On Saturday, January 27, the Latvian Radio 2 contest "Muzikālā banka 2023" (Musical bank 2023) ended with a spectacular final show in the Daugavpils Olympic Center, in which the title of the most best pop and rock song of the year was won by Dons with the song "Kingdom of Broken Spears".
Second place was secured by the band Sudden Lights, while third place was taken by duo Antra Stafecka and Ivo Grīsniņš-Grīslis. In all, 15 compositions were in the running for the song of the year title.
"Tonight is that magical evening when we can say that all of us musicians can sing freely in our country," said Dons, upon receiving the award. You can watch the full show – which runs for three hours – and enjoy all the songs and performers in the video above.
However, the evening did not go entirely to plan, according to the show's executive producer, Aigars Dinsbergs, as certain technical problems were experienced with the audience voting system.
"We thank you for the great turnout of viewers and listeners and apologize for the inconvenience caused when telephone voting was no longer available shortly after voting began. Unfortunately, the service provider CSC Telecom failed to restore it by the end of voting, so the organizers and this year's 'Music Bank' finalists agreed that the most valuable pop and rock song will be determined from the vote of text messages," Dinsbergs admitted.
"This evening is proof that Latvian musicians are the best in the world. Not only because they continue to create and sing fantastic songs in their native language every year, but also because they are able to hold hands and agree on the best solution during technical difficulties," said Director of Latvian Radio 2 Kaspars Mauriņš.
"Musical bank" is organized every year by Latvian Radio 2 which airs a "Muzikālā banka" show three times a week – on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 14.05 and on Saturdays from 12.00.
Throughout the year, audience voting on the website www.muzikalabanka.lv determines the pop and rock songs of the week, month and year.
