Latvia tries luck with classy entry by Laura Rizzotto
Latvia missed the final of the Eurovision Song Contest six years in a row from 2009 to 2014, but came back swinging in 2015 when Aminata reached the top 10 with ‘Love Injected’. She composed next year’s ‘Heartbeat’ and again Latvia made the final. Last year however entry ‘Line’ by Triana Park ended up dead last in its semi final. Time for Latvia to step up their game again. Half Brazilian half Latvian singer Laura Rizzotto won the national final with her track ‘Funny Girl’ and will fly the flag in Lisbon in May.
Rizzotto composed her track herself and she did a more than decent job at that! Lyrically the song is all about dealing with unrequited love. She has to watch how her dream lover only has attention for another lady while she remains the ‘funny girl’ to him. The story is told in a vivacious composition with proper drama in the chorus, and an overall sound that could best be described as a mix of Fifty Shades and James Bond soundtrack vibes. Unfortunately for the Latvians the Belgian entry this year is sonically similar, but makes more of a lasting impression on first listen. Laura is a proper diva on stage though and she owns the track vocally. I predict that ‘Funny Girl’ will rely more on jury votes than the televoting public. Let us hope that will be enough for a decent place on the scoreboard of the final, because this classy entry deserves some appreciation!
Review of Semi Final Performance:
Latvia sent Latvian-Brazilian singer and songwriter Laura Rizzotto, who composed her own song ‘Funny Girl’. It is a modern, midtempo pop song with some jazz influences, that would not sound out of place on a Fifty Shades of Grey or even James Bond soundtrack. The drama is real both in the instrumentation and the lyrics about unrequited love. Laura is a gorgeous ‘Lady in Red’ on stage and confidently works her way through the performance. Vocally she holds her own, she flirts with the camera and she manages to keep at least my eyes and ears focused on her for the full three minutes. For me this was one of the best performances of the night. Because the bookmakers already predicted her exit and there did not seem to be a lot of buzz around her performance, I was not even shocked she did not make it, but if you ask me, she deserved a spot in the top 5 of this semi final. Latvia finished on a shocking 16th position with televoting, while the juries wanted her to go through to the final with a 6th place. Laura ended up 12th, just 5 points away from qualification.
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