In Latvia and Estonia, the Eurovision Song Contest national selection winners were chosen on Saturday, February 11.
In Latvia, Supernova 2023 took place over 2 nights. On Saturday, February 4, the semi-final was held, where 14 competing songs were reduced to a neat 10, after a jury vote and a public vote gave their scores. On Saturday 11 February, these 10 songs were performed once more in the Supernova grand final, with both the public and a jury voting for a winner.
On the night, the song "Aijā" emerged triumphant in the scores, performed by the band Sudden Lights. This will be Latvia's entry to the 67th Eurovision Song Contest, in the year in which Eurovision marks the 20th anniversary of when the Baltic country hosted the contest for the very first time in Riga in 2003.
Sudden Lights is a well-known band for those who have been following Supernova for a while - the band got second place in Latvia's selection in 2018 with the song "Just Fine". The band consists of four members - Andrejs Reinis Zitmanis (vocal, guitar, keyboard, clarinet), Kārlis Matīss Zitmanis (guitar, harmonica, back vocal), Kārlis Vārtiņš (bass guitar, back vocal), and Mārtiņš Matīss Zemītis (percussion instruments, back vocal). Since its founding, the band has released three albums - "Priekšpilsētas" (eng. - "Suburbs"), Vislabāk ir tur, kur manis nav (eng. - "It's best where I'm not"), and Miljards vasaru (eng.- "A billion summers"), and just last summer the band toured around Latvia. Right before the Supernova season in January 2023, Sudden Lights came in second place in the annual Latvian popular song contest Musical Bank with their song "Laternas" (eng. - "Lanterns).
For Eesti Laul 2023, three shows were held - two semifinals on January 12 and 14 and the grand final on February 11. Ten songs competed in each of the two semi-finals, and in each, there were two rounds of voting. In the first round, the result was determined by a jury's vote and televoting by the television viewers; and in the second round only by televoting.
Estonia is officially ready for the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 with the selection of Alika and the song "Bridges" for Liverpool. Estonia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 27 times, first in 1994, competing every year except 1995. Estonia has managed to qualify for the Grand Final 8 out of 18 times. Estonia has won just once, in the year 2001.
Alika Milova, professionally known as ALIKA, is a 20-year-old Estonian singer who rose to fame after competing in the most recent edition of her country's American Idol, which she ended up winning. Regardless, she had already competed in other singing shows such as The Baltic Voice, New Wave Junior, Kaunas Talent and Berlin Perle.
Alika is known for her indie-pop register and for her powerful voice. After competing in Estonian Idol, she signed a record deal with Universal Music Estonia and every song she released became a smash in the country.
Lithuania will select its representative through a national selection, Pabandom iš naujo 2023 on February 18.
Fan favourite Rūta Mur won last week’s semi-final, just ahead of Petunija. Meanwhile, Il Senso won the show’s televote. As ever, it shows that Lithuania’s selection can be full of surprises.
Beatrich competed against Eurovision 2015 alumna Monika Linkytė. Beatrich emerged victorious this round while also claiming the jury vote.
