This year’s Eurovision Song Contest will be the largest, and perhaps most ethnic, ever. Thanks to fundamental changes in how the contest is run, a total of 36 nations will be in the competition to be presented in two stages May 12 and 15 in Istanbul, Turkey. Latvia’s duo of Fomins & Kleins has a shot to make it to the 24-nation final, but they won’t win.

Fourteen countries already are in the May 15 final, based on their population or their showing in the 2003 contest that was hosted by Latvia. Guaranteed a spot are Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Turkey’s Sertab Erener won the contest last year, giving her home country the right to host this year’s Eurovision.

Latvia and 21 other countries will compete in the semi-final on May 12. The 10 nations getting the highest number of international television audience votes will join the other finalists. Up against Latvia in the semi-final will be Albania, Andorra, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Israel, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovenia, Switzerland and Ukraine.

Several entries this year will be sung in a language other than English, a shift from the past several years when any taste of the diversity of Europe seemed to disappear. Also, perhaps owing to Turkey’s victory last year and a second-place showing by a group from Belgium performing in a make-believe “ethnic” tongue, several songs have been entered that draw on traditional cultures.

My favorites to advance out of the semi-final include Albania, Belarus, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia and Ukraine. I think Croatia, Finland, Lithuania, and Serbia and Montenegro might also make it to the final.

Albania’s Anjeza Shahini sings “The Image of You.” The tune has some nice lyrics (for example, “I’m queen of the world of make believe”), but it’s Shahini’s powerful voice that impressed me, especially at the close of her performance.

Among the more ethnic songs in this year’s lineup is “My Galileo,” a pseudo-Celtic and sort-of-Slavic song by Alexandra & Konstantin of Belarus. It is a strange piece. I’d vote for the song to pass on to the finals for no other reason than to give listeners time to figure out what it’s about. After playing it three times, I still wasn’t sure what language I had to use to decode the lyrics. I ruled out Belarussian because it just didn’t sound like it. Then I read the lyrics on the Web site of the National State Teleradiocompany of Belarus. Surprise, the song’s in English. (The remixed version, by the way, makes that clearer.) “My Galileo” is the first song Belarus has had in the Eurovision Song Contest.

“Stronger Every Minute,” a soulful tune performed by Lisa Andreas of Cyprus, resists the urge many Eurovision songs seems to have to radically change tempo.

Another ethnic entry is “Tii,” performed by Estonia’s five-woman Neiokõsõ. An attempt to use folk music motifs in a pop setting, it’s not a bad effort and may remind some of Finland’s successful Värttinä. Neiokõsõ (which means “the lasses”) sings the tune in the Võro dialect of southern Estonia.

Latvia’s entry, “Dziesma par laimi” by Fomins & Kleins, is a good, basic rock song carried by guitars. For those familiar with the long-lived Līvi, the performance should make it clear that the tune is inspired by the “Liepāja sound.” Ivo Fomins (brother of well-known singer Igo) and Tomass Kleins will have a hard time competing against some of the other entries in the final, but they should at least get to compete on May 15. Their song was the only one in Latvian performed during Eirodziesma, Latvia’s runup to Eurovision.

The most exciting entry among the semi-finalists is “Wild Dances,” sung by Ukraine’s Ruslana Lyzhicko. Beginning with the blaring of shepherds’ horns, the song includes a primal percussion grounding a mix of wild Slavicism and European dance music. The ethnic inspiration for the music and lyrics is the culture of the Gutsul people of Ukraine. Ruslana, as she is known in Ukraine, boasts two graduate degrees in music, according to her Web site. Her album Dyki tantsi (Wild Dances, released in June 2003) in 100 days achieved platinum status, which in Ukraine’s market means sale of 100,000 units.

Of the songs already in the final, I only found two real contenders, with three more that are promising.

The lyrics of “1 Life,” performed by Xandee of Belgium, are nothing special. However, the song’s energy carries the listener along, combining what seem to be Latin and Middle Eastern elements with a touch of techno. It might be enough to carry her to the finals.

I’ve enjoyed France’s entries over the past several years. “A chaque pas,” sung by Jonatan Cerrada, is no exception. Although musically not as interesting as previous French entries, Cerrada’s young and clear voice adds a quality that lifts this tune.

“Can’t Wait Until Tonight” by Germany’s Max, “Love Song” by Poland’s Blue Cafe and “For Real” by Turkey’s Athena also might be worth voting for.

But how the Eurovision Song Contest handles 36 total entries will be the real test of this competition.

“Saturday’s already May 1,” my mother said as she peered at the Laiks calendar in the kitchen. “Hmm,” I replied as I scooped up another forkful of her delicious potato salad. “That’s when the big celebration is in Rīga.” I had stopped by my parents’ house to drop off the latest copies of Diena, to update them on the news of Latvia’s hockey team in the world championship and to grab a quick bite to eat.

“Of course,” my mother said. “It’s May Day.”

No, I reminded her, that’s when Latvia and nine other countries officially join the European Union.

