Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021
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LatviaSong: 12 March 2021
| Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eurovision Song Contest 2021 | ||||
| Country | Latvia | |||
| Selection process | Internal selection | |||
| Announcement date | Artist: 16 May 2020 Song: 12 March 2021 | |||
| Competing entry | ||||
| Song | "The Moon Is Rising" | |||
| Artist | Samanta Tīna | |||
| Songwriters |
| |||
| Placement | ||||
| Semi-final result | Failed to qualify (17th) | |||
| Participation chronology | ||||
| ||||
Latvia was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 with the song "The Moon Is Rising" written by Samanta Tīna, Aminata Savadogo and Oskars Uhaņs. The song was performed by Samanta Tīna, who was internally selected by Latvian broadcaster Latvijas Televīzija (LTV) to represent that nation at the 2021 contest in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Songwriter Aminata Savadogo represented Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with the song "Love Injected" where she placed sixth in the grand final of the competition. Samanta Tīna was announced as the Latvian representative on 2 April 2020 after she was due to compete in the 2020 contest with "Still Breathing" before the 2020 event's cancellation. Her song, "The Moon Is Rising", was presented to the public on 12 March 2021 during the final episode of the special documentary series Kā uzvarēt Eirovīzijā? Samantas Tīnas ceļš uz Roterdamu.
Latvia was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 20 May 2021. Performing during the show in position 15, "The Moon Is Rising" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Latvia placed seventeenth (last) out of the 17 participating countries in the semi-final with 14 points.
Prior to the 2021 contest, Latvia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest twenty times since its first entry in 2000.[1] Latvia won the contest once in 2002 with the song "I Wanna" performed by Marie N. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004, Latvia was able to qualify to compete in the final between 2005 and 2008. Between 2009 and 2014, the nation had failed to qualify to the final for six consecutive years before managing to qualify to the final in 2015 and 2016. Latvia had failed to qualify to the final for three consecutive years since 2017 including with their 2019 entry "That Night" performed by Carousel.
The Latvian national broadcaster, Latvijas Televīzija (LTV), broadcasts the event within Latvia and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. LTV confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest on 16 May 2020.[2] Latvia has selected their entries for the Eurovision Song Contest through a national final. Since their debut in 2000 until 2012, LTV had organised the selection show Eirodziesma. In a response to the nation's failure to qualify to the final at Eurovision since 2008, between 2013 and 2014, the competition was rebranded and retooled as Dziesma. After failing to produce successful entries those two years, LTV developed and had organised the Supernova national final since 2015. The broadcaster internally selected both the artist and song for the 2021 contest, marking the first time that an internal selection was held for a Latvian Eurovision entry.
Before Eurovision
Internal selection
The Latvian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 was selected internally. On 16 May 2020, LTV confirmed during their pre-show discussion of the replacement show Eurovision: Europe Shine a Light that Samanta Tīna would remain as Latvia's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2021.[2] To create her contest entry, 11 potential songs were written for consideration by several songwriters appointed by the singer during a two-day songwriting camp organised by RigaLive and held in late 2020.[3] In regards to her song, Samanta Tīna stated: "I wasn't looking for a standard Eurovision classic! I wanted to have that surprise, the craziness. I wanted the song to have something glorifying so that everyone knows it's Latvia when we come out!"[4]
The song "The Moon Is Rising" was presented to the public on 12 March 2021 during the final episode of the special documentary series Kā uzvarēt Eirovīzijā? Samantas Tīnas ceļš uz Roterdamu (How to win at Eurovision? Samanta Tīna's Road to Rotterdam) that covered the background preparation processes for Samanta Tīna's Eurovision performance, song and its accompanying music video, the latter being filmed by Ritvars Bluka using a mobile phone with direction and production by Aiga Baikova and Tīna herself.[5][6] The documentary consisted of five episodes, commencing on 12 February 2021 and was broadcast on LTV1 as well as online via the streaming platform Replay.lv.[7][8] "The Moon Is Rising" was written by Samanta Tīna together with Aminata Savadogo and Oskars Uhaņs. Savadogo represented Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 and had composed the Latvian song in 2016.[6]
In my song, I advocate that we all women are equal, no matter who we are. We are not women, but The Woman, we are each a queen, and each has its own crown. There's also text (sic) that dirty games aren't my thing, I can go with an open heart. My role will be the same. To say how it is and it will be.
— Samanta Tīna about "The Moon Is Rising"[9]
Promotion
Prior to the contest, Samanta Tīna specifically promoted "The Moon Is Rising" as the Latvian Eurovision entry on 17 March 2021 by performing during the Zelta Mikrofons 2021 award show, which was held at the Art and Media Technical School in Riga.[10]
