As avid Eurovision fans we soon pick up on our Facebook feeds when a completely fabulous song is competing in a national final in some random country. Every year we end up falling in love with a number of songs that in the end never makes it past the finishing line and reach the Eurovision finals. This year our sincere gratitude goes out to Latvia for not keeping this little gem away from an international audience. Good call!
We normally don’t pay much attention to Supernova, the national selection shows in Latvia, and last year we nearly fell off our chairs when we first heard their chosen entry. Love Injected was actually shockingly good! From a country that usually sends crap! What happened? Most importantly Aminata happened and we remember thinking that she should write every single entry for Latvia from now on and into the unforeseeable future.
Perhaps that’s why we were not the least surprised to learn that the very same amazing woman is also behind Heartbeat. And in a year chuck full of returning artists it’s even better when she has penned it for someone else to perform. Justs makes out a new acquaintance and it’s almost like he was born to sing this song. It fits him like a glove and in the national final he gave a flawless performance. He already has the whole package pinned down and does not have to change or improve a thing. He only has to walk out on that stage in Globen with his puppy eyes and red leather jacket and sing his heart out.
Heartbeat is everything we could wish for. It’s modern electropop at its finest, being all edgy and fragile at once. The chorus is catchy as hell and it’s the sort of song that you wish never would finish. The second it fades out we just want to press repeat! It triggers bittersweet feelings we forgot we had and it almost makes us long for the times in the past when we had our hearts broken and life seemed so cruel, but yet we lived it with full force, drowning our sorrows and throwing ourselves out on packed dance floors. To put it simply it seems to have this all-important power to resonate among a wide specter of different people, and then you’re really on to something, we think.
Judging by what type of songs that have done well the past few years, this one is bound to garner support from all over the place, including the juries who will tick off most boxes: an original composition, chart potential and a strong live performance. This is a dead cert top 10, quite possibly top 5 even. And beyond that who knows what might happen.
You don’t normally watch Supernova – That’s because Supernova was only introduced from 2015…
We’re proud to have such knowledgeable readers. Thanks for pointing that out to us!