Latvia advances to final of Eurovision

Latvia’s six-man group Bonaparti.lv and the song “Questa notte” have made it through to the final of the Eurovision Song Contest, according to telephone voting results following the semi-final competition May 10 in Helsinki, Finland.

Bonaparti.lv performed last in a field of 28 countries. Latvia and nine other nations—Belarus, Bulgaria, Georgia, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldova, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey—will return to the stage May 12 to compete in the final along with entries from 14 other countries.

Eurovision officials will reveal actual tallies from the semi-final only after the final competition. All that is known is that Latvia will perform 14th, halfway through the final show.

Bonaparti.lv consists of six tenors: Andris Ābelīte, Andris Ērglis, Normunds Jakušonoks, Roberto Meloni, Zigfrīds Muktupāvels and Kaspars Tīmanis.

Latvia first competed in Eurovision in 2000, when BrainStorm (Prāta Vētra) finished third overall. In 2002, Marija Naumova won the contest, which meant that Latvia got to host Eurovision in 2003.

Last year, the a capella group Cosmos represented Latvia, but finished 16th overall. That meant Latvia this year had to compete in the semi-final.

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

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