Welcome to The Xtra Files, our new series which will give you an insight into what the team at ESCXTRA think of your favourite entries into this year’s contest! Today, we review Latvia.
Now that all the songs have been released, we are able to review each and every one of them. Our honest and brutal reviews will keep you entertained until the rehearsals start on 5 May! We will also each give a score out of 10 for every entry, and create an ESCXTRA leaderboard of the entries!
The series continues today, with reviews of the Latvian entry, ‘That Night’ by Emanuel, Nathan W, Nick, Riccardo, Ryan and Sami. Let’s get started!
The Reviews
Emanuel
This year Lithuania is passing the trophy for the best baltic nation to Latvia. The competition isn’t high so don’t get too excited. This is the kind of song my dentist would play me so the anesthesia hits faster. And I say that as a compliment. I can see myself relaxing and drinking some white wine while this is playing. Will it be enough to stand out and qualify? No. Semi-final two is full of Lions and they will have Latvia for lunch. It is still a good effort, despite not being enough for Latvia to achieve a high result.
Nathan W
Bring back Aminata. That’s basically all I have to say about Latvia. Carousel have a target market and unfortunately, it isn’t me.
Nick
Latvia are giving me Katie Melua vibes. When Katie Melua does things in a parking lot in Riga. After not selling any copies of her last album. It’s still a quality little effort, but at the same time, there’s just not enough to wow the crowd at all. I desperately want to like it. But… I don’t.
Riccardo
This feels like the perfect soundtrack for a rainy day cuddled under a blanket, at least these are the feelings the song evokes for me. The problem is I don’t like rainy days so I can’t like it that much. However, it is annoyingly catchy and I quite like the singers voice. Not quite there but almost, but I fear no final again for Latvia. Do they really need Aminata to qualify?
Ryan
Of the choices in Supernova, this was the best one Latvia could have made. It does stand out amongst a raft of middle of the road pop songs, and the cinematography is fantastic which I expect to be similar in Tel Aviv. The big drawback is that the song is extremely repetitive and doesn’t have the emotional connection that Calm After the Storm did in terms of previous Eurovision entries of a similar genre. Unfortunately I think it will get lost in Tel Aviv but Latvia have at least given themselves a chance to stand-out if they can make an emotional connection with Europe.
Sami
Even this song has literally nothing memorable, I still find is extremely annoying. Already in Supernova it felt like the song didn’t belong there so I really look forward to see how lost this will get on the big stage in Tel Aviv. I really enjoy the instruments though, but I’d rather see this in the corner of a pub rather than the Eurovision stage.
Scores
| Angelos | 3 | Natalie | 6.5 | Sara | 2 |
| Costa | 6.5 | Nathan P | 0 | Simon | 4 |
| Dan | 6 | Nathan W | 3 | Tim | 6 |
| Dominik | 2 | Nick | 5.5 | Tom O | 6.5 |
| Emanuel | 7 | Oliver | 6.5 | Tom R | 1.5 |
| Hlynur | 7 | Riccardo | 5.5 | Vincent | 8 |
| Lisa | 2 | Rigmo | 9 | Wiv | 3 |
| Luke | 6 | Rodrigo | 6 | ||
| Matt | 6.5 | Ryan | 4.5 | ||
| Miki | 8 | Sami | 5 |
Therefore, the average score for Latvia is 5.06.
Leaderboard
Latvia reaches 17th place in our leaderboard with a score of 5.06.
- Cyprus – 8.26
- Malta – 8.10
- Spain – 7.54
- Armenia – 7.35
- Norway – 6.96
- Slovenia – 6.63
- Hungary – 6.44
- Iceland – 6.39
- Ireland – 6.17
- Czech Republic – 6.17
- Portugal – 5.91
- France – 5.74
- Finland – 5.50
- Austria – 5.39
- Denmark – 5.13
- San Marino – 5.11
- Latvia – 5.06
- Lithuania – 4.78
- Australia – 4.65
- Moldova – 4.50
- Montenegro – 3.48
Tomorrow, it will be the turn of Albania to be reviewed.
Do you agree with our reviews of Latvia? What are your thoughts on That Night?
Let us know on social media @ESCXTRA!
