Latvia's Eurovision entry fails to qualify for final

  • 2023-05-10
  • LETA/TBT Staff

RIGA - The Latvian pop band Sudden Lights failed to qualify for the final of the 67th international Eurovision Song Contest with the song Aijā on Tuesday evening.

Sudden Lights took the stage in Liverpool in the first semi-final and competed with artists from Norway, Malta, Serbia, Portugal, Ireland, Croatia, Switzerland, Israel, Moldova, Sweden, Azerbaijan, Czech Republic, Netherlands and Finland.

The last representative of Latvia who made it to the Eurovision final was Justs Sirmais in 2016. He finished in overall 15th place with the song Heartbeat written by Aminata Savadogo.

This year, Croatia, Moldova, Switzerland, Finland, Czech Republic, Israel, Portugal, Sweden, Serbia and Norway overtook Latvia from the first semi-final and qualified for the final. On the other hand, Malta, Ireland, Azerbaijan and the Netherlands remained out of the final along with Latvia.

Sudden Lights won the right to represent Latvia in this year's Eurovision Song Contest with the song Aijā by winning Supernova 2023 song contest organized by Latvian Television in February.

Founded in 2012, Sudden Lights consists of singer Andrejs Reinis Zitmanis, guitarist Karlis Matiss Zitmanis, drummer Martins Matiss Zemitis and bassist Karlis Vartins.

The second semi-final of Eurovision will be broadcast live on May 11 at 10 pm (Latvian time), while the final will take place on May 13 at 9:10 pm (Latvian time).