Latvia was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 with the song "Cake to Bake", written by Guntis Veilands, and performed by the band Aarzemnieki. The Latvian participating broadcaster, (LTV), organised the national final Dziesma 2014 in order to select its entry for the contest. Twenty-four songs were selected to compete in the national final, which consisted of three shows: two semi-finals and a final. In the semi-finals on 1 and 2 February 2014, six entries were selected to advance from each show. Twelve songs ultimately qualified to compete in the final on 22 February 2014 where two rounds of voting by a public televote and a nine-member jury panel selected "Cake to Bake" performed by Aarzemnieki as the winner.

Latvia was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 6 May 2014. Performing during the show in position 2, "Cake to Bake" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Latvia placed thirteenth out of the 16 participating countries in the semi-final with 33 points.

Background

Prior to the 2014 contest, (LTV) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Latvia fourteen times since its first entry in 2000. It won the contest once in with the song "I Wanna" performed by Marie N. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004, Latvia was able to qualify to compete in the final between 2005 and 2008. Between 2009 and 2013, it had failed to qualify to the final for five consecutive years including with its entry "Here We Go" performed by PeR.

As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, LTV organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. The broadcaster confirmed its intentions to participate at the 2014 contest on 24 September 2013. The broadcaster has selected its entries for the contest through a national final. Since their debut in 2000 until 2012, LTV had organised the selection show Eirodziesma. In a response to the failure to qualify to the final at Eurovision since 2008, the competition in 2013 was rebranded and retooled as Dziesma. Along with its participation confirmation, the broadcaster announced that it would organise Dziesma 2014 in order to select the entry for the 2014 contest.

Before Eurovision Dziesma 2014 Dziesma 2014 was the second edition of Dziesma, the music competition that selects Latvia's entries for the Eurovision Song Contest. The competition commenced with the first of two-semi finals on 1 February 2014 and concluded with a final on 22 February 2014. All shows in the competition were hosted by Ēriks Loks and Nauris Brikmanis and broadcast on LTV1 and Riga Radio as well as online via the broadcaster's official website ltv.lv. The final was also streamed online at the official Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.tv.

Format The format of the competition consisted of three shows: two semi-finals and a final. The two semi-finals, held on 1 and 2 February 2014, each featured twelve competing entries from which six advanced to the final from each show. The final, held on 22 February 2014, selected the Latvian entry for Copenhagen from the remaining twelve entries over two rounds of voting: the first round selected the top three songs and the second round (superfinal) selected the winner. Results during the semi-final and final shows were determined by the 50/50 combination of votes from a jury panel and a public vote. Both the jury and public vote assigned points from 1 to 12 based on ranking in the semi-finals and the first round of the final, with the first place receiving one point and last place receiving twelve points. In the superfinal, the jury and public both assigned points from 1 to 3 also based on ranking with the first place receiving one point and last place receiving three points. Ties were decided in favour of the entries that received higher points from the public. Viewers were able to vote via telephone up to five times or via SMS with a single SMS counting as five votes. The online vote conducted through the website eirovizija.lv allowed users to vote once per each accepted social network account: Draugiem.lv, Facebook and Twitter.

Competing entries Songwriters were able to submit their entries to the broadcaster between 1 October 2013 and 20 November 2013. LTV adopted the slogan Made in Latvia for the competition, meaning that all songwriters were required to have Latvian citizenship or residency unlike in previous years. 73 entries were submitted at the conclusion of the submission period; 60 of the songs were in English, 11 were in Latvian and one each were in French and Russian. A jury panel appointed by LTV evaluated the submitted songs and the twenty-four selected songwriters had until 7 January 2014 to nominate the performers for their songs. The jury panel consisted of Aija Strazdiņa (director and producer), Aija Vītoliņa (singer), Ģirts Lūsis (musician, composer and manager of the groups Labvēlīgais tips and 2007 Latvian Eurovision entrant Bonaparti.lv), Kārlis Auzāns (producer and composer), Kristaps Krievkalns (musician and composer), Adam Klein (British music manager), John Ballard (Swedish composer and producer) and Maja Keuc (2011 Slovenian Eurovision entrant). The twenty-four competing songs were announced during a press conference on 2 December 2013, while the competing artists were announced on 8 January 2014.

