This weekend sees Heat 2 of Latvia’s Supernova selection and we were lucky enough to speak with the band Triana Park prior to their appearance on Sunday with their song “Line”

Triana Park consists of group members Agnese Rakovska, Edgars Viļums, Kristaps Ērglis and Artūrs Strautiņš

Triana Park welcome back! You have competed in the National Final selection 4 times previously, but have been missing for the past 5 years.  Why the decision to return in  2017?

Triana Park is planning to release an EP album in May 2017.  “LINE” is the first single and we decided that the song is strong enough to be considered for Eurovision. For the last three years “Triana Park” has been performing in festivals and music showcases all around Europe and we are ready for our international breakthrough

I’ve been listening to “Line” on repeat for a few days now, your vocals on it Agnese are amazing!  It’s got a great contemporary electro sound.  What can you tell us about the track?

We like to think that “Triana Park” is a pop-rock band that has a lot of guitars and bass elements, this song stands out as it has a lot of electronics in it but we like to experiment and LINE is a good song that we all like to perform live. It is always nice to see the crowd singing along to the chorus part.

We got to see you all in the audition round on TV, how do you think the performance went?

We are not that happy about performing on TV, the stage set is really static and there is no real audience on the spot, but we are happy that we had the chance to be selected as we want this song to be heard and seen by as many people as possible

We are used to Triana Park putting on a real visual extravaganza at the National Finals (Bye Bye from 2008 springs to mind!) Do you have anything special in mind for this year, or is “Line” more a sort of song that lends itself to a straight performance?

Definitely “Triana Park” is a band that is about visuals and we love different show elements, but time has passed, we have grown up a bit 🙂 Major show elements are a ‘must do’ thing in Eurovision but we will try to focus more on the band and the song this time.

We’ve got a few first time entrants to Supernova this year.   Do you think that the evolution of Latvian music has brought this about naturally or do you think that the attitude towards Eurovision in Latvia has changed since the recent good results?

I guess the attitude has changed a bit, the most important thing is that “Eurovision” has to be taken as a serious tool that can provide an act with a good international recognition – it has to be used as a platform where you can show your work. I guess the producers and most of the entrants have understood that. If you don’t want to promote the band internationally, you can still boost your music locally, that’s important as well.

There are some videos around of you performing in Brighton during your FTW Tour in 2015, do you have any plans to tour soon and would you come back to the UK?

We will consider any possible options as UK and Scandinavia is our closest target markets, but it will be a challenge – it’s definitely hard to break the British market.

Finally, do you have any Eurovision highlights? Anything that has stayed in your memories over the years?

It is always a good experience, you live and you learn. We hope that our comeback moment will give us the chance we have been waiting for so long

Thank you Triana Park for your time, we will see you on stage on Sunday!

The show starts at 2025CET and Joe and Anne will be here at ESCBubble live blogging Heat 2, as 4 new acts make it through to the semi final on February 19th. If Triana Park are one of your favorites in this week’s Supernova, make sure you cast your for them, and for three other acts in our poll right here:

Watch “Line” by Triana Park below, don’t forget also that for the first time ever,  one listen to the song on Spotify equates to one public vote!