Eirodziesma 2008 is the television programme that decides who will be this year's Latvian entry for the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade. The programme is made up by two semi-finals and tonight's final in Riga. 20 songs were selected by national broadcaster LTV of the bunch of 88 songs submitted. Each semi-final were made up by ten songs. Five songs from each semi-final were eventually selected by televote and went on to tonight's final. The final consists of two stages. The first stage will by televote eliminate seven of the songs, and thereby three songs will be left to compete in the so-called super final. The host of Eirodziesma 2008 are Ugis Joksts and Kristine Virsnite.
Tonight's final will feature many already selected 2008 Eurovision Song Contest entrants. Elnur and Samir from newcomer country Azerbaijan will perform their song Day After Day, and also Morena from Malta, Jeronimas Milius from Lithuania and Tereza Kerndlova from Czech Republic accepted LTV's invitation to appear in the programme. Moreover, last year's Latvian Eurovision Song Contest participants Bonaparti.lv will guest the show.
Latvia is one of the countries that have done really well since the introducing of the semi-finals. Last year in Helsinki, Bonaparti.lv caught the hearts of the European audience with their Italian operatic song Questa Notte. The song went straight to the Final and came in 16th place. In the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest Final in Kyiv, Latvia made top 5 with the song The War Is Not Over by the charming duo Walter & Kazha. The ultimate Latvian success was of course the country's surprising win in 2002, when the androgynous Marie N. and her song I Wanna.
Who will take part?
Déjà vu - I'm A Part Of You
Kristīna Zaharova feat. Julian - Untill You Find A Friend
Sabīne Berezina - If I Only Knew
Pirates Of The Sea - Wolves Of The Sea
Peter Garden & Juris Vizbulis - Memory Lane
Funky Drivers - Summertime
Triānas Parks - Bye Bye
Elizabete Zagorska - Take Me Home
Aisha - You Really Got Me Going
Andris Ērglis - Broken Lullaby
The winner of tonight's Latvian final will be participating in the second Semi-Final of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest, on the 22nd of May.
