Latvia at Eurovision 2009

Intars Busulis was born on May 2, 1978 in the Latvian city of Tulsa . He graduated from a music school in the trombone class, performed in the children's ensemble "Talsu Spridisi". He studied at the Ventspils College of Music and played in the big band of Ziedonis Zaikovsky, together with Raymond Tigulis he performed in the band “Caffe”. Intars also played in the NVS orchestra and the Wet point jazz band Vilnis Kundrat. Since 2005 he participated in the project of Danish bassist Eric Musholm EYJO

Busulis participated in a number of jazz festivals, played in the musicals Notre Dame de Paris, Autoplanet, the production of Leonard Bernstein's Mass, and the Cabaret productions of the Virus Art production group. Intars also collaborated with Raimonod Pauls, and in 2005 won the Grand Prix of the New Wave music contest. In 2008, Intars released his first album with Karlis Latsis, recording songs there in Latvian and Russian. The composition "Brivdiena" from the album topped the radio charts for a long time.

Intars Busulis three times participated in the Eurovision selections, in 2006 took 2nd place with the song of Karlis Latsis and Sergey Timofeev “Racing”. In 2009, he won the selection with the Sweetwaterz band with the song Sastrēgums, which Intars decided to perform in Russian under the title Cork at the competition itself. Characteristically, the Russian version was recorded much earlier than the Latvian one. Before the competition, Busulis shot a clip in one of Riga's supermarkets ^[5] .

On January 9, 2009, it was planned to introduce all the selection participants. From January 19 to 21, the participants filmed their videos, and then the draw was held. Three semi-finals were to be held on January 31, February 7 and 14, the consolation semi-final on February 21, and the final on February 28 ^{[6] [7]} . Three songs from each semi-final reached the final, and the 10th song was selected at the comforting semi-final. Only spectators voted in the semifinal, spectators and the jury in the finals. The jury included musicologist Daina Markova, composer Raimonds Makats, producer Aivars Hermanis, vocal teacher Antse Krause, director Dace Puce, journalist Egor Erohomovich and radio host Edmunds Kasevskis. The organizers of the selection contest (that is, from Latvian television) had another vote: the general decision from the LTV channel was made by the head of the delegation of Latvia, Iveta Lepeshko, delegation coordinator Zita Kaminska, director Arvydas Babrys, project manager Baiba Salenice and sound engineer Uldis Salenix ^[8] .

Political motives

The first rumors about Latvia’s refusal to participate in Eurovision in Moscow appeared in August 2008, when, due to the outbreak of war in South Ossetia , the Estonian Minister of Culture urged the Baltic countries not to go to Eurovision 2009 ^[9] . This idea, however, did not meet with wide support, and in Latvia many cultural figures, led by Raymond Pauls, expressed their dissatisfaction with such an idea ^{[10] [11]} . As a result, Latvian television announced that it did not intend to withdraw from Eurovision ^[12] .

Funding cuts

However, in December 2008, they started talking about the threat of withdrawing Latvia from the competition for financial reasons: the financing of Latvian television was reduced by LVL 2.4 million (about EUR 3.5 million), and the funds for paying the participation fee ran out from LTV in the competition. Initially, there were rumors that everything would be limited to the abolition of national selection and a number of other television projects ^[13] . Until December 14, 2008, participating countries could withdraw applications without financial sanctions, but they were only going to make a decision to LTV board members about Latvia’s participation in Eurovision two days earlier. Iveta Lepeshko warned that refusal to participate would be a blow to the Latvian business ^[5] . On December 16, Iveta Lepeshko stated that in order to reduce costs by LTL 2 million LTV, a number of projects will have to be canceled: in addition to Eurovision, the closure threatened the series “Neprata cena”, a correspondent bureau in Moscow and Brussels; there was also a threat of termination of broadcasting of the 7th channel of Latvian television. With the refusal to participate in the competition, the guitarist of the Brainstorm band, Janis Ubaltes , called for reconciliation, although a number of musicians condemned the LTV initiative. Martins Freimanis , the singer of FLY , called the decision idiocy and said that then the Latvian National Theater would have to be closed, and contest commentator Karlis Streips said that if Latvia could refuse, it was only for political reasons that could not be found ^[5] .

Latvia's refusal to participate

On December 17, 2008, an LTV decision was made: Latvia refuses to participate in Eurovision 2009 due to financial problems ^{[14] [15]} . Latvian television got the European Broadcasting Union to withdraw the application without financial sanctions three days later, even though EMU was ready to help Latvia financially ^{[16] [17]} . However, another serious blow was the decision not to broadcast the contest either on record or on the air: there were not enough funds for the license fee. Iveta Lepeshko said that the country took a serious step, even excluding the possibility of internal selection with the help of the jury and without unnecessary costs ^[5] .

The Ministry of Transport and Communications of Latvia at the same time stated that it was ready to increase control over the use of the state share in the Latvian National Center for Radio and Television, dividends of Latvian Television and Latvian Radio: this would lead to an increase in funding of LVL 1.4 million in grants . This would allow you to leave Channel 7 on air and not reduce the broadcasting of Latvian radio, however, funds for other projects - in addition to Eurovision, for broadcasting Russian-language news, keeping correspondents in Moscow and Brussels, holding Baltika, Sudmalinas music festivals, broadcasting the Latvian anniversary theater and opera - did not remain in this case. The budget deficit, according to the general director of the LTV channel Edgar Cots, would still be 2 million lats ^[5] . Latvian television expressed the hope that the country will be able to return in 2010 to the contest ^{[18] [19]} .

