#Eirodziesma 2005

[eurovision-revisited]

Eurovision 2005 - Number 38 - Marta - "Loving, Missing, Crying"

Marta's real name is Tatjana Timčuka. Given that she's participated in the previous two instalments of Latvia's national final under her own name, finishing fourth in 2003 and third in 2004, one might wonder why she decided to adopt a pseudonym for this one?

It's likely to be a career relaunch or a personal choice, however one element of her success and one of the few bits of biographical information about Tatjana I've found, is that she's of Russian origin. Not unusual in Latvia at all, but this seems to be something that is focussed on. There is a large Russian diaspora in Latvia in 2005 (20% of the population is Russian), and just as Eurovision itself sees large diasporic groups vote along ethnic lines, that's just as true in national finals.

The first semi-final of Eirodziesma 2005 took place the same week the Orange Revolution in Ukraine ended. Latvia, like all the Baltic states has strong feelings about Russian influence, especially when it's seen to be corrupting. The Orange Revolution was the third in a series of 'colour revolutions' that took place in former Soviet countries as popular movements sought to remove Russian influences from their politics. On top of this, Latvia had joined both the EU and NATO in 2004, and this was the first national final taking place after those events.

Were these political upheavals enough for Tatjana to adopt a new mononym for some anonymity in an effort to bolster her career? Was being Russian something that she may have wanted to hide? This is speculation on my part, but given the febrile nature of the times, this is definitely a possibility.

Loving, Missing, Crying is a piece of high tempo pop with lots of commas. Tatjana's in love and that love is being torn asunder by factors unknown. She's desperate to keep it together, so she spends the length of the song pleading. It's a melange of heartache, a confusion of feelings, a turmoil of urgency written in lists of three words in an attempt to portray her inner life. It works, alongside a driving synth-filled instrumental keen to play up that feeling of being suspended over the abyss of a break-up. It uses pauses and moments of silence to build up the suspense before breaking into the faster, breathless choruses.

It's by Gints Stankēvičs, a producer, studio engineer, and musician who is having a go at song-writing. He's got a long history in the Latvian music industry including mastering the studio single version of I Wanna, Latvia's moment of Eurovision glory.

Like her previous attempts, Tatjana sailed through to the final on a raft of televotes, but just for once she didn't make the super-final. She did finish fourth, but this year only three songs made it though. After 2005 she just disappears. I can't find trace of her or her career though any of my usual sources nor ten pages of Google results looking for her name. I think in Latvia her name is still known - so if anyone has any pointers to what happened next, let me know.

[escunited]

Valters Frīdenbergs, one half of Walters and Kazha (Latvia 2005), dies aged 30

[eurovision-revisited]

Eurovision 2005 - Number 43 - Morning Kids - "Your Girlfriend"

My fandom for the lower reaches of Baltic national finals is going to become a theme. Here are Morning Kids - another mysterious band. This is their only song I can find any trace of. There is another band called The Morning Kids who had a minor hit in the mid-1990s, but this is not the same band.

The only hint of who they might be are from the song writers. Dina Faļkenšteina & Romāns Faļkenšteins as listed by eurovisionworld.com and other sources, Dina Buksa as listed by Romāns post-2005 personal website. I'm not sure if there's a story there nor if there is, whether this song has anything at all to do with it.

Your Girlfriend is a jaunty, bass-walking, pop-jazz thing that reminds me a lot of a band from the 1980s called Five Guys Named Moe (not the musical). The lead singer of Morning Kids (who may be Dina or who may be a singer called Ketta or possibly Inga, or all of whom may be the same person) seems to be the archetypal clingy girlfriend. She is not letting go and what's more she expects you to behave as a dutiful boyfriend. It's excessively musically theatrical, yet at its core has its tongue firmly in its cheek. And it has an accordion, so automatically rises in my rankings.

I like that the subject of the song is so playful and somewhat playing against the mid 2000s Eurovision meta of the girl-bop. Yes, it's a girl, yes it's a bop (or sorts), but this is comedic nightmare fuel for the straight male fans of the scantily clad, athletic and suggestive pop diva. You've got to keep them on their toes.

It finished tenth and last in the first semi-final of Eirodziesma 2005. Perhaps unsurprisingly. There is no record that I've found of the live performance so maybe that was not good, but at least the recorded version is competent and perky.

This did not deter Romāns Faļkenšteins whom I suspect was the instigator of this project and was probably in the band. He's written at least four other Latvian national final songs. None of them have made it out of the semi-final. He's there in 2008 (twice) and 2009, so given that I personally quite like what he's doing, and that he's not made it into the final, I suspect his future projects may also appear in future top 64s.

[eurovision-revisited]

Eurovision 2005 - Number 55 - Ksenija - "In the Heat of the Night"

This is Ksenija Jakunina. I know no more about her other than someone with her name has an extensive Pinterest board filled with lifestyle shoots, modelling photos and pictures of her new-born child. She speaks Russian and probably has Russian ethnicity. Apart from that - nothing. Even finding out this much has been a long research battle against the mononym.

In 2005 she recorded her one and only song (that I've discovered) and entered it into Eirodziesma. It's by a pair of Swedes - Tommy Kaså and Kent Wennman who were associated with a band called Orange, but who also had long histories in the Swedish music industry going way back into the 1980s. Tommy has written for other Melfest entries in that past, including Ingen annan än du by Anna Nederdal in Melodifestivalen 1992

The other writer is Latvia, Uģis Tirzītis. He's a guitarist in bet bet, a reasonably famous Latvia pop group since the late 1990s.

