Latvia was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with the song "Love Injected" written and performed by Aminata. The Latvian participating broadcaster, (LTV), organised the national final Supernova 2015 in order to select the entry for the contest. Twenty songs were selected to compete in the national final, which consisted of four shows: two heats, one semi-final and a final. In the heats and the semi-final, four entries were selected to advance from each show: two entries selected based on a public televote and two entries selected by a four-member jury panel. Four songs ultimately qualified to compete in the final on 22 February 2015 where a public vote exclusively selected "Love Injected" performed by Aminata as the winner.

Latvia was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 21 May 2015. Performing during the show in position 10, "Love Injected" was announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 23 May. It was later revealed that Latvia placed second out of the 17 participating countries in the semi-final with 155 points. In the final, Latvia performed in position 19 and placed sixth out of the 27 participating countries, scoring 186 points. This was Latvia's best placing in the contest since 2005.

Background

Prior to the 2015 contest, (LTV) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Latvia fifteen times since its first entry in 2000. Latvia 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 2014, it had failed to qualify to the final for six consecutive years including with its entry "Cake to Bake" performed by Aarzemnieki.

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 2015 contest on 8 September 2014. LTV has selected their entries for the contest through a national final. Since its 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, between 2013 and 2014, the competition was rebranded and retooled as Dziesma. After failing to produce successful entries those two years, LTV announced that it would be organising a new national final titled Supernova in order to select the entry for the 2015 contest. LTV outlined that the goal of the competition is to find a song that has international hit potential and an artist that is charismatic, talented and capable of performing the selected song.

Before Eurovision Supernova 2015 Supernova 2015 was the first edition of Supernova, the music competition that selects Latvia's entries for the Eurovision Song Contest. The competition commenced on 1 February 2015 and concluded with a final on 22 February 2015. All shows in the competition took place at the LTV Studio 6 in Riga, hosted by Ketija Šēnberga and Toms Grēviņš and broadcast on LTV1 as well as online via the official Supernova website supernova.lsm.lv. An alternative broadcast of the final also occurred online at lsm.lv with commentary by the duo Transleiteris consisting of Edžus Ķaukulis and Lauris Mihailovs.

Format The format of the competition consisted of four shows: two heats, one semi-final and a final. LTV broadcast two introductory shows on 18 and 25 January 2015 that covered the background preparation processes and performer auditions that occurred prior to the competition. The two heats, held on 1 and 8 February 2015, each featured ten competing entries from which four advanced to the semi-final from each show. The semi-final, held on 15 February 2015, featured the eight qualifiers from the heats from which four proceeded to the final. The final, held on 22 February 2015, selected the Latvian entry for Vienna from the remaining four entries.

Results during the heats and the semi-final shows were determined by a jury panel and votes from the public. In the heats and the semi-final, the songs first faced a public vote where the top two entries qualified. The jury then selected an additional two qualifiers from the remaining entries to proceed in the competition. In the final, a public vote exclusively determined which entry would be the winner. 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 official Supernova website allowed users to vote once per each accepted social network account: Draugiem.lv, Facebook and Twitter. During the competition, the jury panel also had the right to reinstate an eliminated song if they believed the song had potential with an artist that was still active in the competition. Should this have occurred, the jury would replace a competing artist's song with the eliminated song.

The jury participated in each show by providing feedback to the competing artists and selecting entries to advance in the competition. The panel consists of: Kaspars Roga – drummer for Brainstorm and director of music videos Guntars Račs – musician, songwriter, producer and music publisher Dons – singer-songwriter Ieva Kerēvica – singer and vocal teacher

Competing entries Artists and songwriters were able to submit their applications and entries separately to the broadcaster between 3 November 2014 and 10 December 2014. 98 songs were submitted and 123 performers applied for the competition at the conclusion of the submission period. Local and international jury panels were appointed by LTV for the selection process; the international jury panel conducted the song selection from the submitted songs while the local jury panel screened and selected the performers. The international jury panel consisted of Peo Nylén (producer and representative of Scandinavian Songs AB record company), Michael Jay (producer and songwriter) and Jarkko Nordlund (Universal Music Group Finland and the Baltic region manager). The local jury panel consisted of the four-member jury panel during the live shows: Kaspars Roga, Guntars Račs, Dons and Ieva Kerēvica. The performer auditions took place on 5 January 2015 and featured 56 shortlisted performers from the initial 123 that had applied. The twenty competing artists and songs were announced during a press conference on 13 January 2015.

