Valters and Kaža, known internationally as Walters and Kazha, were a

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

n music duo consisting of

Valters Frīdenbergs Valters Frīdenbergs (26 October 1987 – 17 October 2018) was a Latvian musician, singer and TV-presenter. He was best known for representing Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 as part of Valters and Kaža duo with the song "The War Is ...

and Kārlis Būmeisters. They were best known for representing in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2005 The Eurovision Song Contest 2005 was the 50th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Kyiv, Ukraine, following the country's victory at the with the song "Wild Dances" by Ruslana. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union ( ...

with the song "

The War Is Not Over Latvia was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 with the song "The War Is Not Over", written by Mārtiņš Freimanis, and performed by Valters and Kaža, Walters and Kazha. The Latvian participating broadcaster, (LTV), organised the n ...

", written by

Mārtiņš Freimanis Mārtiņš Freimanis (7 February 1977 – 27 January 2011) was a Latvian musician, singer, songwriter, actor, and TV personality. Freimanis was born in Liepāja, but spent his childhood in Aizpute. Career Music Mārtiņš Freimanis was the le ...

, finishing in fifth place with 153 points.

Career

2005: Eurovision Song Contest

On 26 February 2005, the duo were selected to represent Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005, held in

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

, Ukraine. In the semi-final, which was held two days before the final, they performed fifth, following 's

Zdob și Zdub Zdob și Zdub (; , onomatopoeia, onomatopoeic for the sound of a drum beat) is a Moldovan folk punk band, based in Chișinău. The band Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005, represented Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 in Kyiv ...

and preceding 's

Lise Darly Lise Darly (born 27 December 1981) is a French singer and was selected to represent Monaco in the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest, held in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. Life and career Lise was born in Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the ...

. They qualified in tenth place with 85 points. At the after-party, Valters lost his voice and subsequently, at the dress rehearsal, he did not sing the entire song. In the grand final, he sang parts of the song one octave lower than they should've been. Despite this, they finished in fifth place with 153 points.

After Eurovision

In , Valters made a solo effort to represent with his song "For A Better Tomorrow" but failed to qualify from the semi-final. Two years later, the duo provided the Latvian commentary for the

Eurovision Song Contest 2011 The Eurovision Song Contest 2011 was the 56th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Düsseldorf, Germany, following the country's victory at the with the song "Satellite" by Lena. Organised by the European Broadcasting Uni ...

. Valters was also Latvia's spokesperson at the

Eurovision Song Contest 2012 The Eurovision Song Contest 2012 was the 57th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Baku, Azerbaijan, following the country's victory at the with the song "Running Scared (Ell & Nikki song), Running Scared" by Ell & Nikki, El ...

Valters Fridenbergs' death

On 17 October 2018, it was announced that Valters Frīdenbergs had died of a two-year long battle with cancer.

References

External links

* Latvian pop music groups Musical groups established in 2005 English-language musical groups from Latvia Eurovision Song Contest entrants {{Latvia-stub