And it was then that the irony struck me. For five decades it had been May Day (or Labor Day), a time for displaying socialist solidarity and to praise the likes of Vladimir Lenin and, back in the 1940s and 1950s, Joseph Stalin. How fitting that this day of commemoration, born in the labor movement of 19th century America only to become one of the biggest annual events for the Soviet Union, should now mark what may be Latvia’s final break with its recent past.

This year it will be the key date in a weeklong and countrywide celebration titled “Mēs Eiropā.”

For my mother, thought of the date brought back a memory from 1941, when she was a high school student in Rīga. The Soviets were in power and on May 1 that meant she and her classmates had to march. Had to march.

It was cold that year, she remembered. Students congregated in Doma laukums in the Old City, waiting for their parade to begin. They were to carry garlands of paper flowers from the square across the Daugava River by way of the pontoon bridge that used to span the water.

Along the way, in a small gesture of resistance to the Soviet regime, some boys “lost” their flowers and ended up getting scolded by their teachers.

This was just one of many memories of that era that I’ve heard from her over the years.

In the coming days, we’ll no doubt read newspaper stories about how Latvia and many of the other countries joining the European Union are “returning” to Europe.

In this new era, there won’t be forced parades, although there will be slogans and posters and flag-waving and other Europropaganda meant to sell the idea of a united Europe 25 nations strong. Resistance to EU membership, a constant theme over the past several years, will continue as well. In Latvia, some eiroskeptiķi (Euroskeptics) have gone as far as equating the voluntary membership in the EU with the forced incorporation into the Soviet Union. It’s a ridiculous comparison, of course, but reflects a healthy doubting of membership in anything. Latvians have every cause to be wary.

We can only hope that as a member of the EU, Latvia will find the benefits outweighing the costs. Reports of rising prices—or the fear of rising prices that leads to shortages that leads to rising prices—already are being heard. But so are reports of potential new investment in the Latvian economy and of new opportunities especially for Latvian youth.

As Latvians look back on May 1 in the future, perhaps they’ll tell their children and grandchildren about the big celebrations scheduled in Rīga and elsewhere, about the day their country became a part of the EU. Hopefully, they will look back on this May 1 as a positive day, a day when things changed for the better.

The subtitle for this column ought to be “What I Did on My Spring Vacation.” While students at the university where I teach were off to places like Florida and Mexico, I hid out at home, finalizing the new design for Latvians Online. The result—still a work in progress—is before you. Here’s a look behind the computer screen at what we’ve done and why.

We began discussing the next steps for Latvians Online last autumn. The site has continued to grow, even though the small core of people who work on it has found itself increasingly pressed for resources. We realized it was time to streamline operations, spruce up the look and functionality of our Web site, and find more efficient ways to continue to produce the news, features and other content our readers find valuable. Our recent reader survey confirmed some of our ideas about our future direction, as well as pointing out areas where we need to improve.

One of the first decisions we made was that we need to adopt a content management system, or CMS. Without getting too technical, most everything you’ve seen on Latvians Online over the past three years has been “hand coded”—each page put together with text processing software before being uploaded to our server. Now many of our pages will be driven by a database, allowing content to be updated faster and used to greater benefit by our readers.

Another decision we made was to adopt a leading-edge approach to the design of our site. We’re now using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), rather than tables, to define how content should be displayed on a page. What that should mean for most readers is that our pages will load much faster. For the Web-savvy among you, it means the door has been opened for us to present our content across various media with little effort.

Using this approach admittedly is a bit risky, because not all browsers fully or correctly support CSS. If you’re using a browser that’s at version 4.0 or earlier, you should consider upgrading—and not only so Latvians Online pages display properly. Most of our readers, according to our statistics, should experience few if any problems.

We’ve added some features that have been requested by readers, plus some we thought were worthwhile:

• When reading an article, you can now click links to view a printer-friendly version or to e-mail the article to yourself or someone else.
• Want to comment on an article? Each article now features a space for leaving your thoughts.
• On our home page, we’ve tapped into the nightly news headlines from Latvian state television’s “Panorāma” newscast. Clicking on a headline will take you to the “Panorāma” Web site. Other Latvian news sources will be added in the future.
• We’re starting a FAQ (frequently asked questions) section. Hardly a day goes by when we don’t get a request for information, such as how to find a long-lost Latvian friend, where to get background for a class project on Latvia, or what to see when visiting Latvia. We can’t answer all questions, but perhaps the FAQ will point some folks to places to get the information they need.

Other improvements are on their way, including a better online store and a better forum format. In the meantime, bear with us in the weeks to come as we tweak the site and move more of our past articles into the database. If you don’t find something you need right away, e-mail me at editor@latviansonline.com and we’ll try to help you.

Other updates

Here in the northern hemisphere, it’s finally spring. And while we renew ourselves, we’re pleased to note that two of our friends are also updating their Web sites.

First, Editor Māra Gulēna and her crew at the biweekly e-zine Toronto Ziņas have unleashed a new look to their Web site. See it at torontozinas.com.

Second, the Latvian Institute in Rīga—an organization led by Ojārs Kalniņš, formerly Latvia’s ambassador to the United States—is accepting proposals in its Web site redesign contest. I’m tempted to send in an entry, but right now I need to get some sleep. My vacation is over.