Artist SongSongwriter(s) Aminata "Love Injected"Aminata Savadogo Antra Stafecka "It's the Night"Antra Stafecka, Kerija Kalēja Atis Ieviņš "Catfish"Ralfs Eilands, Reinis Briģis ElektroFolk "Sundance"Ainārs Majors, Arnolds Kārklis Euphony "Home"Andris Kivičs Framest "Ziemā"Jānis Ķirsis, Inga Pizāne – Dilba Katrīna Bindere "Run to You"Diāna Černe Katrīna Cīrule "Bass"Katrīna Cīrule, Jānis Ķirsis Lana Frančeska "Lions"Ingars Viļums, Lana Frančeska Švilpe Linda Ķaukule "Save Our Love"Ruslans Kuksinovičs Markus Riva "Take Me Down"Miķelis Ļaksa Milenin and Kamilla "Colours of Love"Gaitis Lazdāns, Mārtiņš Taranda Mntha "Nefelibata"Marija Mickeviča Mārtiņš Ruskis and Ginta Krievkalna "Debesis"Jānis Ķirsis, Pēteris Draguns Ornella "Angel"Rino Rudevičs Riga Metro "High Heels"Elīna Dumpe, Antons Kekļa, Valters Suķis, Gusts Kaksis Rihards Bērziņš "Your Eyes"Ingars Viļums Rihards Saule "Life Lines"Lauris Valters Signe "Sweet Girl"Reinis Briģis, Alise Kante The Stones "Free Your Mind"Igors Voļhins

Shows Heats The two heats took place on 1 and 8 February 2015. In each heat ten acts competed and four entries qualified to the semi-final. The competing entries first faced a public vote where the top two songs advanced; an additional two qualifiers were then selected from the remaining eight entries by the jury.

+ Heat 11 February 2015 Artist Song Result 1 Katrīna Cīrule "Bass" 2 Lana Frančeska "Lions" 3 Atis Ieviņš "Catfish" 4 Milenin and Kamilla "Colours of Love" 5 Antra Stafecka "It's the Night" Advanced 6 Framest "Ziemā" Advanced 7 Linda Ķaukule "Save Our Love" 8 Mntha "Nefelibata" Advanced 9 Rihards Saule "Life Lines" 10 ElektroFolk "Sundance" Advanced

+ Heat 28 February 2015 Artist Song Result 1 The Stones "Free Your Mind" 2 Signe "Sweet Girl" 3 Mārtiņš Ruskis and Ginta Krievkalna "Debesis" 4 Ornella "Angel" 5 Rihards Bērziņš "Your Eyes" Advanced 6 Euphony "Home" Advanced 7 Riga Metro "High Heels" 8 Katrīna Bindere "Run to You" 9 Markus Riva "Take Me Down" Advanced 10 Aminata "Love Injected" Advanced

Semi-final The semi-final took place on 15 February 2015. 2009 Latvian Eurovision entrant Intars Busulis was a guest juror for the semi-final, filling in for Dons. Four entries qualified to the final. The eight competing entries first faced a public vote where the top two songs advanced. An additional two qualifiers were selected from the remaining six entries by the jury.

+ Semi-final15 February 2015 Artist Song Result 1 ElektroFolk "Sundance" Advanced 2 Aminata "Love Injected" Advanced 3 Mntha "Nefelibata" Advanced 4 Markus Riva "Take Me Down" Advanced 5 Antra Stafecka "It's the Night" 6 Euphony "Home" 7 Framest "Ziemā" 8 Rihards Bērziņš "Your Eyes"

Final The final took place on 22 February 2015. The four entries that qualified from the semi-final competed. The song with the highest number of votes from the public, "Love Injected" performed by Aminata, was declared the winner. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, guest performers included the band bet bet, singer Dons and 2000 Latvian Eurovision entrant Brainstorm.

+ Final22 February 2015 Artist Song Public Vote Internet Televote Total Place 1 Aminata "Love Injected" 8,319 14,017 22,336 1 2 Mntha "Nefelibata" 3,010 7,352 10,362 4 3 ElektroFolk "Sundance" 2,803 7,971 10,774 3 4 Markus Riva "Take Me Down" 5,818 9,932 15,750 2

Promotion Aminata made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Love Injected" as the Latvian Eurovision entry. On 18 April, Aminata performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Cornald Maas and Edsilia Rombley. On 26 April, Aminata performed during the London Eurovision Party, which was held at the Café de Paris venue in London, United Kingdom and hosted by Nicki French and Paddy O'Connell. In addition to her international appearances, Aminata performed during the Eurovision PreParty Riga, which was organised by OGAE Latvia and held at the Palladium Concert Hall in Riga on 17 April.

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. In the 2015 contest, Australia also competed directly in the final as an invited guest nation. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into five different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 26 January 2015, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Latvia was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 21 May 2015, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.

Once all the competing songs for the 2015 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Latvia was set to perform in position 10, following the entry from Israel and before the entry from Azerbaijan.