Latvian public broadcaster LTV has released the information about important dates for submitting songs to the Latvian national selection for the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest.
Since 20th September, LTV accepts songs for Eirodziesma 2006. The deadline for submitting entries is 15:00 local time, 22nd November. As esctoday.com wrote earlier, there are some slight changes in the rules and terms of the national final. The songs can be performed in any language, as well, the authors and performers of the songs can be of any nationality as long as at least one of the performers is Latvian citizen or a non-citizen (alien) according to the Latvian legislation. If the song is performed in another language than Latvian, the authors have to hand in its translation. The song must not be available for dowloading nor broadcast and aired or used for commercial purposes before 1st October, 2005.
The jury will select 20 songs which will compete in the semifinal. The preselection will round up on 4th December, 2005. The Latvian representative will be selected through two semifinals and one final. When the winner song is chosen, via sms and televote, it can be improved or changes in audio version, conception, language can be made by 17th March, 2006.
Meanwhile, the competition of the title and logo of Latvian national junior selection is prolonged to 26th November, as well as Latvian Television has launched a new layout of their website.
Latvia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest since 2000 and has benn represented by Brainstorm (2000), Arnis Mednis (2001), Marie N (2002), F.L.Y. (2003), Fomins & Kleins (2004) and Walters & Kazha (2005). Latvia won the contest once (2002) and organised the 2003 edition in Riga.
