Country Latvia Selected entrant Aisha | Selection date(s) 27 February 2010 Selected song "What For?" | |
Selection process Eirodziesma 2010
50% Jury
50% Televoting Semi-final result Failed to qualify (17th, 11 points) | ||
Latvia and Latvijas Televīzija (LTV) has confirmed participation at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010, to be held in Oslo, Norway in May 2010. This came after financial instability in Latvia and LTV, which could have resulted in a withdrawal of the country. However after securing sponsorships and a co-operation agreement with the Ventspils City Council a Latvian participation in the contest was secured. The Latvian entry was decided through the Eirodziesma, which was in February 2010.
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Eirodziesma 2010
The 2010 edition of Eirodziesma was held on 27 February in Ventspils. Due to budget concerns only one show was held rather than a number of semi-finals and a final as was seen in previous years. 10 songs competed in the contest, with the top three songs selected by televoting and a jury progressing to a superfinal, where they competed again. Furthermore, unlike in previous years, the contest was open only to Latvian citizens. The deadline for song submissions was 15 January.
79 songs were submitted to LTV for the contest, of which ten were selected. These ten entries were announced on 22 January by LTV. The running order for the final was held on 3 February on the TV show Sems.
During the show, hosted from the Jūras vārti Theatre in Ventspils by Uģis Joksts and Kristīne Virsnīte, Switzerland's 2010 entry Michael von der Heide performed his entry "Il pleut de l'or", and a video message by Poland's entry Marcin Mroziński also gave a video greeting.
Voting in Eirodziesma 2010 was made in terms of the song's placing, i.e. the 1st placed song received 1 point, the 2nd placed song received 2 points, etc. From the 10 competing songs, three were selected to progress to the super-final: Aisha, Dons and Ivo Grīsniņš-Grīslis were the three superfinalists.
As there was a tie for first place in the Super Final between Aisha and Dons, the votes of the televote took precedence, which Aisha won. Therefore Aisha was selected to represent Latvia with the song "What For? (Only Mr God Knows Why)", with Dons coming second and Ivo Grīsniņš-Grīslis coming third.
At Eurovision
Latvia competed in the first semi-final of the contest, on 25 May. However it was eliminated at the semi final stage, ending up last with 11 points.