Latvian singer (born 1986)
Markus Riva |
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 Riva in July 2017 |
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| Birth name | Miķelis Ļaksa |
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| Born | (1986-10-02) 2 October 1986 (age 37)
Talsi, Latvia |
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| Genres | Pop |
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| Occupation(s) | Singer |
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| Instrument(s) | Vocals |
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| Years active | 2009–present |
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| Website | www.markus-riva.com |
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Musical artist
Miķelis Ļaksa (born 2 October 1986), known professionally as Markus Riva, is a Latvian singer. He has released several albums, including the debut album Ticu (2009).
Riva worked at Capital FM as a DJ, and has composed music for various television shows. Among creative inspirations, he mentions artists such as Beyoncé, Robyn and Woody Allen.
Career
2014–2023: Dziesma, Supernova and X Faktors
He has competed repeatedly in Latvia's national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. He has entered the Latvian national selection for the past eight editions in a row. His first national selection entry was in 2014, when he entered the national selection Dziesma 2014 with the song "Lights On", with which he qualified to the final, where he placed 11th and therefore didn't qualify to the superfinal of the competition.[1] In 2015, Riva released his first single in Russian titled "Taty", the video for the single was made by director Alan Badoev. In 2015 he again entered the selection, now called Supernova with a new format. He returned with his song "Take Me Down", the English version of "Taty", which went on to place second in the final, behind the eventual winner Aminata's song "Love Injected".[2] In 2016, Riva entered with his song "I Can", and came third in the semi-final, however since he was in neither the top two in the jury voting or the televote, he did not reach the final.[3]
An exponent of the Ape Music, since 2017 Riva has been hosting X Faktors, the Latvian version of The X Factor.[4] The same year, Riva again participated in Supernova, this time with the song "Dynamite". He failed to qualify from the second heat, finishing in sixth place.[5] In 2018, Riva entered again with the song "This Time". Originally, he was said to have failed to qualify from his semi-final, however due to technical errors in the voting he would have qualified over Ritvars' song "Who's Counting", so both songs were sent through to the final.[6] In the final, Riva placed fifth out of eight entries.[7] In 2019, he participated in Supernova with his song "You Make Me So Crazy".[8] Having qualified from the semi-final, he placed second out of 8 entries, behind the eventual winner Carousel's song "That Night".[9] In 2020, he returned for a seventh consecutive year with the song "Impossible", co-written by Aminata. He was not selected to participate following an audition round.[10] He returned to Supernova in 2022 with the song "If You're Gonna Love Me", but didn't qualify to the final.[11] In 2023, he was selected once again to perform the song "Forever", which qualified to the final and placed fourth.[12]
Participations in Latvia's Eurovision National Final
Table key
1
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Winner
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2
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Second place
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3
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Third place
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X
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Entry selected but did not compete
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†
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Upcoming
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