The producer of the Eurodziesma program and the head of the Latvian delegation, Iveta Lepeshko, refused to make an LTV decision and turned for help to the President of Latvia Valdis Zatlers , who was to meet with representatives of Latvian Television and the National Broadcasting Council on December 19, 2008 . The question of Latvia’s participation in Eurovision in Moscow has become one of the most discussed in the European media (including Russia). The final decision was made on December 20 : Latvia will not take part in Eurovision 2009, about which the Russian Channel One and the European Broadcasting Union were notified ^{[20] [21]} . Latvia was released by decision of EMU from paying a fine for withdrawing an application later than the deadline ^[22] . 21 artists submitted applications for the selection competition even before the decision on Latvia’s refusal to participate in Eurovision 2009, and the songs of six artists (including Intars Busulis) were released on the special album “Eurovision, which was not there” ^[5] .

Return to Participant List

On January 12, 2009, European media reported that the European Broadcasting Union published a list of Eurovision Song Contest 2009 participants, with Latvia ^{[1] [2] [23]} listed there. Latvian television did not officially report anything about this, although it was said that the search for financing from individuals was still ongoing. The board meeting of LTV said that only in a week it will be clear whether Latvia will participate in the competition and how the selection will be held. Soon, the Deputy Director General of Latvian Television Arnis Kupriss announced that 80% of the funds needed to participate in the competition had been collected, and that by January 16 it would be necessary to collect the entire amount and inform the European Broadcasting Union about this. State financing of Latvia’s participation in the competition was out of the question ^[5] .

Nevertheless, on January 19, 2009, the LTV channel officially announced: Latvia is going to Eurovision 2009, and all the funds were raised thanks to the sponsors: Narvesen and the Latvian bank Krajbank. The money will be used to pay the participation fee, the expenses of the delegation in Moscow, the competition in Latvia and the release of promotional material. The contribution from EMU was reduced to 55 thousand lats (100 thousand US dollars), and the place for the final of the national selection was Ventspils, as agreed by the director of LTV Edgaras Kots with businessman Aivaras Lembergs. They promised to sponsor the national selection at the expense of the Ventspils Development Agency and the Ventspils City Council ^[5] .

Rules

The competition "Eurodziesma-2009" was attended by songs that were not performed publicly until October 1, 2008 . The application deadline is November 30, 2008 . No more than a third of the songs of foreign authors were allowed to participate; songs sounded in the national selections of other countries were not allowed to the competition ^{[6] [7]} .

The format has undergone changes during the emergency situation with Latvia participating in Eurovision and has changed as follows: the number of semi-finals was reduced to one, which was to be held on February 27 , and the final was held the next day ^[24] . 108 applications with songs were submitted to the competition: 78 songs by Latvian authors and 30 foreign ^{[25] [26]} , and Latvian television asked all artists to confirm their applications after Latvia’s admission to the competition. 21 competitors, who received the right to participate in the qualifying competition, fully confirmed their desire to participate further ^[27] .

Before the semi-finals, Kristina Zakharova left the competition, who was going to perform two songs: one of her songs “I Wish I Could Pretend” went to the final of the national selection of Eurovision in Ireland ^{[28] [29]} , and the second song “Angel of Mine” Martins Freimanis Christina decided to perform a duet with Anya Putnynya ^[30] . The performers of two more songs also changed: the group “Policistas” entered the competition, who decided to perform the song “In Love In Trust”, and the singer Astra Dreimane decided to perform the song “Have To Say Goodbye”. The draw of the competition was held on January 13 ^[30] .

Semifinal

The semi-final was held on February 27 in the Olympic center of Ventspils. The presenters were Christine Wirsnite and Ugis Joxts ^[31] . 10 songs were chosen by the audience ^{[32] [33]} .

Final

The final was held on February 28 with the participation of 10 winners of the semifinal. Viewers and the jury selected three songs to participate in the super final, in which only viewers made the decision ^{[32] [33]} . In the interval act, the Pirates of the Sea band representing Latvia at the previous Eurovision performed with the song “Moscow” (the English cover version of the song “Moskau” of the group “ Dschinghis Khan ”), singer Kristina Zakharova with the song “I Wish I Could Pretend” (2 (place in the Irish national selection), representatives of Lithuania Sasha Son and Poland Lidia Kopaniya ^{[32] [33]} . Intars Busulis, Natalya Tumshevits and the duet Kristina Zakharova / Anya Putnynya reached the superfinal ^[34] .

In the super final, viewers finally chose Intars Busulis, a Latvian contestant ^[3] .

Intars Busulis, even during the national selection contest, said live that in Moscow he would not sing in Latvian, but refused to name the language of the performance. Then, LTV confirmed that the song will be performed in Russian, and this caused serious criticism on the Internet, although the singer himself said that it was difficult for him to understand the popular opinion ^[5] .

Intars Busulis performed under the 3rd serial number in the second semi-final on May 14, 2009. Three musicians from the Sweetwaterz band (including keyboardist Karlis Latsis, composer of Busulis songs) and backing vocalists from the Lady's Sweet trio - Vineta Elksne and Iolanta Strikaite ^[5] performed with him on the stage. The result of the performance for Intars was disappointing: 19th, last place in the semifinals, and only 7 points.