Markus Riva
Miķelis Ļaksa (born 2 October 1986), known professionally as Markus Riva, is a Latvian singer and producer. 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. He has competed repeatedly in Latvia's national selection for the entrant to the Eurovision Song Contest. Since 2017, Riva hosts the TV3 show "X Faktors", Latvia's version of "The X Factor". Artistry. Among creative inspirations, he mentions artists such as Beyoncé, Robyn and Woody Allen. In 2015, Markus released his first single  in Russian titled "Taty", the video for the single was made by director Alan Badoev. The English version of the single is called "Take Me Down" and was one of the finalist songs for the Latvian national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. Section::::"Supernova". Riva is well known for his attempts to represent Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest. He has entered the national selection for the past eight editions in a row, from 2014 to 2022. In 2014, Riva entered the Latvian selection with his song "Lights On", which came eleventh in the final of the selection. In 2015 , he returned with his song "Take Me Down", which went on to place second in the final, behind the eventual winner Aminata's song "Love Injected". This has been Riva's most successful entry so far, along with 2019. In 2016, Riva entered with his song "I Can", and came third in the final, however since he was in neither the top two in the jury voting or the televote, he did not reach the superfinal. In 2017, Riva sent his song "Dynamite", however he failed to qualify from Heat 2, 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". Along with his 2015 attempt, this is Riva's  most successful entry so far. In 2020, he returned for a seventh consecutive year with the song "Impossible", co-written by Aminata. Although his song was shortlisted and he was invited to audition in front of the selection panel, he was not selected to participate in the finals. After Samanta Tīna, who won "Supernova" in 2020, was internally selected by LTV to participate in Eurovision in 2021, Riva returned to Supernova in 2022 with the song "If You're Gonna Love Me".