Artist SongSongwriter(s) Aarzemnieki "Cake to Bake"Guntis Veilands Aminata Savadogo "I Can Breathe"Aminata Savadogo Andris Kivičs "Pa vidu tu"Andris Kivičs Anete Volmane "Breathe Slow"Edgars Viļums, Anete Volmane Crazy Dolls "Bučas"Aldis Zaļūksnis, Mārtiņs Poļakovskis Dāvis Matskins "I Need More"Alise Ketnere DJ Dween and Sabīne Berezina "Dejo tā"Kaspars Dvinskis, Sabīne Berezina Dons "Pēdējā vēstule"Artūrs Šingirejs, Ingus Bērziņš Eirošmits "If I Could (Get Away)"Miks Žagars, Raitis Aušmuksts Ivo Grīsniņš-Grīslis "I've Got"Ivo Grīsniņš-Grīslis Katrīna Bindere "Moment and Tomorrow"Edgars Beļickis, Kārlis Auziņš, Mikus Frišvelds Katrine Lukins "You Are the Reason"Katrine Lukins, Kārlis Indrišonoks Mad Show Boys "I Need a Soul-Twin"Garijs Poļskis Markus Riva "Lights On"Gaitis Lazdāns, Markus Riva MyRadiantU "Going All the Way"Janis Driksna Niko "Here I Am Again"Vladimirs Koževņikovs Olga and Līgo "Saule riet"Tomass Kleins, Guntars Račs Oskars Deigelis "Just Stop"Oskars Deigelis, Ruslans Kuksinovičs Ralfs Eilands and Valters Pūce "Revelation"Ralfs Eilands, Valters Pūce, Ansis Grūbe Sabīne Berezina "Pressure"Žanna Berezina Sabīne Vidriķe "Is It Possible"Edgard Kokorevičs, Sabīne Vidriķe Samanta Tīna "Stay"Ingars Viļums Tamāra Rutkovska "I'm Happy"Tamāra Rutkovska U.K. "What If It Was"Rolands Ūdris

Shows

Semi-finals The two semi-finals took place at the Palladium Concert Hall in Riga on 1 and 2 February 2014. In each semi-final twelve acts competed and six entries qualified to the final based on the combination of votes from a jury panel and the Latvian public. The jury panel that voted in the semi-finals consisted of Kristaps Krievkalns (musician, composer and arranger), Jegors Jerohomovičs (music critic and cultural journalist), Aija Strazdiņa (director and producer), Ģirts Lūsis (musician, composer, producer and manager), Uldis Cīrulis aka DJ Monsta (DJ at Riga Radio), Gabriel Broggini (member of 2012 Swiss Eurovision entrant Sinplus), Ivan Broggini (member of 2012 Swiss Eurovision entrant Sinplus), Vineta Elksne (singer, vocal coach, conductor and songwriter; first semi-final), Jānis Palkavnieks (spokesman for Draugiem.lv; first semi-final), Zita Lunde (editor-in-chief of web portal TVNET; second semi-final) and Artūrs Ancāns (artistic director of the Emīls Dārziņš Mixed Choir and chairman of the board of the Latvian Choir Conductors Association; second semi-final). + Semi-final 1 – 1 February 2014 Artist Song Jury rank Public Vote rank Result Internet rank Televote rank 1 DJ Dween and Sabīne Berezina "Dejo tā" 9 7 10 2 Crazy Dolls "Bučas" 8 11 12 3 Tamara Rutkovska "I'm Happy" 11 12 9 4 Niko "Here I Am Again" 7 4 2 Advanced 5 Ivo Grīsniņš-Grīslis "I've Got" 5 10 11 6 Aarzemnieki "Cake to Bake" 6 2 3 Advanced 7 Oskars Deigelis "Just Stop" 10 9 8 8 Samanta Tīna "Stay" 1 5 5 Advanced 9 MyRadiantU "Going All the Way" 3 6 7 Advanced 10 Aminata Savadogo "I Can Breathe" 4 3 4 Advanced 11 Dāvis Matskins "I Need More" 12 8 6 12 Olga and Līgo "Saule riet" 2 1 1 Advanced

