LATVIA

The Latvian Final was held on February 16th at the Riga Film Studio, hosted by Dagmara Legante & Ketija Šenberga. Before the final there were 2 semi-finals with four songs qualifying from each. The winner was chosen by an "expert" jury (50%) and an amalgamation of televoting/online voting/spotify listens (50%). The winning song was “That night” sung by the duo, Carousel.

The set is filmed in  slim widescreen mode and in black and white which gives it a very individual feel straight away. There are yellowing light spots, almost bokeh style, which pique your visual interest throughout, almost suggesting the colour will eventually poke through, but never does. The singer is stage front with her long haired partner on the guitar to her side. Behind them two are a drummer and double bass player but there are very few shots of the four of them together, it is mainly the duo that gets most of the airtime. Most of the movement is done though the camera as the personnel do not move. There are a good range of swooping shots, fading in at out shots as well as lots of tight face and guitar shots.

The song starts off with a very short guitar intro which has a slightly dark bluesy feel to it. Sabine has a very particular vocal style – her voice is small, almost talkative, with a croaky edge and this lends to the intimate visuals on show. The chorus itself is quite short but has a very repetitive structure and feeds in nicely to the verses. By the two minute mark one has already heard two verse/chorus packages and the last minute packs 3 more chouses, the latter with a slight melody change. The ending however is a little bit of a letdown and I wonder if the guitar could be left to fizzle out a little longer, maybe adding more of a minor chord to emphasis the words of the song.

Since the ‘Supernova’ format has been used in Latvia to select their Eurovision song, they have certainly done a good job in selecting very different styles of entry, however their outcomes at the contest have been wildly different. However what can be applied to all of them – including this – is that they are very engaging. To be honest this style of song is not really my normal listening fayre but I find the whole package of this entry very beguiling and actually quite charming. I think they way the song is filmed also works with the mood of the piece and I think Sabine’s vocals are really spot on.

In many ways this reminds me a bit of ‘Calm after the storm’ in terms of presentation and musical style but unlike CATS I could actually bear watching or hearing “This night” quite a few more times. This is very likely to get the ‘Radio 2’ vote and get wide appeal from quite a few countries. I also think the juries will love this to pieces and could be a quiet piece of class that might shine out of the messiness around it. I guess the main fear with this is that it might be too quiet, too understated and end up being forgotten. This will be another one where getting out of the semi will be its true test.

                                               

ARTIST – Carousel

SONG – That Night

MUSIC -  Mārcis Vasiļevskis, Aleksandrs Volks

LYRICS - Sabīne Žug