Latvia: “Supernova” confirmed for February 2017

It has been confirmed by LTV (Latvijas Televīzija) that Supernova will return for a third consecutive year to select Latvia’s entry for the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest. Today, artists and composers who wish to be involved in the selection can fill in their respective application forms on the official Supernova website.
The official regulations for 2017 reveal that the application process will close on October 28th 2016, with evaluation of the submissions taking place in the two weeks that immediately follow. A “pre-round” will then be held for potential entrants on November 15th and 22nd at LTV studios. Between 16 and 20 participants in total will be selected to compete in the live broadcasts, and these successful participants will be informed on December 12th.
The participants for the live shows will then be announced to the public live on air by LTV on January 22nd and January 29th 2017. Two heats, each consisting of between 8 and 10 participants, will take place on February 5th and February 12th. As in previous years, four qualifiers from each heat will take part in the semi-final on February 19th with four entries progressing to the final on February 26th.
Supernova has quickly become one of the most popular national selections since its debut in 2015 thanks to the inclusion of international voting, Riga Beaver’s performances for online viewers during the advertisement breaks and, of course, the entries that the process has produced. After six consecutive non-qualifications, Aminata achieved 6th place in 2015 with Love Injected which gave Latvia their best result since Walters and Kazha finished 5th in 2005 with The War Is Not Over.

Earlier this year, following his victory in Supernova 2016, Justs continued Latvia’s upturn in form with 15th place for his Aminata-composed Heartbeat (watch his performance above). However, Supernova 2016 wasn’t without drama. Samanta Tīna withdrew live on air after her semi-final performance and one of the favourites, Markus Riva, failed to qualify for the final. In addition, following the conclusion of the final, it was revealed that Catalepsia would have stolen a shock victory from hot favourite Justs if the voting was decided by the Latvian televoters alone.
Latvia’s most successful result remains their victory in 2002 with Marie N and I Wanna and Supernova continues to looks like being Latvia’s best opportunity for many years to find a song able to match that result.