Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019
Latvia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. The Latvian broadcaster (LTV) organised the national final "Supernova 2019" in order to select the Latvian entry for the 2019 contest in Tel Aviv, Israel. Background. Prior to the 2019 contest, Latvia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest nineteen times since its first entry in 2000. Latvia won the contest once in 2002 with the song "I Wanna" performed by Marie N. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the , Latvia was able to qualify to compete in the final between 2005 and 2008 . Between 2009 and 2014, the nation had failed to qualify to the final for six consecutive years. In the 2015 contest, Latvia managed to qualify to the final with the song "Love Injected" performed by Aminata, which placed 6th in the final, scoring 186 points, giving them their best placing since 2005. In 2018, Latvia was represented by Laura Rizzotto and the song "Funny Girl", but the country did not qualify for the final and finished twelfth in the second semi-final with 106 points. The Latvian national broadcaster, (LTV), broadcasts the event within Latvia and organises the selection process  for the nation's entry. Latvia has selected their entries for the Eurovision Song Contest through a national final. Since their debut in 2000 until 2012, LTV had organised the selection show . In a response to the nation's failure to qualify to the final at Eurovision since 2008, between 2013 and 2014, the competition was rebranded and retooled as . However, after failing to produce successful entries those two years, LTV developed the "Supernova" national final in order to select their 2015 entry. The competition produced two Latvian entries in 2015 and 2016 that managed to qualify the nation to  the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. In 2019, LTV announced that the "Supernova" format would return once again to select the Latvian entry. Before Eurovision. Section::::"Supernova 2019". "Supernova 2019" was the fifth edition of "Supernova", the music competition that selects Latvia's entries for the Eurovision Song Contest. The competition commenced on 26 February 2019 and concluded with a final on 16 February 2019. Format. The format of the competition consisted of four shows: two semi-finals and a final. The three shows took place at the LTV studios in Riga and were hosted by Dagmāra Legante, Ketija Šēnberga  and Mārtiņš Kapzems. The two semi-finals, held on 26 January and 2 February 2019, each featured eight competing entries from which four were selected to advance to the final from each show. The final, held on 16 February 2019, selected the Latvian entry for Tel Aviv from the remaining eight entries. In addition to that, LTV reserved the right to advance a wildcard act to the final out of the remaining non-qualifying acts from the semi-finals. Results during the semi-final and final shows were determined by a jury panel and votes from the public. The jury  vote was calculated by having each member of the jury rank each song from first to six. The song that came in first place would get one point, while the song that came in last place would get eight points. These results were combined with the public vote which ranked the songs based on the number of votes each entry received. Therefore, the song with the fewest points would achieve first place. Viewers were able to vote via telephone, SMS, online, Spotify and in-person at the "Alfa" shopping center (final-only). The online vote conducted through the official "Supernova  website allowed users to vote once per each accepted social network account: Draugiem.lv, Facebook and Twitter. Votes conducted through Spotify were based on unique listener counts, with each stream counting as one vote for each entry. The jury participated in each show by providing feedback to the competing artists and selecting entries to advance in the competition. The panel consisted of: Competing entries. Artists and songwriters were able to submit their entries to the broadcaster between 3 September 2018 and 21 October 2018. 83 songs were submitted at the conclusion of the submission period, from which 33 were shortlisted for 	Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019
12674745	the live hearing. The audition round took place on 21 and 22 November 2018 and featured the 33 shortlisted entries. An online vote ran between 26 November 2018 and 30 November 2018, enabling users to listen to the 33 entries and rate the songs by either selecting the “For”, “Against” or “Abstain” option for each entry. The jury panel evaluated the performances, taking the results of the online voting into consideration, and selected 16 entries for the competition. The jury panel consisted of Ilze Jansone (Supernova producer), Artis Dvarionas (Radio SWH), Agnese Cimuška (Latvian Music Development Society) and Rūdolfs Budze	Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019
12674746	–DJ Rudd (DJ and producer). The competing artists and songs were announced on 5 December 2018. Semi-finals. Two semi-finals took place on 26 January and 2 February 2019. In each semi-final eight of the competing entries performed, and four qualified to the final via a combination of votes from a jury panel and the Latvian public. Final. The final took place on 16 February 2019. The eight entries that qualified from the semi-finals competed, and That Night" performed by Carousel was declared the winner via the combination of votes from a jury panel and the Latvian  public. At Eurovision. According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 28 January 2019, a special allocation draw was held which  placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Latvia was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 16 May 2019, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show. Once all the competing songs for the 2019 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Latvia was set to perform in position 5, following the  entry from Switzerland and preceding the entry from Romania. Semi-final. Latvia performed fifth in the second semi-final, following the entry from Switzerland and preceding the entry from Romania. At the end of the show, Latvia was not announced among the top 10 entries in the second semi-final and therefore failed to qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Latvia placed fifteenth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 50 points: 13 points from the televoting and 37 points from the juries. Voting. Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two  sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they  cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results will be released shortly after the grand final. Detailed voting results. The following members comprised the Latvian jury: