After a longer break and a released album “Y A U D A” in August 2020, one of the leading Latvian hip-hop artists Ozols returns with a brand new single “LIELAIS FLEXXX”. The single is released in cooperation with the international record label “Sony Music Entertainment”.
“LIELAIS FLEXXX” was created together with a new local beatmaker “Mauriks”. Ozols comments: “The song was written during a time when the majority of events are cancelled, “frozen” and a large part of the society is experiencing a reform in their professional and personal lives. This time will definitely leave a certain mark on all of us.”
Regarding the cooperation with “Sony Music Entertainment”, Ozols comments: “We’ve established cooperation for multiple singles and in my opinion, this is the right time when teamwork might bring greater results than individual work. I hope we will succeed!”
Kaisu Pulli, Director, Partner Services & Baltics, comments: “We couldn’t be more excited about our partnership with Ozols. We are simply amazed by his talent and artistic vision and have huge respect for the long career he has been able to build by himself. Latvia’s music scene is vibrant and we are looking forward to finally start building more relationships in the local community.”
Tonight (May 20), Latvian singer Samanta Tīna will take the stage of the International Eurovision Song Contest, where she will represent Latvia with the song “The Moon Is Rising”. Samanta will participate in the second semi-final as 15th contestant and will fight for the opportunity to perform in the Eurovision Super Final on the evening of May 22. But before that Samanta has decided to please the audience by releasing a new song “I’m The Woman”.
“Since I’m in Rotterdam right now, I think it would be great if I could release a new song in the evening of my Eurovision semi-final because this song is exactly on the same topic as my Eurovision song “The Moon Is Rising” – the power of a woman – “I’m The Woman,” says Samanta.
The single “I’m The Woman” was made in a songwriting camp, which was organized especially for Samanta in the autumn of 2020 in cooperation with the “Latvian Music Development Association/Latvian Music Export”. The aim of the camp was to write a strong and competitive song with which Tīna could participate in the Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam. Eleven demo versions of the songs were recorded at this two-day long camp, from which the single “The Moon Is Rising” was chosen as the Eurovision song, and the song “I’m The Woman” Samanta ranked in her TOP 3. “I ranked all the songs from the camp in order, to choose the right one for Eurovision, and this song was convincingly in my TOP 3. It was made on the second day of the camp, and Arnis Račinskis and Jānis Jačmenkins worked on it,” reveals Samanta.
“The story of the song is like a flowing and natural continuation of my Eurovision song “The Moon Is Rising” – about accepting yourself and that we must learn that what makes us different from each other – that is our uniqueness. Love yourself, keep your head up and go your own way no matter what others think of you. We each have our dreams and goals, and the only one who can or cannot achieve them is you! Be unshakable! Head up and go boldly to make your dreams come true!” urges Samanta.
“While we are in Rotterdam, a TV directing consultant for the Eurovision performance Juris Matuzelis (Pepe) and I created the lyric video for the song “I’m The Woman. In our spare time, which is extremely limited here actually, we continue to work on new material. I am currently working on my new album,” reveals Samanta Tīna.
“I’m The Woman” will be available on Spotify, iTunes, Deezer and other music streaming platforms soon.
Already tonight, May 20, the second semifinal of the International Eurovision Song Contest will be broadcast live, where our national representative Samanta Tīna will perform as 15th contestant.
Samanta Tīna won “Supernova 2020” with the song “Still Breathing” and earned her chance to represent Latvia in the Eurovision but it was cancelled due to the pandemic, therefore the Latvian Television (LTV) has given Samanta the opportunity to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest this year.
Electro-pop artist and producer BAIBA has finished work on her second studio album that was made in collaboration with Tyrolean producers CHRS and “Digital Youth”. Her latest work is a dynamic manifesto that beauty can be found different human emotions.
BAIBA has been working on this album for past few years and is both author and producer of songs. Most of the songs are recorded in her little bedroom studio. Songs are produced in close collaboration with two Tyrolean producers – Christoph Holzknecht (CHRS) and Benjamin Leingartner (“Digital Youth”).
Album consists of ten songs that she has written in recent years. During this time she has exchanged her signature acoustic guitar and melancholic lyrics with vibrant synths, piano chords and massive drum beats.
This work is a symbol of a new start for Latvian singer-songwriter. “Lighter” is filled with straight forward and playful electro-pop. “Album is a dynamic manifesto that beauty can be found different human emotions, and that melancholy can be beautiful, filled with rhythm, you can both enjoy and dance to it,” says BAIBA.
Musician reveals that she’s been experimenting a lot with sounds and motives and her lyrics have become much more bolder than in her previous works. “I learned to take my experiences with playfulness and healthy amount of irony,” she says and hopes that it will resonate with her listeners to be inspired to be true and sincere to themselves.
BAIBA is a Latvian musician who currently lives in Innsbruck, Austria. She grew up in a family of farmers in a small town of Tukums, Pure parish. At the age of seven, she began attending Kandava Music School, where she studied piano. Later, BAIBA moved to Liepaja, where he studied culture management and also obtained a master’s degree in writing. During this time, she began to write her own songs and perform at various events.
