Who will win Supernova - Aminata, Rojs Rodžers, Bujāns or... a ripped pants crotch

This Saturday, February 12, at 21:05, LTV1 and REplay.lv will broadcast the final of the song contest Supernova 2022, where ten contestants will compete for the chance to represent Latvia at the 66th International Eurovision Song Contest in Turin.

We have enough Eurovision armchair experts, but this writer invited Agnese Rozniece (ex-Rakovska), the leader of the band Triānas parks and founder of the music management company Zvaigznājs, to give her opinion on the finalists of Supernova, since she: 1) participated and won the Eurovision national selection; 2) knows what it's like to lose in the big Eurovision; 3) knows her way around the local music and also the Western music trends; 4) is not afraid to express her direct and critical opinion about her colleagues. By the way, No. 4 on this list is the best part - anyone who has heard the syrupy to the point of nausea judgements of the X Factor jury will understand what I am talking about...

Aminata and the rest

At the moment, it looks like the best option on average for Supernova would be if Aminata won - she both deserves it, there are no objections to the song, and we wouldn't be ashamed if she went to Turin. There were, however, rather mixed feelings after the semi-final, which Aminata was forced to do from home because of Covid. "Sometimes in life, things don't go as planned and unfortunately I'm ill," Aminata posted on social media last week before the semi-final. "I started having symptoms at the beginning of the week (meaning, after the Musical Bank - S.V.). I'm in self-isolation at the moment and if everything goes well, I'll be able to go out next weekend. This means that I won't be able to take part in Supernova on stage, in the LTV studio with the other contestants. I am ready to take the only opportunity I have - to perform remotely, from home. At the moment it is the only way. I have symptoms of illness (you could tell - S.V.), but I still want to represent my song "I'm Letting You Go" as well as I can. I apologize to the whole audience that I will not be able to give a full performance today and I hope for your understanding."

Hats off to Aminata, who proved her professionalism and the power of her voice even in such difficult circumstances. If you can't go out on the track or the field because of Covid at the Olympics, there's nothing you can do, but in this case, the singer had an unwanted advantage, because it was clear that the voters supported her at such a difficult moment... "I judge Supernova as a song contest first and foremost, so I try to perceive the song separately from everything that is happening around it, so I wouldn't like to pay much attention to such a fact," Agnese disagreed with the writer's reflections. "Aminata has found her formula and, as my colleague Aiga Leitholde wrote, is competing with herself. Can she offer something radically new and unseen? Probably not, because it's her typical ballad formula with strong vocals, but is it worth doing the same thing again... I don't know, it's a good question. Her power was monolithic, you could feel that she was well aware of what she was doing - that's Aminata's biggest bonus. She's using her own formula that worked once, but the world has changed. I do like it when people come up with new things and try new things, but on the other hand, clearly Aminata is a professional and deserves to win."

Rojs Rodžers, Bujāns and Citi zēni

According to various official and unofficial predictions, the current frontrunners for the Supernova win are Citi zēni with their suggestive "green-oral" song and Bujāns by Reinis Sejāns and Intars Busulis, reminiscent of the English version of Mazais princis, who would be right at home in Ķīpsala's Disconights if they had not long since ceased to exist. The writer's notes on Bujāns contain only the short summary "aren't they ashamed of themselves?!", while Citi zēni were great and even managed to provide a talking point at the end of the performance, i.e. the audience debated for almost a whole week whether Dagnis had torn his trousers inadvertently when doing the split or whether it was the intention.

The Mēs jūs mīlam project is a separate story, with which, as promised before, Ralfs Eilands really managed to create some intrigue. "What we are up to, I don't know, what's the song about, I can't tell either", "we're promoting a sense of freedom and a bit of frivolity", "once Mēs jūs mīlam has made it to Eurovision, this group of friends, jokers, directors, Jedi and like-minded people will also produce a performance that they think is necessary and valid for the big Eurovision too", etc. - Ralfs himself with the pastor's cross, Rojs Rodžers with good acting and other gifts was an effective lady, various references to film classics, etc. - the performance was interesting to watch and really swept you off your feet. Truly, Eurovision deserves it, but does Latvia?