+ Semi-final 2 – 2 February 2014 Artist Song Jury rank Public Vote rank Result Internet rank Televote rank 1 Ralfs Eilands and Valters Pūce "Revelation" 2 4 4 Advanced 2 Katrine Lukins "You Are The Reason" 4 3 7 Advanced 3 Mad Show Boys "I Need a Soul-Twin" 10 9 6 4 Markus Riva "Lights On" 3 10 5 Advanced 5 Anete Volmane "Breathe Slow" 12 5 11 6 U.K. "What If It Was" 5 6 10 7 Katrīna Bindere "Moment and tomorrow" 7 8 1 Advanced 8 Andris Kivičs "Pa vidu tu" 9 12 12 9 Dons "Pēdējā vēstule" 1 1 2 Advanced 10 Sabīne Vidriķe "Is It Possible" 11 11 3 11 Sabīne Berezina "Pressure" 6 7 8 12 Eirošmits "If I Could (Get Away)" 8 2 9 Advanced

Final The final took place at the Jūras vārti Theatre in Ventspils on 22 February 2014. The twelve entries that qualified from the preceding two semi-finals competed and the winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, three songs advanced to the second round, the superfinal, based on the combination of votes from a jury panel and the Latvian public. The public vote in the first round was conducted via televote only due to technical issues with the online vote. In the superfinal, "Cake to Bake" performed by Aarzemnieki was selected as the winner through the combination of votes from the jury and public. Dons and Aarzemnieki were tied at 3 points each but since Aarzemnieki received the most votes from the public they were declared the winner. The jury panel that voted in the final consisted of Kristaps Krievkalns (musician, composer and arranger), Sandris Vanzovičs (music journalist), Aija Strazdina (director and producer), Ģirts Lūsis (musician, composer and manager of the groups Labvēlīgais tips and 2007 Latvian Eurovision entrant Bonaparti.lv), Uldis Cīrulis aka DJ Monsta (DJ at Riga Radio), Ieva Rozentāle (head of the LTV Culture Broadcasts Editorial Office), Agnese Cimuška (general manager of the Latvian Music Development Society and Music Export Latvia), Andres Kõpper (singer, lead vocalist of the Estonian band Tenfold Rabbit) and Rihards Zaļupe (composer and percussionist).

In addition to the performances of the competing entries, guest performers included singer Normunds Rutulis, 2003 Latvian Eurovision entrant (as part of F.L.Y.) Lauris Reiniks, 2004 Latvian Eurovision entrant Fomins and Kleins, 2013 Latvian Eurovision entrant PeR performing together with Tenfold Rabbit and Lithuanian singer Jurga.

+ Final – 22 February 2014 Artist Song Jury rank Televote Place Votes Rank 1 Ralfs Eilands and Valters Pūce "Revelation" 1 905 8 4 2 Markus Riva "Lights On" 10 632 10 11 3 Katrīna Bindere "Moment and Tomorrow" 7 1,298 5 7 4 Dons "Pēdējā vēstule" 2 2,426 1 1 5 Samanta Tīna "Stay" 5 1,302 4 3 6 Niko "Here I Am Again" 11 1,269 6 9 7 MyRadiantU "Going All the Way" 6 686 9 8 8 Olga and Līgo "Saule riet" 9 1,960 3 6 9 Aminata Savadogo "I Can Breathe" 3 948 7 5 10 Aarzemnieki "Cake to Bake" 4 2,398 2 2 11 Eirošmits "If I Could (Get Away)" 8 541 11 10 12 Katrine Lukins "You Are the Reason" 12 380 12 12

+ Superfinal – 22 February 2014 Artist Song Jury rank Public Vote Place Internet Televote Total Rank 1 Dons "Pēdējā vēstule" 1 1,551 3,830 5,381 2 2 2 Samanta Tīna "Stay" 3 797 1,979 2,776 3 3 3 Aarzemnieki "Cake to Bake" 2 1,529 3,949 5,478 1 1

Preparation