[LMBTO] Supernova 2019 - My Personal Eurovision 'Qualifiers'...

Much the same logo, much the same content as last year?  Not really in my eyes - Latvia's selection process "Supernova" revealed their audition tapes for their 33 possibles, of which 16 are to make the live SFs in January.  Now I did what most fans will have done - watch them all and put together a list of who they think should get those slots for the next phase.  I have to say from the start that there wasn't any entry this year that caught my attention in the way that last year's winner did:



You all know my feelings on this song and artist but I will repeat myself (you expect anything different?), my reaction was instant to the entry - the biggest wow moment I have had with any song for years.  Unfortunately that didn't translate to enough televoters watching SF2 in Lisbon to get her into this year's Final, although she did impress the judges more.  Compared with this year's crop, I still think that Laura would grab the imagination of the Latvian voters and win again but that is only my opinion!  Even MADARA could make it this year - you can see where this is going...

Now I'm not going to go through each and every entry but I did find my own set of 16 that I'd be more than happy seeing compete in the Supernova SFs:

There are some recognisable names in there - Edgars, Samanta and Markus are returnees to the process and one of those does have their best effort to date here in 2019.  Watching all 33 was an interesting process and not an unduly painful one, at least not as much as it appeared to be for the panelists in the studio:
Before I pick out my top five - those entries that I think might contend for the place in Tel Aviv this year - I want to pick out a few of the weird and wonderful songs that didn't make my list.  First up is a lady who brought her pot plants out for the day:



What with me being quite an oldie, Waterflower's look and style with "Grow" reminded me of Lene Lovich from the late 1970s but the very arty and eclectic presentation here just didn't do it for me, memorable though the whole performance was.  I'm sure that if you were a tv producer and wanted some variety to pad out the playlist then you'd go for this one but it wouldn't stand a chance of winning a NF.  Following this lady was what can only be described as 'dad dancing and singing' combined with that 'oh so' popular jazz style of scat:



I think that putting Ēriks Balodis into the SF with "I Know You Know", just to get viewers 'chatting around the water cooler', would be taking things just a step too far!  Now this next one is really out there, even avant garde, but it all went a bit downhill towards the end:



"Alligator" is almost like a comedy sketch, with the musicians from ATOM doing their jobs and not giving a damn what the frontman is doing, even though the lyrics are all gibberish.  It was definitely worth watching, even if it was 'just for the craic'.  Now for some, those three would be the highlight acts - for me, it was these next five, the ones that I think will contend for that all important winning Supernova slot ...



What a difference a year makes!  I truly cannot believe that this is the same guy who was singing "Younger Days" in Supernova 2018.  From sounding like someone who really struggled singing in English, Edgars Kreilis really comes of age here singing "Fire".  I love the mix of his voice and the dubstep music that has a superb hook, together with his emotional connection and storytelling even at this audition stage.  He has the experience of one Supernova under his belt - definitely one to watch this year...



This band has been around for so long, a few of the 33 artists at the auditions barely had started school when the Double Faced Eels were formed in 1999!   "Fire" (yeah, I know, popular song title) has a solidly memorable chorus and had lent itself to a really engaging band gig performance.  The lead singer has a great voice, they all have loads of energy and stage presence and if their attempts to get the viewers involved work better on the live show audience than it did on the judges, then this group are definite contenders for that 'golden ticket'...



Now you can't go too far wrong backing a solo female vocalist who gives a great show and really tells a story with her song.  Watching Adriana Miglāne during her audition gave me the impression that she was singing and performing well within herself and that when we get to those live shows (I'm can't see how she won't be there), her believable presentation will put "Scared Of Love" up there with the best of them.  The song builds nicely and her voice is so listenable - combine that with the beat of the music and you have, at the moment, my favourite track of Supernova 2019...



Now I showed you three of the quirky but weird performances from the audition process above - here is an entry that could fall into the same group but personally I think that this particular track will be one to watch, due to its well constructed nature, the excellence of the vocals and the characters involved.  Dziļi Violets feat. Kozmens are spellbinding due to the inactivity of their staging - five guys standing stock still behind their mic stands, just singing.  It is all about the voices and their interaction, especially with the lead singer and 'the guy in the kilt', who is thought to be who gets to wear the Riga Beaver costume!  This song is so unusual and yet so engaging and different that if Latvia decides that this year is the time to be totally 'off the wall' with their selection, "Tautasdziesma" will be the entry to do that.  I'm looking forward to seeing how this process ends up for these five guys...



There is a line of thought amongst Eurovision fandom that as long as Aminata Savadogo is involved with their entry, everything is good with the world (just think of "Love Injected" and "Heartbeat").  This is her contribution this year - Alekss Silvērs is singing her composition "Fireworks" and he has a superb voice, he gives an emotional delivery that complements the song but, and I say this as a 51 year old man who has never followed fashion, his 'shrunken clothing' look is totally distracting!  That would be my only criticism of this entry but given the song's pedigree and his voice, I can only see 'serious contender' as the apt two words for this as far as Supernova 2019 is concerned...
I did vote on the "People's Jury" part of the Supernova pages - having the opportunity to say "Against":
I did have four "Maybe" votes so I assumed they got a "Reserve":
And then I gave the thumbs up ("About") to thirteen (the top 13 of my list) of the rest:
And the site was even polite enough to say thank you when I was done:
So there you have it - my choices from those audition tapes, my sixteen selections that I'd put in the live SFs and the five that I think could win Supernova 2019, based solely on what we have seen so far.  I expect there to be improvements in staging and choreography when we get to the live shows by all concerned but if the stage is the size of previous NFs, chances are that standing or moving small distances plus singing will be the norm for this year too.  The actual choices for those sixteen slots should be made pretty soon - one website has it happening on December 5th...

Having watched all 33 entry tapes, I can safely say that no song from Latvia for 2019 has grabbed my attention and heart in the way that "Funny Girl" did last season but there is something that I can say for certain: