it could be a bit repetitious
03 Monika Urlik – “Momentum”: swedish team, a MF reject? no momentum, cruel irony :p
04 Ifi Ude – “Love Is Stronger”: it’s a strong melody with a slightly boring production and everything is meh (lol lyrics)
05 Saszan – “Nie chcę ciebie mniej”: not unpleasant but totally anonymous
06 Happy Prince – “Don’t Let Go”: sounds like the most professionally done, enjoyable
07 Pablosson – “Sunflower”: awful, a floral “cake to bake”
08 Marta Gałuszewska – “Why Don’t We Go”: a cute teen effort, irrelevant
09 Maja Hyży – “Błysk (Skin)”: see above (a bit better though)
10 Future Folk – “Krakowiacy i górale”: irritating as hell
I dont think poland will trouble my top 10 or the scorebaord in may…
Now that I’ve finally ranked MF (link: https://eurovisiontimes.wordpress.com/2018/02/24/sweden-melodifestivalen-heat-4-results/comment-page-1/#comment-345868), all that’s left for me to do is: Lithuania 50 songs and listen to the Polish songs… did anyone listen to them?
ooh, San Marino… what’s the deal there? lol
I’ve done Poland! There were three songs that stuck out to me as exceptionally good, but I’m not sure if you’ll share my excitement for those. Overall, they’ve maintained their ratio of three good songs, three/four Swedish rejects, and the remaining random songs (which this year are a dicey folk-inspired song, a Szpak ripoff, and an AWFUL song like those that have floated around eastern NFs for the past 10 years).
I’m doing them right now with Razvan :p
I dont share it at all, didn’t like anything there :/ (my thoughts in a comment above)
Having heard some of tonight’s selected songs for the first time (Hungary) and for the 100th time (Latvia), here is my official Top 19 so far:
===QUALITY (10-12)===
1. Italy (10/12)
===VERY GOOD (8-9)===
2. France (9/12)
3. Latvia – NEW ENTRY (9/12)
4. Czech Republic (8/12)
5. Greece (8/12)
=====GOOD (5-7)=====
6. Spain (7/12)
7. Serbia (7/12)
8. Ukraine (6/12)
9. Germany – NEW ENTRY (6/12)
10. Switzerland (6/12)
11. Denmark (6/12)
12. Belarus (6/12)
===AVERAGE (3-4)===
13. Malta (4/12)
14. Slovenia – NEW ENTRY (4/12)
15. Montenegro (3/12)
16. United Kingdom (3/12)
17. Moldova – NEW ENTRY (3/12)
=====BAD (0-2)=====
18. Albania (2/12)
19. Hungary – NEW ENTRY (2/12)
I believe that next week’s Andra Chansen will be very interesting and with some favourites of mine being stuck in there now (Margaret and Felix). :D
Finally someone who agrees with me on Slovenia, Moldova and Hungary (though Moldova is my last)
I just really dislike Hungary and will not qualify in my opinion, unless it’s the only rock song of the contest alongside Albania. Moldova is trying to be as fun as last year’s entry, but ending up looking like a crew of accountants doing a karaoke show. Slovenia is solid, but very repetitive and doesn’t keep my attention as I turn off by 1:00 into the song.
Split results:
JURY:
1.Laura Rizzotto
2.Sudden Lights
3.MADARA
4.Ritvars
5.Edgar Kreilis
6.Lauris Valters
7.Markus Riva
8.Liene Greifane
PUBLIC:
1. Laura Rizzotto
2. Sudden Lights
3. Markus Riva
4. MADARA
5. Liene Greifāne
6. RITVARS
7. Edgars Kreilis
8. Lauris Valters
Jury killed Markus. And changed their minds on Sudden Lights?
Ι know.Weird.Public pressure made them change their minds?