Agnese: "I didn't find it funny or exciting"

"As for Ralfs, I can't distance myself from the fact that I am also a musician who writes songs. I thought the performance was very vulgar and primitive. Good humor has to have a moral underneath, something to teach or something of value, but I couldn't understand what I was supposed to take away from all this [the Mēs jūs mīlam performance]. And also this pomposity on Ralfs' part, that he just wrote a song on his way to somewhere and submitted it to Supernova - it's kind of sloppy, I couldn't find anything that I could relate to in this project. Was it funny? I at least didn't find it funny or exciting. Rather, there was something perverse about it. If we talk about music as a value system, what values does Ralfs Eilands represent? I don't know, I don't think there are any. But it's good that he says it openly and at least understands what he's doing."

"I really only have the best things to say about Citi zēni. They have done all their homework very well. Already in the Musical Bank you could see that they understand very well what they are doing on stage. Young, charismatic guys. In interviews, they said that they had written at least 30 songs to enter this competition and realized that this would be the most successful - I think that shows work ethic. They think about what they are doing, they have specific goals and they have an excellent vibe. If you need a band at home or at a birthday party, Citi zēni are probably the first choice. So far, Labvēlīgais tips has been the best benchmark to draw parallels with in this category - a humorous, well-executed male performance with dancing and movement. I would have absolutely no regrets if they went [to Turin] - I think Citi zēni would know what to do there."

"It's very interesting with Bujāns. I love Intars Busulis, and Instrumenti is my top band in general, they are top professionals. You can give Intars a phone book and he'll sing it perfectly! The professionalism is also that they can do anything and understand how to do it best. However, the main question here is: is what they are doing necessary? If we look globally, this satirical genre is now popping up from time to time in different spheres. Is it because we shouldn't take the world so seriously these days? Better to laugh at ourselves, and all this madness won't seem so heavy, eh? But somehow it doesn't seem funny to me. A lot of things that used to be funny don't resonate that way now. Times have changed, new faces are coming into music, so you have to look for different values and dimensions. You can't deny that everything in [Bujāns performance] was well-planned and thought out, but... I think this song is absolutely worthless. Everybody is talking about longevity at the moment, so what is the longevity of this song and Eilands' song? I don't think there's any! Intars is a showman, of course, but does it pay off this time?"

Our own "foreign stars"

In this block of jokers, we should probably also mention Bermudu divstūris with the song "BAD", who presented themselves with the slogan that "they have prepared the worst song that is so bad, so very bad that it is good". Listening to this song and watching the performance, at one point the thought even crossed my mind - why not?! Only one problem - the British star Mika might have a legitimate objection that someone "borrowed" his hit "Relax, Take It Easy" for the Eurovision entry...

Agnese: "This is a continuation of what I said about Ralfs Eilands and Bujāns, also "BAD" - well, what is it all promoting?! We want to get drunk, transvestites, transgenders, love between two men, etc. Bermudu divstūris is also a project that understands where it is going, they know which audience they want to reach. But I'm not excited by all this, and you know what the craziest thing is? That it's not funny! It's not even amusing, and it's not exciting. But maybe there's something wrong with my perception (laughs)."

There is a big problem with borrowing in the songs and also in the characters in this year's Supernova - Reinis Straume or Raum with his hairstyle à la "explosion in the pasta factory" and the many chains looked like Machine Gun Kelly, while Miks Galvanovskis pulled a Rag'n'Bone Man. The latter was a pain to see, as the song is good, but Miks clearly lacked stage experience, so he fell into insane exaggerations, from the Kozmens-worthy moustache and paranormal desire to sing energetically, to the scantily clad young women on stage.

