# Markus Riva

Miķelis Ļaksa (born 2 October 1986), known professionally as Markus Riva, is a Latvian singer. He has released several albums, including the debut album Ticu (2009).
Riva worked at Capital FM as a DJ, and has composed music for various television shows. Among creative inspirations, he mentions artists such as Beyoncé, Robyn and Woody Allen.

## Career
### 2014–2023: Dziesma, Supernova and X Faktors

He has competed repeatedly in Latvia's national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. He has entered the Latvian national selection for the past eight editions in a row. His first national selection entry was in 2014, when he entered the national selection Dziesma 2014 with the song "Lights On", with which he qualified to the final, where he placed 11th and therefore didn't qualify to the superfinal of the competition. In 2015, Riva released his first single in Russian titled "Taty", the video for the single was made by director Alan Badoev. In 2015 he again entered the selection, now called Supernova with a new format. He returned with his song "Take Me Down", the English version of "Taty", which went on to place second in the final, behind the eventual winner Aminata's song "Love Injected". In 2016, Riva entered with his song "I Can", and came third in the semi-final, however since he was in neither the top two in the jury voting or the televote, he did not reach the final.
An exponent of the Ape Music, since 2017 Riva has been hosting X Faktors, the Latvian version of The X Factor. The same year, Riva again participated in Supernova, this time with the song "Dynamite". He failed to qualify from the second heat, finishing in sixth place. In 2018, Riva entered again with the song "This Time". Originally, he was said to have failed to qualify from his semi-final, however due to technical errors in the voting he would have qualified over Ritvars' song "Who's Counting", so both songs were sent through to the final. In the final, Riva placed fifth out of eight entries. In 2019, he participated in Supernova with his song "You Make Me So Crazy". Having qualified from the semi-final, he placed second out of 8 entries, behind the eventual winner Carousel's song "That Night". In 2020, he returned for a seventh consecutive year with the song "Impossible", co-written by Aminata. He was not selected to participate following an audition round. He returned to Supernova in 2022 with the song "If You're Gonna Love Me", but didn't qualify to the final. In 2023, he was selected once again to perform the song "Forever", which qualified to the final and placed fourth.

#### Participations in Latvia's Eurovision National Final

Table key :
| 1 | Winner |
| 2 | Second place |
| 3 | Third place |
| X | Entry selected but did not compete |
| † | Upcoming |
| Contest | Song | Final | Points | Semi | Points |
| Dziesma 2014 | "Lights On" | 10th | 20 | 5th | 18 |
| Supernova 2015 | "Take Me Down" | 2nd | 15750 | Jury qualifier | Jury qualifier |
| Supernova 2016 | "I Can" | Not qualified | Not qualified | 3rd | 2909 |
| Supernova 2017 | "Dynamite" | Eliminated at Heat stage | Eliminated at Heat stage | Eliminated at Heat stage | Eliminated at Heat stage |
| Supernova 2018 | "This Time" | 5th | 10 | 2nd | 4 |
| Supernova 2019 | "You Make Me So Crazy" | 2nd | 6 | 3rd | 6 |
| Supernova 2020 | "Impossible" | Eliminated at Live audition round | Eliminated at Live audition round | Eliminated at Live audition round | Eliminated at Live audition round |
| Supernova 2022 | "If You're Gonna Love Me" | Not qualified | Not qualified | Not revealed | Not revealed |
| Supernova 2023 | "Forever" | 4th | 14 | Not revealed | Not revealed |
| Supernova 2024 | "Lose Control" | Preliminary elimination | Preliminary elimination | Preliminary elimination | Preliminary elimination |
| Supernova 2025 | "Bigger than This" | 8th | 6 | Not revealed | Not revealed |

## Discography
### Studio albums

List of albums, with selected details :
| Title | Details |
| Ticu | Released: 2009 Label: Deeselecta (DEES006) Format: CD, digital |
| Songs from NYC | Released: December 2010 Label: Markus Riva Format: CD, digital |
| How It Feels | Released: November 2013 Label: Promark Music Format: CD, digital |
| MR | Released: October 2015 Label: Markus Riva Format: CD, digital |
| I Can | Released: September 2018 Label: Markus Riva Format: CD, digital |
| Laika Upe | Released: December 2019 Label: Markus Riva Format: CD, digital |
| Pazudīšu Pilsētā | Released: December 2021 Label: Markus Riva Format: CD, digital |
| Bigger Than This | Released: November 2024 Label: Markus Riva (MR2024) Format: CD, digital |

#### Charted Singles

List of charted singles as lead artist, showing album name and year released :
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions | Album |
| Title | Year | LAT Air. | CIS Air. | UKR Air. | Album |
| "Ne vidpuskay" (with Myata [uk]) | 2018 | * | 191 | 7 | Tam, de ray |
| "Svadhisthana" | 2018 | * | — | 21 | Non-album singles |
| "One Night" (with Myszkovski) | 2023 | 6 | — | — | Non-album singles |
| "Too Late for Love" (with Myszkovski) | 2024 | 9 | — | — | Non-album singles |
| "Far from Me" | 2024 | 21 | — | — | Bigger Than This |
| "—" denotes items which were not released in that country or failed to chart. "*" denotes the chart did not exist at that time. ||||||