Overnight, Samanta Tīna released Latvia’s long-awaited Eurovision entry for 2021, 'The Moon Is Rising'.
The song was an internal selection by Latvia's broadcaster LNT and is written by Samanta Tīna, Aminata Savadogo (Latvia's 2015 Eurovision representative who co-wrote Latvia's entries in 2015, 2016 and 2020), and SKVR (Oskars Uhaņs). 'The Moon Is Rising' was showcased in the Latvian TV show ‘Kā uzvarēt Eirovīzijā? Samantas Tīnas ceļš uz Roterdamu’ (How to win at Eurovision? Samanta Tīna’s road to Rotterdam), a documentary series about the artist and the process of developing her 2021 Eurovision song and performance.
‘The Moon Is Rising’ is an uptempo song with lyrics about female empowerment, in a similar vein to her 2020 Eurovision entry ‘Still Breathing’.
Samanta Tīna was due to represent Latvia in Rotterdam in 2020 after winning Latvia’s national selection show Supernova 2020 with the song ‘Still Breathing’.
After the cancellation of the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam due to the COVID-19 pandemic, LNT and Samanta Tina announced that she would return to represent Latvia in 2021.
Samanta Tīna is a 31-year-old Latvian singer and composer. Born in Tukums, Latvia, she began her music career by winning the Latvian music show ‘O!Kartes akadēmija’ in 2010. In 2011, she entered the Moldovan singing competition ‘Golden Voices’ and won the Moldovan Cup.
After competing in Latvian Eurovision national selections in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2019, Samanta Tīna finally won Supernova in 2020 with ‘Still Breathing’. She has also competed in the Lithuanian Eurovision preselection twice (in 2013 and 2017) and was a contestant on the third season of ‘Lietuvos balsas’, the Lithuanian version of ‘The Voice’, in 2014.
Latvia will be hoping that Samanta Tina can break their streak of non-qualifications at Eurovision which began in 2017 with Triana Park’s entry ‘Line’. Latvia will be performing in the second half of the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest held in Rotterdam on the 20 May 2021.