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18 Latvian bands compete for SonyBMG record deal

Andris Straumanis

April 09, 2008

A record deal with SonyBMG awaits one of 18 Latvian bands enrolled in the Urban D Playground competition, all of which will perform live 45-minute sets April 10-12 in the main railway station square in downtown Rīga.

But the competition so far has not been without its problems. On the official Web site, urbandplayground.com, contest promoters apologized to the Latvian bands for a delay in announcing the finalists. The reason? “All the manipulated and same IP address votes were disqualified and cleaned out and this process took more time than expected,” promoters said.

The competition began March 25. More than 60 bands entered, posted songs and videos, and waited for fan votes to move them into the top 18. Now the top 18 will play their live sets, after which Internet voting will continue until April 24, when the winner will be named. Factored into the voting will be the vote of a five-member jury, whose voice counts for 40 percent against the public vote.

Going into the finals, the Daugavpils “dance rock” band Robotplant is No. 1, followed by rock band S.P.B. at No. 2 and Liepāja-based acid jazz band The Briefing at No. 3. Many of the remaining bands are little known, but there are a few familiar names, such as Crowd and Bez PVN.

Andris Straumanis is editor of Latvians Online.