THIS YEAR'S ENTRY

 SELECTION
Ten songs competed in, Eirodziesmā, the Latvian national final which was held on February 27th at the Juras Varti Theatre House in Ventspils and hosted by Ugis Joksts and Kristine Virsnite. The winner was chosen over two rounds of voting. In the first round a jury and televoters chose a combined Top 3. In the second round, the winner was chosen from those three songs There was a tie at the end of the second round of voting and the televoting took precedence and consequently the public's winner went to Oslo and Aisha will sing "What For?" at Eurovision.

 BIOGRAPHY

Latvia sends a ballade to the Eurovision Song Contest this year. It's performed by the young but very successful singer Aisha and is written by an impressive duo of songwriters.

Growing up along with the music of Guns N’Roses and Metallica, Aisha received the 2nd place award in the competition of Young Latvian vocalists when being only five years old. Furthermore, at the age of 11, she took part in the flautists’ competition, and only one year later she made her debut as a brass band conductor! Moreover, when Aisha was 14 years old, she received an offer to sing in a rock-band; however, she ruined her chances of becoming a rock’n’roll star after playing hooky in the first rehearsal.

To the Latvian public Aisha became known after winning the TV reality show Fabrika Musical Theatre. Though the invitation she received from the band Opus Pro to join their tour was of much greater significance. Later in 2006, in cooperation with Opus Pro her first debut album was recorded. By now, it seems that Aisha has been present practically everywhere, which is why the press calls her – the bomb.

She has hosted TV broadcasts, participated in TV shows and bewitched the whole Latvia as one of the favourites in the popular TV -show Dancing With the Stars 2. She has also shot in movies, played in theatres, given concerts for soldiers in Afghanistan, been within an ace of winning Eurovision Song Contest National Final and released two highly demanded albums.

Being a composition student in the Latvian State Conservatory, the composer of the song Janis Lusens organised an experimental electronic music ensemble Zodiaks whose first album Disco Alliance (1980) became a hit not only in Latvia, but also in all the Soviet Union reaching a record-high copy edition of 20 million. In 2009, Janis Lusens was awarded the Order of Three Stars for merits in Latvian artistic activity – the highest honour in Latvia.

For many years Guntars Racs (1965) he has been the most employed and played-back Latvian lyricist who has also published collections of poems for adults and for children and written several plays. At the moment Guntars is the only Latvian who has had his third song chosen as the winning song in the Latvian national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest.

 REACTION
"What For?" was Aisha's fourth attempt to get to Eurovision, but early reaction suggested that this was not the best song hat she had had in the Latvians final. The song is amongst the middle ranking entries n most internet polls.  

The Latvian entry is one of several marginal qualifiers from the first semi-final, but with odds of up to 200/1, it is not thought to have much chance of victory in Oslo.

BROADCASTER

RATINGS