Samanta Poļakova (; born 31 March 1989), better known as Samanta Tīna, is a Latvian singer, songwriter and composer. After having attempted to represent her country in the Eurovision Song Contest seven times earlier (in

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment ...

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, 2016 and

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), she won the national selection '' Supernova'' in 2020 and was to represent Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 that was to be held in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

, the

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with the song " Still Breathing". Due to the contest being canceled, she was internally selected to represented her country in 2021 instead with a new song, "

The Moon Is Rising "The Moon Is Rising" is a song by Samanta Tīna. The song represented Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, after being internally selected by the national broadcaster Latvijas Televīzija (LTV). The official ...

". She had also competed in the Lithuanian preselection twice (in

and

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), and in the Lithuanian version of '' The Voice''.

Career

Early career

In 2010, Tīna won the Latvian music show ''O!Kartes akadēmija'', winning the chance to attend the

Tech Music School The British and Irish Modern Music Institute, now styled as the BIMM Institute, is a group of eight independent colleges which specialise in the provision of creative education in Brighton, Bristol, London, Dublin, Manchester, Berlin, Birmingha ...

in London, England. In 2011, she competed in the Moldovan singing competition ''Golden Voices'' and won the Moldovan Cup. In 2012, she competed in the Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk along with 20 other competitors. On Day 1, she performed "Auga, auga Rūžeņa", a Latvian folk song and earned 93 points. On the second day she performed the song "Где то далеко", and was awarded 104 points. She ultimately finished in second place with 197 points, behind only

Bobi Mojsoski Boban Mojsovski ( mk, Боби Мојсовски) is a Macedonian singer from Ohrid who is mostly known as the runner-up of the X Factor Adria 2015 show. Mojsovski is the Grand Prix winner of Slavianski Bazaar in 2012 and the participant of th ...

North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...

2012–2014: ''Eirodziesma'', ''Dziesma'' and ''Eurovizijos atranka''

On 1 December 2011, Tīna was announced as one of the singers for Eirodziesma 2012, performing the song "I Want You Back" along with

Dāvids Kalandija Dāvids Kalandija (born 1993), is a Latvian singer and former judo and MMA fighter in the Latvian national team. Career His singing career started when he reportedly broke his neck after an incident. On 1 December 2011, Kalandija was announc ...

. The two of them advanced from semi-final one on 7 January 2012 to the final. In the second semi-final held on 18 February 2012, Tīna performed the song "For Father". However, she did not make it to the final and placed 7th. The final was held on 18 February 2012 in

Ventspils Ventspils (; german: Windau, ; see #Other names, other names) is a state city in northwestern Latvia in the historical Courland region of Latvia, and is the sixth largest city in the country. At the beginning of 2020, Ventspils had a population ...

. In the final, Tīna and Kalandija performed second. They placed second in the final, advancing to the superfinal, placing second again only behind the winner Anmary and her song "

Beautiful Song Latvia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 with the song "Beautiful Song" written by Ivars Makstnieks and Rolans Ūdris. The song was performed by Anmary. The Latvian broadcaster Latvijas Televīzija (LTV) organised the national fi ...

". On 15 January 2013, it was revealed Tīna would be taking part in Dziesma, the new title for the Latvian national final, performing the song "I Need a Hero". Tīna placed first in the first semi-final held on 8 February 2013, advancing to the final on 16 February 2013. Tīna was considered the heavy favourite to win the competition. In the final, Tīna placed second, advancing to the superfinal like the previous year. In the final, she reached second place, behind the band PeR and their song "

Here We Go Here We Go may refer to: Music Albums * ''Here We Go'' (US5 album), 2005 * ''Here We Go!'' (Arashi album), 2002 * ''Here We Go...'' (Chanty Savage album), 1994 *''Here We Go'', debut album of German duo Soul Control, 2004 EPs * ''Here We Go'' (E ...

". Tīna placed second in the superfinal, behind PeR once again. That year, She also took part in the national Lithuanian selection for Eurovision in duet with Vudis, with the song "Hey Chiki – Mama". The duet finished 4th of the 1st heat and get eliminated. Tīna took place in the first semi-final of Dziesma 2014 with her song "Stay", on 1 February 2014 in

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the B ...

