By now, it's perfectly clear to anyone who's been reading this blog for a while that I'm an unabashed, unapologetic fan of Supernova, Latvia's yearly contest show that selects the country's entry into the Eurovision song contest. Created in 2015 in order to end six straight years of Latvia failing to qualify for the Eurovision “grand final,” the show's winners so far have found success on the continental stage with a 6th place finish in 2015 and a 15th place finish in 2016. 2017's winner will be chosen out of eight semifinalists that were selected from two quarterfinal rounds that were broadcast on February 5th and February 12th.
This year, it was time to take my fandom to the next level. Instead of simply writing another blog post about this year's competition, I set my mind on getting into the live studio audience for one of the show's four broadcasts. Thankfully one of my high school students who is connected with Latvia's music community showed me how to acquire tickets, and suddenly I found myself with two passes to the February 12th quarterfinal episode. So yeah, that's me you see in the grey shirt in the top right of the first photo.
Līga doesn't quite share my level of enthusiasm for cheesy TV song contests, plus she was probably worried that I would do something stupid to get on TV (a perfectly justified fear on her part). Luckily, her sister Vita agreed to go with me, who you can see with purple hair to my right in that first picture. Since she was coming from Jelgava, we agreed to meet at Centrala Stacija (Central Station) at 20:00 in order to make it to the studio for 20:30 when doors were supposed to open. I was excited to finally have an excuse to take the mysterious #20 trolleybus for the first time in my life.
We were joined by only six other passengers, all of who were headed precisely where we were. The journey took just over ten minutes, bringing us across Salu tilts (Island Bridge) to the towering LTV headquarters on Zaķusala (Rabbit Island).
Built between 1979 and 1986, the 22-story building stands impressively in the middle of the Daugava and is visible from much of Rīga's southern and central regions. I was excited to finally have a reason to visit the city's 17th tallest structure I had admired so much from afar, and now we were just in front of it. Unfortunately, my sub-standard phone camera wasn't able to take an acceptable picture of the building at night, so here's one I took during the day a few years ago for you to get an idea of what it looks like:
We followed a group of fans to the main entrance in the back. Inside, fans and contestants alike sat in funky chairs and sofas chatting and, of course, watching LTV as we all waited for the doors to the studio to open. A Russian-speaking journalist enthusiastically buzzed around asking audience members about their favorite participants, although I didn't recognize the logo on his microphone. A few people were also enjoying drinks and food from a fancy-looking café just next to the studio entrance.
At just about 20:50, thirty minutes before the show was to begin, the doors opened and people began to file upstairs to the studio. Some men just outside the studio checked our bags and took our tickets just as they would at a concert or festival, and then we were able to walk right on in.
I have to give Vita a lot of credit for not immediately bailing on me as soon as we walked in, as I probably seemed a bit too overly enthusiastic. This was my first time inside a TV studio, let alone for a show that I actually regularly watched, so it was a bit overwhelming at first. About ten minutes before the broadcast began, Rīgas Bebrs (beaver), Latvia's Eurovision mascot, came onstage and politely told us to stand in place while the show was live and to cheer enthusiastically after each song. While this may seem like a no-brainer, Latvian audiences have a reputation for being overly polite and quiet.
Although we were simply trying to find the spot with the best view, as it turned out we stood in the perfect position behind the judges to be quite visible on TV every time they commented after a song. This week the celebrity jury included Prāta Vētra drummer Kaspars Roga, former Eurovision contestant Intars Busulis, DJ Rudd from Latvijas Radio 5, and songwriter Guntars Račs.
Unfortunately, I was under the incorrect impression that we were not allowed to take photos or videos while the broadcast was in progress, so I don't have any cool behind-the-scenes pictures of the performances themselves. That might be all for the better though, because I wasn't there to watch the performances through a small screen and there's no way my phone camera would have captured anything revelatory.
