Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 with the song "Probka" written by

Kārlis Lācis Kārlis Lācis (born September 21, 1977) is a Latvian contemporary composer. Along with the scores for theatre productions, movies, and musical arrangements, a large part of his work is dedicated to vocal and choral music, symphonic, and instrume ...

, Jānis Elsbergs and Sergejs Timofejevs. The song was performed by

Intars Busulis Intars Busulis (born 2 May 1978 in Talsi, Latvia) is a Latvian singer, trombonist and musician in a Musical Union ''Intars Busulis & Abonementa orķestris.'' Wider recognition came from participation in a band called "Caffe", in 2001''.'' Also, ...

. The Latvian broadcaster Latvijas Televīzija (LTV) organised the national final ''Eirodziesma 2009'' in order to select the Latvian entry for the 2009 contest in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, Russia. Twenty songs were selected to compete in the national final, which consisted of two shows: a semi-final and a final. In the semi-final, ten entries were selected to advance based on a public vote. Ten songs ultimately qualified to compete in the final on 28 February 2009 where two rounds of voting by the public and a five-member jury panel selected "Sastrēgums" performed by Intars Busulis as the winner. The song was later translated from Latvian to Russian for the Eurovision Song Contest and was titled "Probka". Latvia was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 14 May 2009. Performing during the show in position 3, "Probka" was not among the 10 qualifying entries of the second semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Latvia placed nineteenth (last) out of the 19 participating countries in the semi-final with 7 points.

Background

Prior to the 2009 contest, Latvia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest nine times since its first entry in 2000. Latvia won the contest once in

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

with the song " I Wanna" performed by

Marie N Marija Naumova-Bullīta (born and professionally knows as Marija Naumova 23 June 1973) is a Latvian singer of Russian descent. Under the stage name Marie N, she sings a broad range of music ranging from pop to musical theatre and jazz, and has ...

. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

, Latvia was able to qualify to compete in the final between 2005 and 2008 including with their

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

entry "Wolves of the Sea" performed by

Pirates of the Sea Pirates of the Sea is a musical project that in May 2008 represented Latvia in Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade, Serbia with their song " Wolves of the Sea". It consists of three members: Italian singer Roberto Meloni who is living in Latv ...

. Despite a possible boycott to be held between the three Baltic states due to the

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

n participation in the

2008 South Ossetia war The 2008 Russo-Georgian WarThe war is known by a variety of other names, including Five-Day War, August War and Russian invasion of Georgia. was a war between Georgia, on one side, and Russia and the Russian-backed self-proclaimed republics of Sou ...

in Georgia as announced by Estonian Minister of Culture

Laine Jänes Laine is Finnish and Estonian for "wave", and a surname in various languages. Laine as a surname originates in Finland, where it is the seventh most common"Most common surnames"Latvijas Televīzija (LTV), which broadcasts the event within Latvia and organises the selection process for the nation's entry, confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest on 26 August 2008. Latvia has selected their entries for the Eurovision Song Contest through a national final. Since their debut in 2000, LTV had organised the selection show ''

Eirodziesma Latvia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 22 times since making its debut at the contest in 2000, where the group Brainstorm finished third with the song " My Star". Latvia won the contest in 2002, with Marie N and the song " I W ...

'' and on 3 November 2008, the broadcaster announced that they would organise ''Eirodziesma 2009'' in order to select the Latvian entry for the 2009 contest. On 17 December 2008, it was revealed that LTV had requested to the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who ar ...

(EBU) their withdrawal from the 2009 contest due to budget cuts of 2 million

Lats Lats or LATS may refer to: * Latissimus dorsi muscle * Latvian lats, former currency of Latvia * Latin American Test Symposium of test and fault tolerance technologists * Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme, a UK scheme to reduce biodegradable waste ...

(over €3 million) by the Latvian government that led to the forced cancellation of planned shows for 2009 including ''Eirodziesma 2009''. After talks between the two parties for a way that the nation could participate in the contest, LTV confirmed their withdrawal on 20 December 2008 without being penalised for withdrawing three days after the deadline. However, the EBU announced that Latvia would still participate on 12 January 2009 after a lowered participation fee was granted to LTV, while LTV confirmed the continued organisation of ''Eirodziesma 2009'' on 23 January 2009 after securing sponsorships and a cooperation agreement with the Ventspils Development Agency and Ventspils City Council.

Before Eurovision

Eirodziesma 2009

''Eirodziesma 2009'' was the tenth edition of

, the music competition that selects Latvia's entries for the Eurovision Song Contest. The competition commenced with the semi-final on 27 February 2009 and concluded with a final on 28 February 2009. All shows in the competition took place at the Olympic Center in Ventspils, hosted by Uģis Joksts and Kristīne Virsnīte and broadcast on LTV1 as well as online via the broadcaster's official Eurovision Song Contest website ''eirovizija.lv''.

Format

The format of the competition consisted of two shows: a semi-final and a final. The semi-final, held on 27 February 2009, featured twenty competing entries facing a public vote where the top ten advanced to the final. The final, held on 28 February 2009, selected the Latvian entry for Moscow from the remaining ten entries over two rounds of voting: the first round selected the top three songs as determined by the 50/50 combination of votes from a jury panel and a public vote, and the second round (superfinal) selected the winner exclusively by a public vote. The initial format was to broadcast five shows: three semi-finals each featuring nine competing entries from which three would advance directly to the final, a Second Chance round from which one would proceed to the final. However, such plans was later cancelled. Both the jury and public vote assigned points from 1 to 10 based on ranking in the first round of the final, with the first place receiving one point and last place receiving ten points. Viewers were able to vote via telephone up to five times or via SMS with a single SMS counting as five votes.

