Author: Andris Straumanis

Vote for Madara! Vote for Madara!

Andris Straumanis | 

If I were in Latvia on Feb. 1, I’d be casting my vote for Madara Celma to win the national run-up to the Eurovision Song Contest.

Celma, who has become somewhat of an also-ran in the contest over the past several years, has one of the few standout songs among the 15 contestants scheduled to perform in Eirodziesma 2003, which is to take place in Ventspils.

Actually, Celma has two songs in competition, but it’s her solo effort, “Away From You,” that would get my vote.

The 15 songs up for consideration will be performed live in front of an audience in Ventspils and on Latvijas Televīzija, the state television broadcaster. Then, according to this year’s rules, folks around the country will get a chance to vote by telephone while they watch the nightly news. And then the top five songs will get a repeat hearing, after which the national audience will pick the winner.

Celma deserves to win in large part because “Away From You” is one of the few songs in the contest that sounds distinct. Many of the other are rather dull and oversynthesized, or seem to want to either emulate fading Western pop artists or cash in on the Latin sound that helped catapult Marija Naumova’s “I Wanna” to victory in last year’s Eurovision. The introspective and overall sad tone of “Away From You” also runs against the current of the other entries.

Plus, I’d give Celma credit for perseverance. She continues to compete in Eurovision even though three years ago she was knocked out of the national competition (and lost a recording contract with the MICREC recording house) when it was discovered that her entry that year was plagiarized from an American songwriter’s work. It takes spunk to come back from an embarassment like that.

This year’s Latvian contest includes a number of top performers, as well as some newcomers. The 15 songs, plus three more “in reserve,” are compiled on the Eirodziesma 2003 recording released late last year by Latvijas Televīzija and distributed by Rīga-based Platforma Records.

The artists include Celma and Normunds Rutulis performing “Lead Me To Your Heart.” Big name Latvian performers Mārtiņš Freimanis (of the Liepāja rock group Tumsa), Lauris Reiniks (whom some have called Latvia’s Ricky Martin) and veteran Russian pop and dance music performer Yana Kay team up as F.L.Y. for “Hallo from Mars.” The talented girl group 4.elements returns, this time singing another Arnis Mednis composition, “Long Way to Run.” Other performers who have a certain amount of name recognition include the boy band Caffe, Kristīne Broka, Jānis Stībelis and the duo Fomins & Kleins (that’s Fomins as in Ivo Fomīns, brother of the better-known Igo, and Kleins as in Tomass Kleins, a member of the Liepāja guitar rock band Līvi).

Several new voices will be heard in Ventspils, including one that I found interesting: Elīna Fūrmane. She’ll perform “Right Way,” a song she co-wrote with Edgars Dambis. Fūrmane, still in high school, already has earned recognition for her singing talent. If Celma doesn’t win with “Away From You,” then Fūrmane ought to with her song. Also, Tatjana Timčuka’s flamenco-powered “Roses and Tears” (penned by Sergejs Kugeļevs) is an upbeat song that could do well in the contest, although it does seem to want to follow in Naumova’s steps.

All the songs are in English, with the exception of Fomins’ and Kleins’ “Muzikants.” The song is written by Kleins and Guntars Račs, the well-known lyricist who also plays drums in the group Bet Bet when he’s not at his day job at MICREC. The song’s not bad, but I suspect it might get more sympathy votes because it’s the only Latvian-language entry. (“Muzikants” also was the focus of a recent mini-scandal involving Fomins and Kleins, according to Latvian media reports. The artists showed up at an official music video filming in Ventspils without a recording of their music, technically a violation of Eurovision rules.)

While it would be wonderful if Eurovision contestants would sing in their native languages, the unwritten rule seems to be that English is the way to go if a performer has a prayer of appealing to the millions of people who will be watching and voting during the Eurovision Song Contest, scheduled May 24 in Rīga. Last year Macedonia’s Karolina Gocheva, for example, wanted to perform her song “Od nas zavisi” (On Us It Depends) in English rather than Macedonian. But the folks who run the national contest in Macedonia wouldn’t allow her. The result? Macedonia didn’t even place in the top half.

