Unacceptable: a group from Latvia scandalized at Eurovision because of the Russian language

The girls from the Tautumeitas group, which represents Latvia at the Eurovision 2025 international song contest, faced an unprecedented haight due to an interview in Russian. This is reported by the portal jauns.lv .

On the eve of entering the stage in the second semi-final of the contest, the girls gave an interview to the portal LSV.lv , which broadcasts, among other things, to a Russian-speaking audience. Users of social networks, to which officials also joined, were also outraged because correspondents addressed the singers in Russian, and they answered in Russian. According to fans, the Russian-language interview contradicts the image of the group, which positions itself as a modern Latvian folk band using elements of folk music.

In particular, Tautumeitas leader Asnate Rantsane answered a question in Russian about the perception of their music in Basel. It was a big surprise for the musicians that they have fans who have been waiting for them, know all the songs and sing them together with the girls in Latvian.

"Yesterday, even the technical staff — we saw and heard that they were watching our performance with great interest. Therefore, I think that our performance will be interesting for everyone," she said.

"They sing very Slavonic. Maybe it's worth clarifying the name — "Russian Tautumeitas", then there will be no questions about the language, and everything will be "legal", "For this you need to be fined a large sum — for the fact that the European country is represented not in the official language, not in the language of international communication in Europe, but in the language of third parties countries", "They sing very Slavonic", "It's good if 10% of Russian speakers are interested in Tautumeitas! And those who are interested will understand in Latvian anyway," users are outraged.

Ivar Abolins, Chairman of the National Council for Electronic Media (NEPLP), considered it necessary to contact the Chairman of the Council of Public Electronic Media (SEPLP) Janis Siksnis with a request to clarify the situation to the public.

"The fact that at the expense of the funds of the whole society during "Eurovision“ reports and interviews with Latvian participants in Russian are being created, in my opinion, unacceptable and absurd. I urge the chairman of SEPLP, Janis Siksnis, to explain to the public how such behavior corresponds to the public order, what goals enshrined in the law are being achieved and whether this does not lead to a split in society. We all deserve honest answers," he wrote on Twitter. your social network account X.

Despite the scandal, the group from Latvia made it to the final of the competition together with representatives of Lithuania, Israel, Armenia, Denmark, Austria, Luxembourg, Finland, Malta and Greece.

As EADaily reported, on the eve of the second semi-final of the international Eurovision Song Contest 2025, which took place on May 15, Ukrainian telegram channels and The media actively distributed publications that indicated performers who had explicit or secret ties with Russia or were conditionally "undecided." In total, out of the total number of participants in the competition, in which representatives of the Russian Federation have not taken part since 2022, six, in some cases, seven such artists have been identified.