At the end of 2020 BAIBA took second place in Italian contest for young musicians called “Upload Sounds”. She gained an opportunity to work with such recognised members of Italian music industry as producer Bruno Belissimo (previously working with Italian bands “Calcutta” and “Frah Quintale”) and video graphic designer and director Claudio Zagarini from “Universal Music”.
A synth-rock band from Riga produced yet another music video with no budget – now it’s for the song Touch my Dress. The song is written by the band’s bass guitarist Nikita Andrejevs. The music video was shot by the band’s longtime friend Stephanie Zapolska.
The story unfolds in a shady neighborhood in Riga. A young man buys the “Party” video tape from a mysterious dealer, unaware that it contains a viral song that would eventually spread to the whole world and cause people to dance recklessly and dress up in bizarre clothing.
The music video involved all of the friends and friends of friends that the band could invite. While Stephanie Zapolska was shooting the band’s drummer Jānis Zariņš tied up to a chair, Daniil Ravinsky and Nikita Andrejevs were cooking chili in the kitchen for the whole band. Tasty chili is the secret of making a music video with no budget and any professional actors, says Daniil, the band’s lead singer. The idea for the video is a result of a mutual desire to produce a music video packed with action and references to dark comedy and the previous videos of the band. The band wishes to thank all the participants of the shooting!
DANI RYAN has already released 4 music videos for songs from the PARTY! album and do not plan to stop. Now the band tirelessly prepares for the album support tour, waiting to meet everyone at the future concerts that will provide more than an exciting musical show – a visual one as well. DANI RYAN did not ever sound or look like that.
Latvian band Very Cool People has released a new single and video Camarada Emigrante. In the video, all members of the band take part in a talent show in which they have to show their hidden talents.
The band’s leader & guitarist Elvijs is a street juggler who specializes in cup tricks with money laundering, the group’s keyboardist Māris Vitkus is a passionate archer in a green cloak. Māris Jēkabsons is a karatist who is able to break boards with all parts of his body. As it has long been known, the game of saxophone and karate are based on the same principles, so it is no wonder that the sexiest saxophonist of Latvia is dressed in a kimono with a fourth dana black belt.
His colleague Kristaps, on the other hand, is a break dancer with excellent dance steps from the highest shelves of the brakedance tradition. The fact that Kristaps is a great dancer has so far been seen in the band’s concerts, where he is also the choreographer of the Very Cool People wind section. Laura is a boxer-cake baker who can knock out any member of the jury if the results are not what she expected. Oskars, well, who doesn’t know Oskars yet – a kebab tycoon, philanthropist and the best director-screenwriter of Ķekava. Bassist Jānis is an unbeatable hot dog eater with an excellent appetite and a huge mouth, in which he can stuff up to three hot dogs at the same time. And finally, Andris is a botanist-crazy professor who knows how to grow everything from everything. He has been growing tulips and watermelons for years, and even knows how to select tomatoes and special long rhubarb. The only one who demonstrates musical talent in the video for Camarada Emigrante is the Brazilian actor, dancer and songwriter Jorge Barreto Gonçalves who lives in Latvia. All these characters then interact as much as they can, and all the talents are inevitably valued. Evaluation is known to be a serious and complex process, so it is carried out by a no less colorful jury, which logically are also played by the members of the band themselves.
The new single is composed by Elvijs Grafcovs. The creation of the clip was completely entrusted to the excellent Latvian filmaker Reinis Janulis and the Colortime team. The recording of the song was made under the direction of Tālis Timrots in the legendary Mints Music studio – basement of the Reformed Church, then the recorded result traveled to Ogre where the mixing work was made by Andris Buiķis and then Jānis Kalve took care of the master version of the track.
In collaboration with singer ANNNA, Sudden Lights has remotely created the song “Aizņem man vietu”, which is now being released as a single. Indie and electropop is about friendship, for which distance is not an obstacle.The lyrics of the song, written by Sudden Lights soloist Andrejs Reinis Zitmanis and ANNNA, cover the story of an imaginary train from Riga to Amsterdam. Although there is no such train physically and the opportunities to travel are limited, we can keep our loved ones close emotionally. As distance becomes more and more unessential, our home can be any place in the world.
The music video is Ērika Daņiloviča’s debut directorial release. It encompasses her uniqueapproach to photography. Viewers will experience her personal perspective of the pandemic. The director said of her work: “The music video is about the human condition – how a person feels during a certain period of time. All people are very different and individual, but when a person enters synergy with stress and denial of reality, then all people are connected in the feeling and want to escape their external and internal world. A person enters a state, in which they wish to be free of their ‘’prison’’ – of their cyclic existential life and their ego. This state in Hinduism is called moksha. Moksha personifies the point of attraction towards which people rush to in order to feel their ethereal body and relax completely.”
Abuses are:Richard Thompson – Guitar, Anete Čīma – Bass, Sabine Moore – Vocals and production.Additional drums by Vija Moore.
