Latvia’s representatives – the group Tautumeitas – finished in 13th place on Saturday evening at the Eurovision Song Contest held in Basel, Switzerland, performing their song “Bur man laimi” (“Cast Me a Spell for Luck”).
Viewers and the jury declared Austria’s representative JJ with the song “Wasted Love” as the winner.
Second place went to Israel’s representative Yuval Rafaela with the song “New Day Will Rise”, while special attention goes to our northern neighbor – Estonia’s Tommy Cash. Performing “Espresso Macchiato”, he earned 356 points, falling just one point short of Israel and securing an honorable third place.
As previously reported by BNN, a live broadcast of the final was arranged in Dome Square so that residents and visitors of the capital could watch Tautumeitas’ Eurovision performance together.
On Thursday, alongside Latvia, the following countries qualified for the final from the second semi-final: Lithuania, Israel, Armenia, Denmark, Austria, Luxembourg, Finland, Malta, and Greece. The countries that failed to qualify were Australia, Montenegro, Ireland, Georgia, Czechia, and Serbia.
Fifteen countries competed in the first semi-final. Advancing to the final were Estonia, Norway, Albania, Sweden, Iceland, the Netherlands, Poland, San Marino, Portugal, and Ukraine. Slovenia, Belgium, Azerbaijan, Croatia, and Cyprus did not qualify.
France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Germany are automatically granted a place in the Eurovision final due to their significant financial contributions to the contest. Switzerland also qualified directly this year as the winner of the 2024 contest.
After winning Latvia’s national song contest Supernova in February, the ethno-pop group Tautumeitas earned the right to represent Latvia at Eurovision with the song “Bur man laimi”.
The current members of Tautumeitas are Asnate Rancāne, Gabriēla Zvaigznīte, Aurēlija Rancāne, Annemarija Moiseja, Laura Līcīte, and Kate Slišāne.
The Eurovision Song Contest 2024 was held in Malmö, Sweden. The competition was won by Swiss singer Nemo (Nemo Mettler) with the song “The Code”, which granted Switzerland the right to host Eurovision in 2025.