Latvia’s costumed singing act Pirates of the Sea has it made through to the finals of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. The Latvian entry, singing “Wolves of the Sea,” was one of 10 countries to advance from their May 22 semi-finals in Belgrade, Serbia.

Latvia will compete with 24 other countries in the final scheduled May 24 in Belgrade. The competition will be aired live on television stations across Europe and also will be available for viewing over the Internet.

In all, 43 countries have entries in the contest. Four of them—France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom—were automatically in the final because of their population. Serbia, which won last year’s contest, also had a spot reserved in the final. The remaining 38 countries were split into two groups competing in semi-finals May 20 and 22. A combination of televoting and jury decisions determined which 10 countries from each semi-final got to go on to the final.

Neither Estonia or Lithuania made it out of the semi-finals.

The winner of the May 24 final will be determined by telephone and text message voting across 45 countries, including all of Europe, Turkey and Israel.

Latvia first participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2000. That year, pop-rock group Brainstorm took third place. Two years later in Tallinn, Estonia, pop singer Marija Naumova won the contest. As a result, the 2003 contest took place in Latvia. Last year, Latvia’s six-man, Italian-singing Bonaparti.lv finished 16th.

The Italian-born Roberto Meloni, one of the members of Bonaparti.lv, is the driving force behind this year’s entry from Latvia. Pirates of the Sea also includes radio and television moderator Jānis Vaišļa and dancer Aleksandra Kurusova. The song “Wolves of the Sea” was written by Jonas Liberg, Johan Sahlen, Claes Andreasson and Torbjörn Wassenius, all of Sweden.

Further information on the song contest is available by visiting www.eurovision.tv.