Oh Latvia. You used to be sooo amazing (And your selections 2004 - 2006 are proof of that). What happened? Oh Well. Anywho...
Latvia 2004 was pretty awesome and momentous. Not only did it mark the first appearance of Chilli (a true drag queen born as a man and just about as fabulous as Latvians come), but it marked my first dealings with C - Stone and 4 - Elements (whom i just fucking adore despite not being appreciated by the Latvians) and also Z - Scars (whom i have a soft spot for but not so soft they ever place higher than 5th in all their tries). After the last couple years of big finals (20 songs or more), which amounted to 1 (undeserved) Win and 1 (undeserved) bottom 5 placing (at home no less! yikes!), Latvia made the decision to tone it down this year and only present 10 songs to compete for the Ticket to Istanbul.
Here's my NF. As in the actual NF, i chose my winner in 2 Rounds. In the First Round, i chose my top 3 Songs by "Televoting" and in the Second Round, i chose my winner by "Televoting".
Number - Title (Translation) - Artist - Round 01 - Round 02 - Place
01 - Dziesma Par Laimi (A Song About Happiness) - Formins And Kleins - 3 389 - X - 9th
02 - Angel's Song - Kristine Broka And Santa Zapacka - 1 347 - X - 10th
03 - Ready - 4 Elements - 13 393 - 37 844 - 2nd
04 - Like A Star - Tatjana Timcuka - 6 931 - X - 5th
05 - Let Me Go - Rain - 4 835 - X - 8th
06 - All You Know - C - Stones - 19 646 - 41 297 - 1st
07 - We Share The Sun - Johnny Salamander And Meldra - 8 318 - X - 4th
08 - Not That Everyday Girl - Chilli - 18 830 - 18 879 - 3rd
09 - Runaway - Z - Scars - 5 374 - X - 7th
10 - Fly Away With You - Amber - 5 888 - X - 6th
Comments -
"All You Know" has always and forever, since the moment i first heard it til the end of time, been my winner. "Ready" has been as close as any song could come to it for just as long. Back in 2004, i clearly adored "Like A Star" but with time, i've come to realize it's kinda just a bunch of noise. Of course, i immediately recognized that Chilli was amazing and the Latvians would just never understand or be able to appreciate her. Back in 2004, i was mystified about "We Share The Sun" but now i know it to be just a certain kind of cool. Like all Z - Scars songs, i intially dismissed "Runaway" only to have it grow on me in time. My second clearest memory of Latvia 2004 (After "All You Know" being just far tooooooo awesome), is being completly pissed that given a bunch of awesome to pretty good songs, Latvia chose one of the worst (Dziesma Par Laimi). I couldn't and wouldn't understand it and i hated them for it. Oh how i hated them! But that was back when i thought ESC was just about chosing the most amazing song your Nation had to offer and presenting it to the World in the Largest Music Stage in history! Now, i know that it's about winning, or at least placing well. With that knowledge, i've softened up on the Latvians. I mean, they won with a mediocre at best song in 2002 and bottom fived with a pretty great song, at home no less, in 2003. So i like to think that the Latvians, as a nation, said "What the Fuck! Let's just send something different, regardless of whether it's good or not. and see what happens!". And they did. And they got 17th (and failed to qualify) in the Semi Final. But it taught them a lesson. You just can't send any old thing based on the fact that it's "Different". If you're gonna send crap, it has to be ballad (see Latvia 2005 and 2007).
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