Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022

Eurovision Song Contest 2022
Country	Latvia
National selection
Selection process	Supernova 2022
Selection date(s)	Online vote: 10–14 January 2022 Semi-final: 5 February 2022 Final: 12 February 2022
Selected entrant	Citi Zēni
Selected song	"Eat Your Salad"
Selected songwriter(s)	Roberts Memmēns Jānis Pētersons Dagnis Roziņš Jānis Jačmenkins
Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2021 • 2022

Latvia is scheduled to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 in Turin, Italy, with "Eat Your Salad" performed by Citi Zēni. The Latvian broadcaster Latvijas Televīzija (LTV) organised the national final Supernova 2022 in order to select the Latvian entry for the contest.

Background[]

Prior to the 2022 contest, Latvia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest twenty-one 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 failed to qualify to the final for six consecutive years. In the 2015 contest, Latvia managed to qualify to the final with the song "Love Injected" performed by Aminata, which placed 6th in the final, scoring 186 points, giving them their best placing since 2005. In 2021, Latvia was represented by Samanta Tīna and the song "The Moon Is Rising", but the country did not qualify for the final and finished last in the second semi-final with 14 points.

Before Eurovision[]

Supernova 2022[]

Supernova 2022 was the seventh edition of the Latvian national selection Supernova, which selected Latvia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2022. The competition consisted of 17 entries, of which 10 took part in a final that took place on 12 February 2022.^[2]

Competing entries[]

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On 7 October 2021, LTV opened a two-month submission period for interested singers and songwriters to enter the audition process for Supernova 2022.^[3] All entries were required to be by a singer-songwriter that was aged at least sixteen and a citizen of Latvia, with foreign writers allowed only if they contributed to one third or less of the entry.

After all submissions were received, a jury formed of representatives of the main radio stations in Latvia assessed the songs, only being informed of the song title (not the singer). 16 acts were selected by the jury to take part in the competition.^[2] The selected entries were announced on 5 January 2022.^[4] In addition to the initial sixteen competing artists, LTV held an online vote between 10 and 14 January 2022 to determine a seventeenth act.^[5]

Semi-final[]

The semi-final took place on 5 February 2022. Ten entries were selected by a professional jury and a televote in a 50/50 split vote. The members of the jury will be revealed after the Eurovision final.^[6] On February 10th it was announced that LTV assigned Miks Dukurs a wildcard for the Supernova final, citing technical issues that impacted his semi-final performance.^[7]

Final[]

The final took place on 12 February 2022. The winner was determined by a professional jury and a televote in a 50/50 split vote. The members of the jury will be revealed after the Eurovision final.^[8]

The final also featured Uku Suviste and the Roop (respectively Estonian and Lithuanian representatives at the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 and 2021) as guest performers.^[8]

At Eurovision[]

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 25 January 2022, an allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Latvia has been placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 10 May 2022, and has been scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.^[11]

References[]