The song is in English and is pure pop. In the Heat of the Night is fuelled by a chugging rhythm guitarist with some pedals, a synth or two and Ksenija's wobbly English. Together they produce something windswept and dramatic, befitting a decade or two prior to 2005. This is a song from the era when everything had a music video - it's song that, weirdly, you can see. You just know what this would look like on film. Maybe that's just me saying it's somewhat generic - but as well as its competent professionalism, it's got more than enough drama to set your heart racing, and hooks pointy enough to make you want to sing along.

Those hooks and that drama were enough to propel Ksenija through the semi-finals, through the final and into the super-final of Eirodziesma 2005. In that super-final she finished a clear third of the three remaining songs from the whole national final. For someone with no track record nor recognisability that's not bad.

I'm not sure how well this song is remembered in Latvia - if at all. There's very little about it that I can find in any Latvian or Russian sources I've searched. The only place I've found any definitive record of it, is an old site listing guitar tabs and lyrics for popular songs. Ksenija seems to have disappeared into a world of modelling while the song-writers went back to the bands and writing.

Exactly what made any of them undertake this little diversion into the wide world of Eurovision I don't know, but none of them seem to have been keen or able to cash in on the success of the song. For now, it's legacy will have to be that it's number 55 in my top 64 for 2005

[eurovision-revisited]

Eurovision 2007 - Number 28 - Intars Busulis - "Гонки"

Intars Busulis has form. Not only has he entered Eirodziesma twice before, as part of the band Caffe - albeit without much success - but he's already won a LTV talent show. He'd spent his early years in children's bands and later jazz groups. His education was through music schools and colleges, but instead of guitar, piano or violin, Intars's first instrument is the trombone.

When those first efforts at Eurovision in 2002 and 2003 came to naught, he moved on to talent shows, entering the 2005 edition of the Jaunais vilnis or New Wave show - the same show that Sopho Khalvashi got her break on. Intars went one better than Sopho and actually won the competition. After a few more appearances and performances with a variety of jazz groups, he came back to Eirodziesma under his own, now household name.

Гонки (Gonki/Race) is a bit of a weird one. For a start Intars is a bit shouty. There's an element of jazz in it, as well as at the art school. It wears is affectation on its sleeve. Notably it's being sung in Russian and not Latvian. The theme is going to become a regular one for Intars. It's about traffic. The race in the title is the rat race metaphorically represented by a range of vehicles racing to get to their destinations.

The song's structure is open - both in terms of not really having verses and choruses (although there is one there, lurking), but even the structure of the lines doesn't have any form of regularity. It's as frustrating as creeping forward a few metres in a traffic jam before having to slam the brakes on again. The song-writers are Intars himself along with Kārlis Lācis, a composer who normally writes for theatrical presentations and Sergejs Timofejevs a poet and DJ.

It chugs along with ever increasing tension and a few Russian/Latvian musical motifs thrown in there before being ground under the wheels of the musical cars honking their horns.

It turned out to be Intars best results (so far) at Eirodziesma, although it wasn't without hiccoughs. He only got out of the semi-final on the jury vote. He finished fourth in the televote which wasn't enough. However, in the final the televoters had come around to his charms and put him second. Still a long way behind the runaway winner.

Intars wasn't done with it yet though, and he of course went on to win the Latvian national final in 2009 and represent them at Eurovision. He tried one last time in 2022 too. He also has become a fixture both in the Latvian music industry and on Latvian TV. He's currently one of the judges and mentors on the Latvian version of the X Factor.

[eurovision-revisited]

Eurovision 2002 - Number 4 - Tumsa - "This Is Not Paradise"

It's time for Tumsa and most especially Mārtiņš Freimanis. Lead singer, song-writer and one-man Latvian Eurovision machine.

This was fated to be Latvia's year at Eurovision, although that had very little to do with Tumsa and Mārtiņš. They were at Eirodziesma 2002 and had been the year before. Tumsa were a well known and popular band in Latvia as their reception at the end of the song attests. His sense of fun, stagey melodrama, and OTT personality is there for all to see. He was made to do this.

This is Not Paradise is joyously bouncy (there it is again) song about gentle disappointment with an absolutely banging piano riff throughout. Like many Latvian songs, it sounds positively British in its sensibilities. This absolutely could have been a release from a cool and credible band during the peak Britpop era. It's got a huge sing-along chorus about being let down. The sax solo into the stripped back final verse, as the rhythm section push it out and Mārtiņš winds it down, is the epitome of storytelling in song. Ah, well, he's saying, too bad. Moving right along.

In 2002 it was not to be. There was another other singer that would go on to win the whole contest and bring the contest to Riga for 2003. That was far from the end for Tumsa and Mārtiņš. Tumsa were recording albums up to 2004 before they split. Mārtiņš himself went on to write and sing on a home stage in Latvia's 2003 Eurovision entry from F.L.Y. He also wrote Latvia's 2005 entry and that finished 5th. He wrote at least five other Latvian national final songs too as well was continuing to have a major music and TV career in Latvia. He also acted on stage and screen.

Tragically and suddenly, his life was cut short in 2011. He died as a result of complications from an influenza infection at the far too young age of 33. Later the same year, an album of his compositions including this and many others from the Latvian finals appeared as the first album under his own name.