Reinis Jaunais, together with featuring artists, released a new music video for their song Dance Epidemic. The video is directed by Reinis’ wife Laima Jaunā. Reinis describes the filming process: ”It was lots of fun filming and walking around various places and different hoods in Riga, such as Ziepniekkalns, Imanta, Āgenskalns and elsewhere in Pārdaugava in a green full body suit – those are the places I grew up in.”
While dancing around various districts of Riga in a funny green costume, many people actually joined in dancing. It almost felt like a real dance epidemic had started. Some passersby were filming on their phones. Sometimes cars stopped to take some photos, too. Reinis says that he has seen several videos on TikTok made by bypassers on the filming days.
Song is named after a real-life event called the Dance Epidemic, also known as Dancing Plague or Dancing Mania. According to Wikipedia, it ”was a social phenomenon that occurred primarily in mainland Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries. It involved groups of people dancing erratically, sometimes thousands at a time. [..] Often musicians accompanied dancers, due to a belief that music would treat the mania, but this tactic sometimes backfired by encouraging more to join in.” Reinis and Laima adds: ”We thought that these past events would fit well with the current (or recent) lockdown and stuff.”
Featuring artists are violin player Balázs Dankó (Hungary) who is a chamber music player but apparently knows how to play ‘bluesy’ violin solos, too, and flute player Ieva Supjeva (originally from Latvia, currently living in Belgium) – previously Reinis and Ieva played together in the band ‘Young & The Oak People’. However, guest artists didn’t participate in the filming of this video as they couldn’t travel to Riga due to travel restrictions.
Video is made using green suit technique. In case anyone out there would like to try to make a similar video, Laima is happy to share her experience and warns that ”still lots of cutting was necessary”.
Reinis Jaunais is a travelling musician who has regularly played shows internationally. He has released 7 music albums so far. The song ‘Dance Epidemic’ is included in his latest album called ‘Zeme’. The title of this album translates as Earth, soil or ground.
On Friday, June 4, the nominees for the prestigious German classical music recording award Opus Klassik were announced, among which Latvian pianist Andrejs Osokins had four nominations. Osokins’ album “Two Worlds” created at “Prima Classic” music publishing house has been nominated in the categories “Best Instrumentalist of the Year”, “Classics without Borders”, “Best Instrumental Solo Performance of the Year”, “Young Artist of the Year”.
“I am extremely happy, emotionally fulfilled and grateful to the “Prima Classic” team and especially to Marina Rebeka for the trust in the recording of this album. It was an unforgettably beautiful process, and I am delighted that the album recorded in the Latvian Radio studio received such a high evaluation by an international jury. I am proud of how many wonderful Latvian musicians have been nominated for this award, which once again proves that Latvia is truly a world music superpower!” says Andrejs Osokins.
Traditionally, the Opus Klassik (formerly Echo Klassik) award ceremonies take place in October at the Konzerthaus Berlin. Along with Andrejs Osokins, this year’s nominees include Hans Zimmer, Martha Argerich, Daniel Barenboim, Marina Rebeka, Elīna Garanča, Andris Nelsons, Gidons Krēmers and other outstanding Latvian and foreign musicians in various award categories.
The video for George Gershwin’s “The Man I Love”, included in the album “Two Worlds” and performed by Andrejs Osokins in his transcription for the left hand, can be seen here:
Andrejs Osokins’ album “Two Worlds” was released in March this year by the American music publisher “Prima Classic”. It is dedicated to two outstanding composers – George Gershwin and Claude Debussy – and reveals both composers as creators of a new style of piano music and the beginning of the 20th century as a time of search and experimentation in music. The soundtrack is directed and produced by Edgardo Vertanessian. Even before the release of the album, the recordings of the compositions included in it were noticed and appreciated in the world, receiving the recognition of music experts from the music streaming sites “Spotify”, “Apple Music” and “Amazon Music”.
More information about the Opus Klassik Award is available here.
Alternative pop band Podruga has released a socially distanced concert recording with nods to the 80s style – “PODRUGA on Tape”. The concert has been released not only online but also in a style-appropriate, long-unseen format – VHS tape.
In a colourful and visually captivating performance, the band performed not only new arrangements of fan favourite songs but also the band’s latest melancholic single “So Long”, which was at the top of LR6 Radio NABA’s Latvian music TOP10 for 8 weeks. The show also featured the premieres of compositions from the band’s upcoming new album.
The recording has been released in a very limited edition of atypical, but thematically appropriate format – VHS cassettes. The full-length recording of “PODRUGA on Tape” is also available on the band’s YouTube channel.
Podruga started in 2016 as a solo electronic music project of Alise Stefanovica. Over time, the project has developed artistic diversity, and its concept has grown to its current line-up of Alise Stefanovica (vocals, flute), Ricards Dauksts (guitar, keys), Jana Petkus (bass guitar) and Karlis Lazdovskis (drums). They have released four singles and EP “YPA!”, and have played many concerts, including at major Baltic festivals. The current line-up of Podruga creates intimate, sensual music with expressive show elements.