Agnese: "Many people expected something big and out-of-this-world from Reinis and the start of his career after signing with Warner, because in Latvia there are always rose-tinted glasses when someone starts working with the big labels. But it is obvious that Reinis lacks an identity. Until he can create his own product that is authentic and as genuine as possible, not a grab from various artists, nothing will happen. There were a lot of references - Machine Gun Kelly was just the most obvious one. Reinis is a cool dude, but this whole project needs to be seriously reworked. I don't know who it's aimed at, maybe young girls, but then I don't see why he would need it, because Reinis is not a 17-year-old boy anymore."

"Miks Galvanovskis, on the other hand, was very emotionally charged. Experience on stage is very important: the more you perform, the more you can control your emotions, but in his case you could see that he was too overwhelmed by it. But did it speak to me? Hardly. And the performance - I'm sorry, but that woman was naked! I was left with a feeling of not being completely satisfied - Miks wanted to show that he was a sinner (the song is called "I'm Just A Sinner" - S.V.), etc., but not all things have to be shown literally. That's the art of it - to put the message into imagery."

To Turin with Imants Kalniņš

About the others. The fears that the Latvians would vote for Elīna Gluzunova because she was the only one singing in Latvian came true - I wonder, can anyone really imagine that this song would have a place in Turin?! "I'm not saying that everything in this competition should be only in English. I believe that some things can also resonate in Latvian. But in this case, I think there was another problem - the stage was very empty. Elīna brought a kind of fairy-tale atmosphere to the rest of the background, but the song lacked something - it was too uniform, it lacked dynamics and climax. This song shows well Jānis' (the song's author Jānis Šipkēvics - S.V.) love for the composer Imants Kalniņš - it was all Latvian coded, which is nice, but it needed a bit of work, if only from a visual point of view. But Elīna has a pleasant voice and I also had a pleasant feeling overall," Agnese said.

Lack of experience as a solo singer sank another good song - "Pay My Own Bills" by Linda Rušeniece, a proven background vocalist in many projects, was presented too inexpressively. "All backing vocalists seem to have some kind of backing vocalist syndrome - they have to spend a very long time breaking out of their previous roles, create their new image and then be very brave and perform it. The song... Well, some things worked, some things didn't, but overall it seemed to lack that aspect of personality. She came out and sang, but people expect something special from these new names. But it was just the Shania Twain of 2000." Then there's Inspo, who used Supernova quite well as a platform to further their career. They looked unexpectedly good against the background, except that the singer seemed to be too nervous. "This band won't reach Catalepsia's success (unknown to the general public, the metal-oriented Catalepsia lost only to Justs in 2016), but they deservedly made it to the final. "The potential is there, they just need to see it through", Agnese agreed.

At the very end, Agnese said something that made me think: "Music, and art too, is a litmus test for what is happening in society. We can also tell what is going on in many people's heads and the environment we live in by what appears in Eurovision. And if this is the environment we live in and this is what is going on in many people's heads, then... Then it's bad."

The sequence of performances in the Supernova 2022 final:

1. Raum - “Plans”
2. Linda Rušeniece - “Pay My Own Bills”
3. Bermudu divstūris - “BAD”
4. Miks Galvanovskis - “I'm Just A Sinner”
5. Bujāns - “He, She, You & Me”
6. Elīna Gluzunova - “Es pabiju tur”
7. Citi zēni - “Eat Your Salad”
8. Inspo - “A Happy Place”
9. Mēs jūs mīlam - “Rich Itch”
10. Aminata - “I'm Letting You Go”

P.S. After the material was compiled, Latvijas Televīzija announced that the jury of Supernova and LTV "have decided to award a place in the final to Miks Dukurs, because during the live semi-final broadcast on February 5, due to an unforeseen technical failure, his song "First Love" was performed without the intended sound effects. During the performance, a synchronization failure occurred in the effects processing computer, which resulted in the additional sound effects adding artistic value not being added to the song. The jury and LTV representatives assessed the recording of Miks Dukurs' performance and concluded that the technical failure had a significant impact on the sound quality. Comparing the recordings of the dress rehearsal and the semi-final, there is a difference in sound which is not due to any fault on Miks Dukurs' part.

Given that these factors could have changed the results of the semi-final vote, it has been decided to invite Miks Dukurs to take part in the final."