The fine career of Aminata Savadogo

Her music has been reviving our souls since she hit the Wiener Stadthalle stage in Vienna in 2015 with her avant-garde power ballad “Love Injected” and because it's Burkina Faso Independence Day, here at Aussievision we decided to take a look at what Burkinese descendant Aminata Savadogo has been up to since.

Aminata Savadogo or Aminata, as she is generally known as in the music world was born on 9 January 1993 in Riga, Latvia to a Latvian/Russian mother and a Burkinese father. Aminata is fluent in Latvian, Russian and English and her music reflects her European, Russian and African heritage. Clearly a talented young woman, she studied the flute when she was young and graduated from the Bolderāja Music and Art School in Riga.

Singing however, was her passion and she started taking voice lessons at 13. Aminata, like many a modern-day Eurovision artist has participated in various television musical contests prior to trying out for the ESC. On her first attempt at Dziesma 2014 (previous Latvian Selection process) she finished in fifth place with her song “I Can Breathe”.

Fuelled by a further ambition to represent Latvia at Eurovision she entered Supernova 2015 with her memorable composition “Love Injected”. Aminata trounced eternal second place getter Markus Riva by almost 7,000 votes. “Love Injected” gave Latvia their best result at ESC since 2005, finishing in 6th place. Furthmore, Australians chose it whole overall and voted it in 22nd place in the inaugural The OGAE Australia Eurovision Top 100 earlier this year.

Aminata released her first album “Inner Voice” and with a further fire in her belly after her Eurovision experience, She wrote “Heartbeat” for incumbent Supernova 2016 winner Justs Sirmais. He finished in a respectable 15th place.

She also entered the 5th season of Golos in September 2016 which is the Russian franchise of the The Voice. Her mentor was none other than fellow ESC Alumni member and runner-up, Polina Gagarina. Coincidentally, the only other judge to turn their chair was Dima Bilan! Unfortunately she only made as far to the Knockout round.

Aminata has added further songwriting credits to her belt. She wrote “I’m like a wolf” for Aistė Pilvelytė in 2017 for Eurovizijos; dainų konkurso nacionalinė atranka. Aistė finished in second place to Fusedmarc.

Also she tried her hand again for Supernova 2019, writing “Firework” for Alekss Silvers. Unfortunately the song was eliminated in the semi finals.

Aminata Savadogo is most certainly a talent. She has the credentials to achieve another great result at Eurovision either as a performer or a songwriter. Her nation Latvia hasn't qualified for three years, so they do need a saviour.... will she be the one to bring them another top 10 result in 2020? We'd love to see her have another attempt.

In the meantime here is her latest song which was released last month. “Maiga Vara” is her first Latvian language song. An English version has also been performed. Izbaudi!!!