Latvia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 20 times, and haven't missed one contest yet, debuting at the 2000 contest, where Brainstorm came 3rd with the song My Star. The country's first, and so far, only win came in 2002 when Marie N and her song I Wanna beat the favourites Malta by 12 points, receiving 176 points.
Latvia is the second former USSR country to win the Contest and the third country of eastern Europe after Yugoslavia and Estonia. Because of her win, the 2003 contest was held in the Latvian capital Riga. Latvia initially planned to withdraw from the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in 2009. LTV, the Latvian broadcaster, originally announced its withdrawal from the contest after the Latvian government-imposed budget cuts on the broadcaster that stopped it from paying the participation fee. At the time LTV said, however, that they hoped to compete in the 2010 contest. In the event, Latvia decided to compete, and the EBU confirmed that Latvia would indeed participate in 2009.
After that, they suffered a six-year non-qualifying streak, which ended in 2015 when Aminata represented them with Love Injected, placing sixth in the final while coming in second with the jury. She was also a songwriter for Heartbeat the following year.
Dons broke another non-qualification streak, when he represented Latvia in 2024. The country had not qualified to the final for 7 years (counting the cancelled 2020 contest) before his participation.
Gallery[]
Participants[]
Year | Artist | Song | Language | Place | Points | Semi | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2000 | Brainstorm | My Star | English | 3 | 136 | No Semi Finals | |
2001 | Arnis Mednis | Too Much | 18 | 16 | |||
2002 | Marie N | I Wanna | 1 | 176 | |||
2003 | F.L.Y. | Hello from Mars | 24 | 5 | |||
2004 | Fomins & Kleins | Dziesma par laimi | Latvian | -- | -- | 17 | 23 |
2005 | Walters and Kazha | The War is Not Over | English | 5 | 153 | 10 | 85 |
2006 | Vocal Group Cosmos | I Hear Your Heart | 16 | 30 | Top 11 in 2005 | ||
2007 | Bonaparti.lv | Questa notte | Italian | 16 | 54 | 5 | 168 |
2008 | Pirates of the Sea | Wolves of the Sea | English | 12 | 83 | 6 | 86 |
2009 | Intars Busulis | Probka | Russian | -- | -- | 19 | 7 |
2010 | Aisha | What For? | English | -- | -- | 17 | 11 |
2011 | Musiqq | Angel in Disguise | -- | -- | 17 | 25 | |
2012 | Anmary | Beautiful Song | -- | -- | 16 | 17 | |
2013 | PeR | Here We Go! | -- | -- | 17 | 13 | |
2014 | Aarzemnieki | Cake to Bake | -- | -- | 13 | 33 | |
2015 | Aminata | Love Injected | 6 | 186 | 2 | 155 | |
2016 | Justs | Heartbeat | 15 | 132 | 8 | 132 | |
2017 | Triana Park | Line | -- | -- | 18 | 21 | |
2018 | Laura Rizzotto | Funny Girl | -- | -- | 12 | 106 | |
2019 | Carousel | That Night | -- | -- | 15 | 50 | |
2020 | Samanta Tīna | Still Breathing | Contest cancelled | ||||
2021 | The Moon Is Rising | -- | -- | 17 | 14 | ||
2022 | Citi Zēni | Eat Your Salad | -- | -- | 14 | 55 | |
2023 | Sudden Lights | Aijā | English, Latvian | -- | -- | 11 | 34 |
2024 | Dons | Hollow | English | 16 | 64 | 7 | 72 |
Trivia[]
- The country is one of six to have participated in every contest since their debut, the others being Albania, Australia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, and Spain.