Miķelis Ļaksa (born 2 October 1986), known professionally as Markus Riva, is a Latvian singer. He has released several albums, including the debut album Ticu (2009).
Riva worked at Capital FM as a DJ, and has composed music for various television shows. Among creative inspirations, he mentions artists such as Beyoncé, Robyn and Woody Allen. In 2025, he won the TV show “Koru kari” with :lv:Talsu baltais koris.
Career 2014–2023: Dziesma, Supernova and X Faktors He has competed repeatedly in Latvia's national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. He has entered the Latvian national selection for the past eight editions in a row. His first national selection entry was in , when he entered the national selection Dziesma 2014 with the song "Lights On", with which he qualified to the final, where he placed 11th and therefore didn't qualify to the superfinal of the competition. In 2015, Riva released his first single in Russian titled "Taty", the video for the single was made by director Alan Badoev. In 2015 he again entered the selection, now called Supernova with a new format. He returned with his song "Take Me Down", the English version of "Taty", which went on to place second in the final, behind the eventual winner Aminata's song "Love Injected". In 2016, Riva entered with his song "I Can", and came third in the semi-final, however since he was in neither the top two in the jury voting or the televote, he did not reach the final.
An exponent of the Ape Music, since 2017 Riva has been hosting X Faktors, the Latvian version of The X Factor. The same year, Riva again participated in Supernova, this time with the song "Dynamite". He failed to qualify from the second heat, finishing in sixth place. In 2018, Riva entered again with the song "This Time". Originally, he was said to have failed to qualify from his semi-final, however due to technical errors in the voting he would have qualified over Ritvars' song "Who's Counting", so both songs were sent through to the final. In the final, Riva placed fifth out of eight entries. In 2019, he participated in Supernova with his song "You Make Me So Crazy". Having qualified from the semi-final, he placed second out of 8 entries, behind the eventual winner Carousel's song "That Night". In 2020, he returned for a seventh consecutive year with the song "Impossible", co-written by Aminata. He was not selected to participate following an audition round. He returned to Supernova in 2022 with the song "If You're Gonna Love Me", but didn't qualify to the final. In 2023, he was selected once again to perform the song "Forever", which qualified to the final and placed fourth.
Participations in Latvia's Eurovision National Final +Table keyWinnerSecond placeThird placeEntry selected but did not competeUpcoming
Contest Song Final Points Semi Points Dziesma 2014 "Lights On"11th205th18 Supernova 2015 "Take Me Down"2nd Supernova 2016 "I Can" colspan="2" 3rd Supernova 2017 "Dynamite" colspan="4" Supernova 2018 "This Time"5th102nd4 Supernova 2019 "You Make Me So Crazy"2nd63rd6 Supernova 2020 "Impossible"colspan="4" Supernova 2022 "If You're Gonna Love Me"colspan="2" colspan="2" rowspan="2" Supernova 2023 "Forever"4th14 Supernova 2024 "Lose Control"colspan="4" Supernova 2025 "Bigger than This"8th6colspan="2"
Discography Studio albums + List of albums, with selected details Title Details Ticu Released: 2009 Label: Deeselecta (DEES006) Format: CD, digital Songs from NYC Released: December 2010 Label: Markus Riva Format: CD, digital How It Feels Released: November 2013 Label: Promark Music Format: CD, digital MR Released: October 2015 Label: Markus Riva Format: CD, digital I Can Released: September 2018 Label: Markus Riva Format: CD, digital Laika Upe Released: December 2019 Label: Markus Riva Format: CD, digital Pazudīšu Pilsētā Released: December 2021 Label: Markus Riva Format: CD, digital Bigger Than This Released: November 2024 Label: Markus Riva (MR2024) Format: CD, digital
Charted Singles + List of charted singles as lead artist, showing album name and year released Title Year Peak chart positions Album LATAir.Peak chart positions for singles in Latvian Airplay: "One Night": "Too Late for Love": "Far From Me": CISAir.Peak chart positions for singles in Commonwealth of Independent States Airplay: "Ne vidpuskay": UKRAir.Peak chart positions for singles in Ukrainian Airplay: "Ne vidpuskay": "Svadhisthana": "" 2018 rowspan="2" 191 7 "" — 21 rowspan="3" "One Night" 2023 6 — — "Too Late for Love" 2024 9 — — "Far from Me" 21 — — Bigger Than This "—" denotes items which were not released in that country or failed to chart."*" denotes the chart did not exist at that time.
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