Latvia LATVIA 2023 - Sudden Lights - Aijā

[ESC United Mod Team]

 

[midnightsun]

The odds give us something to talk about over the months. But they also ruin everything. It's like if the odds say this, the public votes accordingly. It kills the magic and room for surprise.

Saying this for years, apart from that is was rather juries than public who voted similar to the odds. I was surprised this year because I expected the public to be different actually.

Anyway, so sad for our Sudden Lights. I voted so many times for them and I know some Germans who did as well and Germans who announced on Social Media they’d be voting for them … curious if it was in our top 10.

 

[midnightsun]

Don’t cry…
I'll try to vote the right countries at the right times
sing you lullabies
Please don't wake up, wake up

Bye

(I have to sleep but I‘m working simultaneously and I have to meet the deadline and getting articles ready… gosh… working at night is blessing and curse).

 

[Ajeje Brazorf]

Saying this for years, apart from that is was rather juries than public who voted similar to the odds. I was surprised this year because I expected the public to be different actually.

Anyway, so sad for our Sudden Lights. I voted so many times for them and I know some Germans who did as well and Germans who announced on Social Media they’d be voting for them … curious if it was in our top 10.

Odds can be a cancer! Do you really expect people who betted on a song contest to change their minds on a single performance with the risk of losing their bet? It's not gonna happen! So people does vote for who they bet. That's why Eurovision results become so anticlimatic in the last few years.

 

[crashworld]

Makes you wonder what Latvia needs to do in order to qualify. I mean only 2 qualifications (and staggering 5 last places in the SF) for the last 13 years (taking away 2020) is really abysmal. I won't be surprised if they decide to leave the contest altogether. It's a pity, I thought they would make squeeze it throught this year, coz I like what they did with the staging and they have created a nice atmosphere.

 

[Datura]

I think this was one of the best Songs of the night but with a public-only vote it was obvious from the beginning that this would not stand a chance to qualify, unfortunately.
Musicwise i see the absence of the Jury in the semis as a Problem honestly...

 

[midnightsun]

In the end some other countries had that one or two "diaspora points" more than Latvia and it’s enough for them to qualify.

Don’t get me wrong, I‘m not saying other songs are bad or didn’t deserve to qualify.
Serbia for example, my #1 this year. I adore the song. Or Croatia. Maybe that one point from another Balkan country was enough to qualify over Latvia. This is the problem if you have a televote only SF (although I‘m sure Latvia wouldn’t have done better with the juries). Not that I want juries back but this is a problem.

 

[harey]

I really love their tweets, saying thank you to people supporting them. It means that they focus on all the people who like their song and I hope it will help them not getting too sad.

 

[Looren]

Gosh they soooo deserved to make it

 

[Juliette]

So sad Latvia didn't qualify

 

[yuki_vamp.esc]

There's a part of me, that will root for them to pull-out going to Eurovision. I feel bad about them, I thought they bring the best they could this year.

 

[JenJen94]

This song I would have liked through instead of Croatia for example! It's such a real shame it didn't Q. If I was able to vote I probably would have thrown a vote at this-and I think it may/might have gotten through with the Latvian diaspora in the UK. They're great guys and I hope they can be proud of their performance last night!

 

[yuki_vamp.esc]

instead of Croatia for example!

As much as I love Czechia, this is the entry I'll swap with. The staging didn't give me anything from the song.

 

[Lindon]

Assessment ORF.at

The Latvian band Sudden Lights could not convince the audience with their rather unwieldy song "Aija". Above all, the refrain, which was performed with a head voice, had no great effect in the hall.

 

[Ajeje Brazorf]

This song didn't qualify because this year's semifinals are a EuroVision diaspora contest: no matter what countries like Latvia, Malta and some others will send, there is no way for them to beat larger diasporas in a televoting only system. That's why we need the Juries, even in the semis, even if Eurofans discredit them most of the times, even if we think they sometimes fail to properly evaluate a song, because something is better than nothing I guess.

 

[martin]

This song didn't qualify because this year's semifinals are a EuroVision diaspora contest: no matter what countries like Latvia, Malta and some others will send, there is no way for them to beat larger diasporas in a televoting only system. That's why we need the Juries, even in the semis, even if Eurofans discredit them most of the times, even if we think they sometimes fail to properly evaluate a song, because something is better than nothing I guess.

A good points but also some country do have a big favore because of neighbrothers. Like my country Norway who get 15 free points from Finland and Sweden a least. And Serbia who get probably 20-24 points free from Croatia and Switzerland. Malta, Latvia and Ireland have no friends in semifinal. Latvia miss UK, Estonia, Poland and Lithuania. Only Ireland and maybe some Norwegian diaspora from Latvia could vote for them.

But in the end. I,m just afraid this songs did not get loved by people like we did. Maybe you need to heard it a couple of time before you love it?

 

[Rocket man]

I really thought it would qualify, they're a great band and showed a classy performance compared to Ireland's awful entry, but unfortunately it wasn't enough.
I'm gonna say it was the running order that killed this, maybe it just fell flat after following three loud, in-your-face songs and being early on in semi-final 1. Also the staging just wasn't interesting enough, there was no personality just lots of lights everywhere instead.

 

[elanyvx]

I would have swap Croatia for Latvia. Certainly with the vote of the juries, Croatia would have remained out.

 

[GermanBango]

I am kinda angry at myself for sleeping on this song for the entire season.

 

[midnightsun]

I agree that Latvia had a hard time without diaspora or neighbours but to be fair, I don’t know if the juries would have mattered in that regard. Imho it wasn’t sure if they had changed anything since it doesn’t look like a jury song to me.

 

[Citelis]

Juries would have voted somewhere 6th or 7th is my guess but then again it would be still possible to stay out because of the t/v.