Latvian Reviews In A Rush

Here is our orginal reviews of the songs in the Latvian national final tonight:

Samantha Tina & Davids Kalandija - At first I thought this was a simiple ballad but the chorus proved me wrong, the fact Davids does not come in until the secondd  verse does nothing for the song. However it is a little complex and the arrangement is good. The piano in the background is very effective. But I am still unsure if their voices actually work together. Grade: D-


PeR - Finally an easy name to spell. This is an odd song. You sit there and wonder just what is going to develop into. The trouble is the song is so repetitive I can't see this actually standing out. Grade: E-


Paula Dukure - That’s better, much better. This is a little different and actually sounds like ESC material,  however it would still need a good vocal performance, but listening to Paula sing she should hold notes on the night. Grade: C+


Ruta Duduma - This stripped back and layed back song could do well if sandwiched between two fast songs. For the genre it is rather good. I am rreally liking the chorus. Grade: B-


Andris Abelite - Another song that came through the internet selection. The retro feel manages to stay on the right side of retro/dated. Though the song has a nice jazzy feel it does have real jazz strenght; think Raphael Gaulazzi. A little over repetitive. Grade: E+

Samantha Tina - While this song is good it just appears to be lacking something. Maybe we will feel it when we see it live. Grade: E

Elizabete Zagorska - Sounds a little more Eurovision. It builds wonderfully well but then….The interlude between the verse and chorus feels just little a car crash that comes out of nowhere. The wind instrument in the background does not help at all. The verse is good though. Grade: D

Mad Show Boys - Oh yeah! Here is a real folk song. However while I enjoy it, all that goes through my head is the Slovenian entry in 2010. I still think this is ok with sentiments from the beatles. Grade: B+

Trianas Park - All of the songs in this semi are just terrible and this really is no different. Grade: E+

Anmary - Despite the title this is not a very beautiful song. The songs lyrics do not make much sense. The song is full of cliques however it seems very average and just needs to shift to another gear. Grade: E-

So hopefully Latvia will select The Mad Show Boys For Baku....

UPD: Returning to the odds!

Since my last post there have been some changes to the odds. Ireland has gone from 33/1 to 25/1 which is odd given that we have the same amount of information as before.

Now that we have heard all the songs from Norway (stats based on four bookmakers):
Nora Foss Al-Jabri is the favorite to win the first semi with 3 bookies putting her on favorite. However there is huge differences in what is to come second. The Carburtores and Lise Stokke are favorites to take the second slot with Kim and Reidun coming in after as dark horses.

There is huge spread in the final. Plumbo are the hot favorites to win with Reidun, Rikke Normann and The Canoes lagging behind.

Today we got the odds from Lativa, they confirm what I expected from the start: Mad Show Boys are the favorites (the hot favorites at that) and PeR are just behind, followed by Paula Dukure (all are under 3/1). After that there is a gap starting with Anmary (5/1) to Ruta Dudama (19/1).

Over in Denmark the song Venter (Christian and Patrik) is leading the odds with Jesper Nohrstedt is in second. Sonuna and Aya are in joint third (roughly). Forever I B Young is in last place.

Reaction to tonight's semi finals.

Latvia: We have had reasonable success in dumping a lot of the crap songs in the semi finals. We are happy to see Mad Show Boys made it to the final as did Robert Petersons (our second favorite).

Bulgaria: Our three favorites made it through the marathon show. Ceco Elvisa & Daniela, Desislava and New 5 (in that order). As with Latvia many boring ballads were dumped - Thankfully.

Iceland: Sadly Íris Hólm didn't make it but we were very impressed with Greta Salome & Jonsi.

Iceland will hold their next semi-final on 21 January with a Final on February 11th

Latvia will hold their final on February 18th. Bulgaria will hold theirs on the 29th February

Review of Eirodziesma: Semi Final 2

Latvia was one of the earliest to publish their songs. So in the run up to their National Final we have reviewed the songs in each of their National Finals.

Niks Dukrus & NBC- Sweet for me is an odd mixture of sounds. However the beat is nice and this could do well given how it is received on the night. I don't really like it. I think the rap is poor and the choruses are very average sounding. Grade: F

Valtars Gleske & Libe Ece  - A very nice and pleasant classical song. Classical music is not always suited to ESC though. The big separtation between the male and female verses is not something I like very much. Grade: E

The 4 - Typical band stuff, voices not strong enough. This needs a total rewrite to get it right. So much potenical. Grade: E+

Anmary - Despite the title this is not a very beautiful song. The songs lyrics do not make much sense. The song is full of cliques however it seems very average and just needs to shift to another gear. Grade: E-

Paul Swan - Is it just me or is the opening line very similar to All The Lovers by Kylie. The chrous feels just a little dated. It's nice but nice never won ESC. Grade: D

Roberts Peterson - This is a lot better than what I have just heard. Staging is everything with this song. This needs a hardrock staging or it just won't look right. Grade: C-

Samantha Tina - While this song is good it just appears to be lacking something. Maybe we will feel it when we see it live. Grade: E

Elizabete Zagorska - Sounds a little more Eurovision. It builds wonderfully well but then….The interlude between the verse and chorus feels just little a car crash that comes out of nowhere. The wind instrument in the background does not help at all. The verse is good though. Grade: D

Mad Show Boys - Oh yeah! Here is a real folk song. However while I enjoy it, all that goes through my head is the Slovenian entry in 2010. I still think this is ok with sentiments from the beatles. Grade: C

Trianas Park - All of the songs in this semi are just terrible and this really is no different. Grade: E+

In spite of having so many songs this is a poor Semi. However here at The Best Eurovision Blog we like the MAD SHOW BOYS song and hope they win the Semi.

Reaction to Latvian Semi-Final and some other points

So after a relatively uninteresting semi-final, but a fun night on twitter (Thanks to all), we have 5 songs out of Eirodziesma. The qualifiers were good with the exception of Andris Abelite who I thought was below par. I think PeR are the ones to watch from this semi-final. They came second with the juries, which means that they could do well. However I would think the song is over repetitive. 

The big disappointment for me was Laura Bicane and Romans Sladzis folk music which surprised me by how good it was. Naturally I was pleased to see Ruta Duduma make it through.

In other news.....

We have not got a list of participates from the EBU yet and we look forward to see if Armenia is on it. I think it is delayed because the EBU doesn't want politics dragged into Eurovision but a draw is expected around 16th January so we will be keeping a close eye on that.


A campaign video has been launched for Rick Santorum Nickolas Sarkozy Jedward? We are unashamedly supporting Jedward for Eurovision  and we think this is just great.