Monty’s Eurovision Countdown 2025 Part 21 – Latvia

Bur Man Laimi by Tautumeitas

Eurovision’s rules permit though don’t mandate a maximum 6 people on stage. Tautumeitas are squeezing in all of their allowance. This female sextet draw on folk music and folklore for this original and ethereal entry.

The video shows them peering into a hole in a tree trunk. For six wholesome women with an interest in mythical tales you’d think they’d know not to enter but in they go, emerging in some alternate universe like a troupe of woodland nymphs. They play with some unexplained globes of light and generally waft around in the greenery. There’s a kind of insistent rhythm and their vocals form some melodic chanting.

Their harmonies work well: they outnumber the UK’s harmonic trio by 2 to 1. Surely this is inviting a collaboration somehow in Basel.

There was a time I’d have lapped this up. It was the same era as I was growing my hair and drenching myself in patchouli and thinking everything new age was a bit edgy. I’ve long since thrown away the joss sticks, and I tend to baulk at anything like this now. It will have its audience, and the genre is otherwise uncontested in this year’s line-up giving it a chance among those moved to phone in for it. But it’s not my cup of tea, or whatever herbal infusion its audience is more likely to favour.

My marks: 3 points

Photo: LSM/Lauris Viksne/EBU