Andris Straumanis is a special correspondent for and a co-founder of Latvians Online. From 2000–2012 he was editor of the website.

British newsreel archive reveals Latvian scenes

Andris Straumanis | 

At least 20 old newsreels featuring Latvia and Latvians before the Second World War and under Soviet occupation are becoming available for free viewing on a British Web site.

British Pathe Ltd., which for decades provided newsreels to inform British moviegoers, began putting its collection of 3,500 hours of digitized movies—spanning 75 years of British and world history—online in July, according to the company and The New York Times newspaper. All newsreels, published and unpublished, are to be online by May, according to British Pathe.

The site provides downloadable copies of low-resolution preview digital movie files. The preview files are in Windows Media format, which can be viewed on Windows-based and Macintosh computers equipped with the free Windows Media Player software. Users may also purchase high resolution digital files or videotape of the newsreels.

Among the newsreels related to Latvia is one showing presidents of all three Baltic republics—including Latvia’s Janis Čakste—being greeted as they attend the 1926 song festival in Rīga. Another shows Latvia’s “crack cavalry” performing for President Čakste.

Darker moments of Latvia’s history also are covered, such as the 1944 entry of Soviet troops into Rīga, shown in a nearly three-minute Russian-language newsreel.

Perhaps one of the most interesting newsreels for Latvians living abroad may be a short and silent 17-second clip from the early 1950s showing a Swedish vessel, the Gundel, bringing Latvian, Lithuanian and Swedish refugees to Boston.

The British Pathe Web site is at www.britishpathe.com.

Andris Straumanis is a special correspondent for and a co-founder of Latvians Online. From 2000–2012 he was editor of the website.

Concerns raised over Radio Free Europe’s future

Andris Straumanis | 

Leaders of the Baltic states, including Latvian President Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga, have sent letters to U.S. President George Bush asking that his new budget not slash Latvian, Estonian and Lithuanian broadcasts on Radio Free Europe.

Although the proposed budget for fiscal year 2004 won’t be announced until early February, rumors have circulated for weeks that the Baltic language services could be dropped as early as October, now that Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have been invited to join the NATO defense alliance.

Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus and about a third of the country’s members of parliament sent a letter Jan. 15 to Washington, D.C., asking the Bush administration and the Congress to spare Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty (RFERL) from the budget axe, according to Baltic News Service.

Also sending a letter was President Vīķe-Freiberga, said her press secretary, Aiva Rozenberga.

A similar letter was sent by Estonian Prime Minister Siim Kallas, government spokesperson Hanna Hinrikus told Latvians Online by telephone from Tallinn.

“[I]n these uncertain times, and as the war on terrorism continues, it is very important that Estonians continue to receive timely and comprehensive information about international affairs that will help elucidate the meaning and significance of world events,” the letter from Kallas says. “Radio Free Europe is the Estonian-language media organization most capable of meeting this challenge.”

Publically, RFERL officials are saying little about what the proposed budget might hold for them.

“We’re gratified by the support that President Adamkus and the parliamentarians have expressed,” Mārtiņš Zvaners, RFERL’s associate director of communications, told Latvians Online in reaction to news of the Lithuanian letter.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees Radio Free Europe and other services such as the Voice of America, also said it was not aware of plans to cut back service.

White House officials did not respond before this story was published.

Rumors about the Bush budget suggest that the language services for all seven NATO candidates could be slashed from RFERL. In November, NATO invited Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia to join the defense alliance. The membership process could be completed by 2004, but the new federal budget, which will have to be approved by Congress, would go into effect this October.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors’ fiscal 2003 budget totals more than USD 477 million.

The broadcaster’s Latvian service includes editorial offices in RFERL’s headquarters in downtown Prague, capital of the Czech Republic, as well as a local office in Rīga. The Latvian service broadcasts every day with programs lasting from 5 minutes to an hour. The broadcasts may be heard on shortwave and, through local affiliates, on Latvian medium wave stations, as well as on the Hotbird 3 satellite service.

Andris Straumanis is a special correspondent for and a co-founder of Latvians Online. From 2000–2012 he was editor of the website.