The night was kicked off by Katrina Lukin's upbeat ballad Silhouette, which was pleasant but not memorable enough to make it to the next round. This was followed by poor Markus Riva's third consecutive attempt to make it to the final round, “Dynamite.” Markus Riva is a complete mystery to me: he is massively popular in Latvia and had by far the most enthusiastic fanbase in the studio, but he consistently fails to make it to the final round in a vote-by-SMS popularity contest. Līga was telling me that there's a saying in Latvian going around on Facebook along the lines of “on a scale from one to Markus Riva, how persistent are you?” At least that's something to show for all that effort...
After a commercial break during which we were entertained by Rigas Bebrs' attempt at creating poetry, Toms Kalderauskis and his group continued with the Imagine Dragons-esque anthem, “We Won't Back Down,” before things got weird with Up's Kill Bill-inspired “One By One” in which she stood still for three minutes threatening to kill people as interpretive dancers pranced sensually across the stage. Although the performance went over like a lead balloon with the audience and judges, I thought it was one of the more memorable songs from this year. In fact, I was a bit disappointed by 2017 in general that there really wasn't anything as over-the-top ridiculous as Electrofolk's corny “Miracle Drums” or refreshingly different like Catalepsia's pop metal “Damnation” from 2016 aside from last week's off-the-wall Bjork meets the xx “Escape” by Crime Sea. While there were much higher highs and lower lows in 2016, this year there was mostly a sea of pleasant but forgettable cuts, such as Miks Galanovskis' funky “Runaway” which led us into the second commercial break.
After being taught how to create paper fans by the beaver, the contest continued with the Russian-language “Taju ot Lubvi” by The HiQ, an epic, saxophone-tinged Indie folk song that wasn't quite able to make it to the next round. Then the completely previously unknown Santa Daņeļeviča proceeded to blow the audience's socks off with her amazing pipes, becoming the first musician of the night to make it to the semi-finals. The video doesn't quite capture just how powerful and impressive her voice was in person; it permeated every corner of the room. I wasn't surprised to learn later that she made it to the second round, and I fully expect to see her in the finals.
Next up were Laura Lo and graduate from the school I teach at in Jelgava Chris Oak with the cutesy "Little Weird,” a performance that wasn't quite enough to qualify for round two. After a commercial break in which the ever-instructive beaver taught us how to make an actually-sort-of-nice-looking elephant mask from a cardboard box, we were back to the final three songs, all of which qualified for the semi-finals. I don't know what it is about going at the end, but last year's first place “Heartbeat” by Justs was also the final song of his round. Maybe since it's at the end it's easy for voters to remember? Maybe the producers save the best for last? Anyway, up first were Supernova veterans MyRadiantU who bounced back from last year's final four performance “We Will Be Stars” with the indie pop rocker “All I Know.”
Next up was 16-year-old student The Ludvig's slinky electro ballad “I'm In Love With You.” The judges and audience alike were impressed by the teenager's voice, and I'm sure that regardless of how he does in the competition that this isn't the last we'll be hearing from him.
Unfortunately we had to leave the studio before the final song, so we missed Triana Park's colorful pop banger “Line.” The band is pretty popular and has a well-established fanbase, so it wasn't much of a surprise that they made it to the second round. I didn't think it particularly stood out among the other songs this week though, so I will be surprised if it goes much further than the semi-finals.
And that was it for us! Luckily public transit was still fully running when we left (around 11:45) and it was no problem getting home. I tried taking one last picture of the view from the island of the night skyline, but of course my phone camera was not up to the task.
All in all, watching Supernova live and in person was a fantastic experience that I will definitely do again next year. Maybe next time I can even convince Līga to go with me! In the meantime, you can catch the semi-finals next Sunday at 21:25 (I know it's a weird starting time) either on LTV1 or as a live webcast here. Alone with the four songs chosen at the episode Vita and I went to, another four from last week will compete as well: Mīks Dukurs with “Spiritual Priest,” Lauris Valters with “Magic Years,” Franco Franco with “Up,” and Linda Leen with “Who's In Charge?” Take care!
#the amazing digital circus
#photography
#love and deepspace
#coquette
