Phil’s Eurovision Countdown 2025 Part 21/37 – Latvia

Tautumeitas – Bur Man Laimi

As you know, dear reader, I’m currently holed up at His Majesty’s National Health Service, declared medically fit but in the system… and never has a sentence been so apt for a song in this silly contest than that.

At the point of the national final, which I was made to watch seemingly at gunpoint, I wanted Markus Riva to win… and I thought he would, so shame on me when he didn’t, and this lot won. Like so many of the songs in this contest this year, I couldn’t remember how it actually went, and so I put the headphones into the iPhone and gave it a listen.

From the introduction through to the end you can tell that it is very ethnic and, to be honest, I didn’t realise that Latvia had an ethnic string to their bow. It reminds me of popular classical music from an old British Airways advert, crossed with something Enya would have put out in her pomp. The result is a mish-mash of a song that changes gear a couple of times in the three minutes, but rather than being as smooth as a Rolls-Royce they are a clunky as an Austin Princess. The result is something that is also Austin Princess like. It should be a great idea on paper but the execution is less than stellar.

It does have its good points. The chorus is clearly an ear-worm, because it’s just “Bur Man” on loop, seemingly for all the three minutes, but if we are comparing this to, say, Shum, then it’s not even in the same league. In this bunch of songs, though, there is a path to it qualifying, because it has to beat such a small number of competitors, that it accidentally goes through. Never a good thing, and if that happens come the Final, I cannot see it picking up a lot of points.

Phil’s Score : 5 Points.