Competing entries

Artists and songwriters were able to submit their entries to the broadcaster between 3 November 2008 and 30 November 2008. All artists and songwriters were required to have Latvian citizenship or residency, however foreign collaborations were allowed as long as one-thirds of the composition were by Latvian songwriters. 108 entries were submitted at the conclusion of the submission period. A jury panel appointed by LTV evaluated the submitted songs and selected twenty-one entries for the competition. The jury panel consisted of Daina Markova (musicologist and content editor at LTV), Raimonds Macats (musician and composer), Aivars Hermanis (musician and producer), Ance Krauze (singer and vocal teacher), Dace Pūce (director and producer), Jegors Jerohomovičs (music critic and cultural journalist), Edmunds Kaševskis (producer at Radio SWH) and members of the LTV Eurovision team: Iveta Lepeško, Zita Kaminska, Arvīds Babris, Baiba Saleniece and Uldis Salenieks. The twenty-one competing artists and songs were announced on 9 December 2008. Among the artists was Valters Frīdenbergs who represented Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 as part of Walters and Kazha. On 12 January 2009, Kristīna Zaharova withdrew "I Wish I Could Pretend" from the competition in favour of the song competing in the 2009 Irish Eurovision national final. On 13 February 2009, LTV announced that the song "In Love We Trust" would be performed by Policistas instead of

Aisha Aisha ( ar, , translit=ʿĀʾisha bint Abī Bakr; , also , ; ) was Muhammad's third and youngest wife. In Islamic writings, her name is thus often prefixed by the title "Mother of the Believers" ( ar, links=no, , ʾumm al-mu'min, muʾminīn), ...

, Ella and Olga, while the song "Have to Say Goodbye" would be performed by Astra Dreimane instead of Madara Celma.

Shows

Semi-final

The semi-final took place on 27 February 2009. Twenty acts competed and the ten entries with the highest number of votes from the public qualified to the final.

Final

The final took place on 28 February 2009. The ten entries that qualified from the semi-final competed and the winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, three songs advanced to the second round, the superfinal, based on the combination of votes from a jury panel and the Latvian public. In the superfinal, the song with the highest number of votes from the public, "Sastrēgums" performed by

, was declared the winner. The jury panel that voted in the final consisted of Daiga Mazvērsīte (musicologist), Jānis Lūsēns (composer), Aivars Hermanis (musician and producer), Jolanta Gulbe (singer and vocal teacher) and Edmunds Kaševskis (producer at Radio SWH). In addition to the performances of the competing entries, guest performers included participant Kristīna Zaharova, 2004 Latvian Eurovision entrant

Fomins and Kleins Fomins & Kleins was a Latvian rock group formed in 2002. Its members Ivo Fomins and Tomass Kleins were already accomplished and recognized rock musicians. Both are from the western Latvian port city of Liepāja. Previous collaborations Both ha ...

, 2008 Latvian Eurovision entrant

, 2009 Lithuanian Eurovision entrant Sasha Son and 2009 Polish Eurovision entrant Lidia Kopania.

Ratings

Preparation

On 1 March, it was announced that "Sastrēgums" would be translated from Latvian to Russian for the Eurovision Song Contest, titled "Probka" with lyrics by Sergejs Timofejevs. The official music video for the song was released on 24 March.

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "

Big Four Big Four or Big 4 may refer to: Groups of companies * Big Four accounting firms: Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG, PwC * Big Four (airlines) in the U.S. in the 20th century: American, Eastern, TWA, United * Big Four (banking), several groupings ...

" (France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top nine songs from each semi-final as determined by televoting progress to the final, and a tenth was determined by back-up juries. The

(EBU) 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 30 January 2009, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals. Latvia was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 14 May 2009. The running order for the semi-finals was decided through another draw on 16 March 2009 and Latvia was set to perform in position 3, following the entry from

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

and before the entry from

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

. The two semi-finals and the final were broadcast in Latvia on LTV1 with all shows featuring commentary by Kārlis Streips. The Latvian spokesperson, who announced the Latvian votes during the final, was

Roberto Meloni Roberto Meloni (born 20 February 1981 in Rome) is an Italian judoka is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』 ...

Semi-final

Intars Busulis took part in technical rehearsals on 5 and 8 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 13 and 14 May. The Latvian performance featured Intars Busulis wearing a blue jacket with circular badges, a blue shirt and a red tie, joined on stage by a keyboard player, two guitarists and two backing vocalists. Busulis interacted with the other performers during the performance, while the LED screens displayed the silhouette of a city and a road signpost that mentioned the names of several European cities:

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

and

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Y ...

. The director for the Latvian performance was Viktors Runtulis. The musicians that joined Intars Busulis were: Gints Pabērzs, the co-composer of "Probka"

and Kaspars Zemītis, while the two backing vocalists were Jolanta Strikaite and Vineta Elksne. 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 nineteenth (last) in the semi-final, receiving a total of 7 points.

Voting

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Latvia and awarded by Latvia in the second semi-final and grand final of the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Estonia in the semi-final and to Norway in the final of the contest.

Points awarded to Latvia

Points awarded by Latvia

Detailed voting results

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 2009

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...