Cosmos is a Latvia

Latvia

Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...

n a cappella

A cappella

A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...

 band that formed in Riga

Riga

Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...

 in 2002. Since its inception, the band has comprised singers Jānis Šipkēvics, Andris Sējāns (both countertenor

Countertenor

A countertenor is a male singing voice whose vocal range is equivalent to that of a contralto, mezzo-soprano, or a soprano, usually through use of falsetto, or far more rarely than normal, modal voice. A pre-pubescent male who has this ability is called a treble...

s), Juris Lisenko (tenor

Tenor

The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...

), Jānis Ozols (baritone

Baritone

Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...

), Jānis Strazdiņš (bass

Bass (voice type)

A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C...

) and Reinis Sējāns (rhythm

Rhythm

Rhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...

).

Cosmos gained national and international recognition after they were chosen to represent Latvia in the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest

Eurovision Song Contest 2006

The Eurovision Song Contest 2006 was the 51st Eurovision Song Contest, held at the Olympic Indoor Hall in Athens, Greece on 18 May and 20 May 2006 . The hosting national broadcaster of the contest was Ellinikí Radiofonía Tileórasi . The Finnish band Lordi won the contest with the song "Hard Rock...

 held in Athens, Greece with the song "I Hear Your Heart

I Hear Your Heart

"I Hear Your Heart" was the Latvian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006, performed in English by Vocal Group Cosmos.The song is entirely a cappella, in line with the group's usual musical style. Lyrically, the group sings about the sound of their lovers' hearts, which can cut through the...

". Despite winning the national Eirodziesma 2006 contest, the band finished in sixteenth place out of the twenty-four competing nations, with thirty points.

Discography

• Cosmos (2003)
• Pa un par (2005)
• Тетради любви (2005)
• Ticu un viss (2005)
• Turbulence (2008)
• Pasaki man un tev (2009)

External links

• Official website
• Review of Pa un par at RARB.org