Eurovision 2025 Latvia Profile: Bur man laimi by Tautumeitas

We profile the 2025 entry from Latvia including details on the artist, song, how it was chosen, odds, fan reaction, and how the nation has fared at Eurovision.

A relative newcomer to the Eurovision Song Contest, Latvia debuted in 2000 and achieved their first and only win thus far in 2002 with Marie N and her song I Wanna. By 2005 the Baltic nation had placed in the Top 5 on three occasions, however their luck has not been the same since the semi-final format was introduced.

Not surprisingly Latvia has the undesirable distinction of finishing last in the Eurovision semi-finals more than any other country with five last places, these occurred in 2009, 2010, 2013, 2017 and 2021.

2025 marks 25 appearances for Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest, they have qualified for the final 11 times. They have used a national final for every year with the exception of 2021 when Samanta Tina who was due to compete in 2020 was internally selected after that year’s competition was cancelled.

Latvia has used the national final Supernova since 2015 to choose their entrant. The previous competitions used were Eirodziesma (2000–2012) and Dziesma (2013–2014). All three formats were organised by the Latvian broadcaster Latvijas Televīzija (LTV) which has been a full member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) since 1993.

Representing Latvia at Eurovision 2025 in Basel is Tautumeitas with their song Bur man laimi.

2025 entry: Tautumeitas- Bur man laimi

• Tautumeitas will perform fourth in semi-final 2

• My Eurovision Scoreboard ranking: 23rd

• Odds to win ranking: 33rd

• Aussievision ranking: 26th

  
  

(Rankings as of 15 April 2025)

About the artist:

Tautumeitas are a Latvian ethno-pop, folk/world music band formed in 2015. The band consists of six vocalists and instrumentalists. The band’s name originates from an old Latvian word meaning “young girl”. Latvians now refer to a tautumeita as “a girl wearing a national costume”. However, it is a word that is used rarely in modern day Latvia. The band chose the name as they wanted to create authentic traditional songs and demonstrate to fellow Latvians that any young girl who carries her ancestor’s wisdom, carries the knowledge in the future and uses what is important to her today, can refer to herself as a tautumeita.

Their music takes inspiration from their love of folk music, living in modern times as well as nature, travelling, other forms of art and artists from around the world. Many band members have studied ethnomusicology.

Tautumeitas’ popularity has grown significantly in the last few years. In 2022, their latest album Skrejceļš, resulted with a 17-day tour which included Glastonbury (United Kingdom), Eurosonic (Netherlands), Rudolstadt (Germany) and Festival Du Bout du Monde (France).

The members of Tautumeitas are:

• Asnate Rancāne – violin, vocals

• Aurēlija Rancāne – drums, vocals

• Annemarija Moiseja – percussion, vocals

• Laura Marta Līcīte – percussion, violin, vocals

• Gabriēla Zvaigznīte - vocals

• Kate Slišāne - vocals, mandolin, clarinet.

Tautumeitas have a huge respect for their country’s inaugural winner Marie N stating “She brought the Eurovision song contest to Latvia and showed that a small country can dream big and make those dreams come true.” They are also huge fans of Aminata who they describe as showcasing her talent and bringing something fresh and unique to the Contest as well as 2021 Eurovision winners Måneskin. One of the band’s favourite Eurovision songs is Saudade Saudade (Portugal 2022).

About the song:

Bur man laimi is the first song written entirely in Latvian to represent the country since 2004. The song translates as “A Chant for Happiness”, and is about one's ability to be happy, self-sufficient, confident in times of need, but decisive and confident in their choices. The group describes happiness as being energy.

The song contains traditional Lativian music with contemporary elements and was written by Tautumeitas members Asnate Rancāne, Aurēlija Rancāne, Laura Maria Līcīte, and Gabriēla Zvaigznīte as well as Elvis Lintiņš, who is the band’s pianist and producer.

The oak tree which is referred to in the song symbolises growth in the face of adversity.

How was Tautumeitas chosen for Eurovision?

Bur man laimi was released on 4 December 2024 and was announced as Tautumeitas’ entry for Supernova 2025. Supernova used a system of a semi-final held on 1 February 2025 in which 20 songs competed for 10 spots in the final (held on 8 February 2025). Tautumeitas qualified to the final along with perennial Supernova contestant Markus Riva and Latvian 2022 Eurovision contestant Citi Zēni. 2016 Eurovision Latvian contestant Justs also competed, but failed to qualify for the final.

In one of the closest competitions in the national final’s history, three acts finished on 18 points. These were:

Tautumeitas (jury) 8 points + (televote) 10 points = 18 points

Citi Zēni (jury) 12 points + (televote) 6 points = 18 points

Emilija (jury) 10 points + (televote) 8 points = 18 points.

As Tautumeitas received the most televote points, they were crowned the winner. Another contestant, The Ludvig received 17 points while winning the 12 points in the televote (and receiving 5 points from the jury). If he had received one more vote, he would be on his way to Basel in May instead of Tautumeitas .

Aussievision Supernova 2025 reaction

Latvia will perform in the second semi-final in fourth place at Eurovision 2025 in Basel, Switzerland on Thursday, 15 May.

For continued updates on all the Eurovision 2025 news follow Aussievision on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Threads, Bluesky and Instagram. All the links can be found at: https://linktr.ee/aussievisionnet