. She advanced to the final in a three-way tie for second place. In the final, held on 22 February 2014, Tīna performed fifth. She placed third and as a part of the top three, advanced to the superfinal. In the superfinal, Tīna placed third once again, behind Dons and his song "Pēdējā vēstule" and the winners Aarzemnieki and their song "

Cake to Bake Latvia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 with the song "Cake to Bake" written by Guntis Veilands. The song was performed by the band Aarzemnieki. The Latvian broadcaster Latvijas Televīzija (LTV) organised the national final ''Dz ...

2014–2015: ''Lietuvos balsas''

Tīna competed on the third season of ''

Lietuvos balsas ''Lietuvos balsas'' is a Lithuanian reality television, reality talent show that premiered on January 29, 2012 on the LNK (television station), LNK. ''Lietuvos balsas'' is part of the international syndication ''The Voice (franchise), The Voice'' ...

'', the Lithuanian version of '' The Voice''. Since she is not Lithuanian, she communicated to the judges in Russian. For her audition, Samanta performed the song " I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)". For her battle Samanta performed the song " I'm Every Woman" against Monika & Kristina, Samanta won the battle. Tīna finished the contest in the top eight, just missing out on reaching the final four to

Agnė Juškenaitė Agnes is a female given name derived from the Greek , meaning 'pure' or 'holy'. The name passed to Italian as Agnese, to French as Agnès, to Portuguese as Inês, and to Spanish as Inés. It is also written as Agness. The name is descended fr ...

2015–2019: ''Supernova 2016'' and ''Eurovizijos atranka''

On 31 January 2016, Tīna was announced as one of the participants in '' Supernova 2016'' with two songs, "We Live for Love" and "The Love Is Forever". "We Live for Love" competed in the first heat on 7 February, and did not advance to the semi-finals. "The Love Is Forever" competed in the second heat on 14 February, where it advanced to the semi-final after being saved by the jury. After performing in the semi-final, she decided to withdraw from the competition. In 2016, it was confirmed that she would compete in Lithuania's national selection for the

Eurovision Song Contest 2017 The Eurovision Song Contest 2017 was the 62nd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Kyiv, Ukraine, following the country's victory at the with the song "1944" by Jamala. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and ...

. She performed the song "Tavo oda" in a duet with Lithuanian singer Tadas Rimgaila. The act was eliminated in the first heat of the contest. Tīna also participated in '' Supernova 2019'' with the song "Cutting The Wire", reaching 7th place.

2020–2021: Eurovision Song Contest

In late 2019, Tīna submitted the song " Still Breathing" to ''Supernova'', the Latvian preselection for the Eurovision Song Contest. In January 2020, it was announced that she and 25 other acts had been shortlisted from the 126 entries received by the Latvian broadcaster

LTV LTV may refer to: Television * Lagos Television, a TV channel in Nigeria. * Latvijas Televīzija, Latvian Television * LRT televizija, formerly LTV, Lithuanian National Television * LTV Ethiopia, a private satellite TV channel in Ethiopia * Lumi ...

. She survived a second elimination round and proceeded to the final on 8 February 2020. She went on to win the competition and was supposed to represent

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 held in

, the

in May 2020, but then the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

forced the contest to be canceled. LTV, the Latvian broadcaster, later confirmed that Tīna would represent Latvia again in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021. She performed the song

, but did not qualify for the Grand Final. It was later revealed that she had placed 17th (last) in the second semi-final, receiving 14 points, finishing last overall in the contest.

Personal life

Samanta Tīna claims to be of Russian (particularly, her father is ethnic Russian), German, Belarusian and Turkish descent. Although her family started as a Russian-speaking one, she and her sister Sintija communicated with their parents in Latvian. She also dated Latvian singer

Discography

Singles

Albums

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tina, Samanta 1989 births Living people People from Tukums 21st-century Latvian women singers Latvian pop singers Latvian expatriates in Lithuania English-language singers from Latvia Eurovision Song Contest entrants for Latvia Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 2020 Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 2021 The Voice (franchise) contestants Latvian composers Latvian people of Russian descent Latvian people of German descent Latvian people of Belarusian descent Latvian people of Turkish descent