Priecīgu Latvijas neatkarības atjaunošanas dienu!
Today is November 18, which marks the Proclamation Day of the Republic of Latvia. This day commemorates the anniversary of the Proclamation of Independence of Latvia by the People’s Council of Latvia in 1918.
Traditionally, the day is honoured with various concerts, events, and fireworks (and feelings too, don’t worry, Salvador).
At Aussievision, to celebrate this momentous occasion, we count down the most successful Latvian Eurovision entries on Spotify and YouTube. This will be a combined ranking to determine which Latvian Eurovision entry is the greatest of all.
For Spotify, streams of the Eurovision version of each song (or any original recording of the song closest to being a Eurovision version of the song) were used.
All YouTube videos from 2005 and onwards were the highest-scoring live performances at the Eurovision Song Contest uploaded to the official Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel. That is, performances from the Grand Final were used if the song qualified, and sem-final performances were used if the song did not qualify.
For Latvia’s 2020 Eurovision entry ‘Still Breathing’, the live performance at Supernova uploaded to the official Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel was used in this count, as Eurovision was cancelled that year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
For 2004 and prior, no official YouTube uploads exist, so the views of the most viewed unofficial upload of the Eurovision performances of these songs were used in this countdown.
All results were recorded on November 13, 2021.
Here are the results:
22. Intars Busulis – ‘Probka’ (2009)* - 41,965
21. Arnis Mednis – ‘Too Much’ (2001) - 47,048
20. Vocal Group Cosmos – ‘I Hear Your Heart’ (2006)* - 74,544
19. F.L.Y. – ‘Hello from Mars’ (2003) - 126,772
18. Bonaparti.lv – ‘Questa notte’ (2007) - 131,998
17. Fomins and Kleins – ‘Dziesma par laimi’ (2004) - 158,390
16. Aisha – ‘What For?’ (2010) - 292,196
15. PeR – ‘Here We Go’ (2013) - 324,504
14. Pirates of the Sea – ‘Wolves of the Sea’ (2008)* - 481,986
13. Walters and Kazha – ‘The War Is Not Over’ (2005) - 506,704
12. Aarzemnieki – ‘Cake To Bake’ (2014) - 709,774
11. Anmary – ‘Beautiful Song’ (2012)* - 921,390
10. Musiqq – ‘Angel In Disguise’ (2011) - 1,042,501
Although this song came 14th in terms of YouTube views, its 9th place on Spotify was enough to land Musiqq in the top 10. The Latvian band has gone on to have a successful music career in their home country, being one of the top-selling homegrown groups in the nation.
9. Marie N – ‘I Wanna’ (2002) - 1,210,492
The Eurovision 2002 winner is still in the top 10 in both YouTube and Spotify rankings; the first song to have achieved this feat so far.
8. Samanta Tīna – ‘Still Breathing’ (2020) - 1,897,837
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic cancelling the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest, ‘Still Breathing’ has held a firm place in the top 10 in both rankings. She becomes the first artist in this list so far to break 1 million Spotify streams.
7. Brainstorm – ‘My Star’ (2000) - 2,268,480
Latvia’s Eurovision Song Contest debut remains a firm fan favourite, being the seventh most streamed Latvian Eurovision entry on Spotify. An impressive result from a song predating the streaming era.
6. Laura Rizzotto – ‘Funny Girl’ (2018) - 2,369,114
Rice grains rejoice (yes that is the official name of Laura Rizzotto fans)! Laura Rizzotto may not have had the highest percentage of streams in Supernova 2018, but now ‘Funny Girl’ has almost 2 million streams to its name. This ‘Funny Girl’ truly has had the last laugh – Laura Rizzotto became an official voting member of the Recording Academy last year, meaning that she can now vote in the Grammy Awards as well as recommend new talent for the Academy!
5. Carousel – ‘That Night’ (2019) - 2,457,533
While ‘That Night’ ranks 12th in terms of YouTube views, the Carousel fans on Spotify have spoken, with Latvia’s 2019 Eurovision entry ranking third in Spotify streams.
4. Triana Park – ‘Line’ (2017) - 2,746,732
Spotify streams were introduced as a voting method in Latvia’s national selection show Supernova for the very first time in 2017, the year that Triana Park won the right to be Latvia’s representative at the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest in Kyiv. ‘Line’ is the fourth most streamed Latvian Eurovision entry on Spotify.
3. Samanta Tīna – ‘The Moon Is Rising’ (2021) - 3,683,051
‘The Moon Is Rising’ is the second-most streamed Latvian Eurovision song on Spotify, despite being released the latest of all the Latvian Eurovision entries. The YouTube video of Samanta’s performance of the song has the fourth highest views of all the Latvian Eurovision entries at 903 538 views, just shy of Anmary’s ‘Beautiful Song’ at 921 930 views. There was no official version of ‘Beautiful Song’ on Spotify, so Anmary just missed out on making the top 10, leaving room for Samanta Tīna to claim the bronze medal in our countdown, despite the song earning last place in the semi-finals of Eurovision 2021.
2. Justs – ‘Heartbeat’ (2016) - 6,402,464
The most recent Latvian entry to qualify to the Eurovision final, ‘Heartbeat’ by Justs has the most Spotify streams of all the Latvian Eurovision entries, as well as being the second most viewed entry on YouTube.
1. Aminata – ‘Love Injected’ (2015) - 7,666,486 streams and views
Despite being the most viewed Latvian Eurovision performance on YouTube by a substantial margin, ‘Love Injected’ is only the sixth most streamed Latvian Eurovision entry on Spotify. Nonetheless, this margin was large enough to secure Aminata the win and officially make ‘Love Injected’ the most successful Latvian Eurovision entry of all time according to our countdown.
*song not released on Spotify