| PeR | |
| |
| Background Information | |
|---|---|
| Members | Ralfs Eilands Edmunds Rasmanis |
| Eurovision Song Contest | |
| Country |  Latvia
|
| Year | 2013 |
| Song | "Here We Go" |
| Position | 17th (Semi-final) |
| Points | 13 (Semi-final) |
PeR is a Latvian pop duo made up of Ralfs Eilands and Edmunds Rasmanis. They represented Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 with the song "Here We Go". PeR is short for "Please explain the Rhythm". After performing in the second semi-final of the contest, they got 13 points and finished in last place.
About
PeR which stands for Please explain the Rhythm is a Latvian beatbox and vocal band formed by two singers and beatboxers from Latvia (Edmunds and Ralph). Starting from 2007 PeR have performed in all of the biggest Latvian TV shows. These two musicians have already participated in the Latvian Latvian finals of 2009, 2010 and 2012.
Both of the biggest Latvian festivals - the Baltic Beach Party and Positivus have shared their stages with PeR in 2009.
In the summer of 2010 beatbox band PeR was one of the many contestants in festival New Wave, but before that they visited Estonia to perform in the Reiu Rock festival.
PeR have been the warm-up guys before Dub FX in three of his concerts. The feedback from PeR’s performance before Dub FX in Lithuania in November 2011 was amazing. Music critics, bloggers and fans were surprised by PeR’s ability to electrify the entire crowd with their songs and pure energy that never stops!
2011 was successful for PeR not only in Lithuania, their single Go Get Up peaked no. 2 in Denmark’s Chart Base TOP 100 and PeR were also nominated in this independent music chart as ‘Best New Artists’ and the video of the song was nominated in the category of ‘Best European Alternative Video’ and they won in both categories
In the end of 2012 PeR released their self-titled debut album which was nominated as the ‘Album of the Year’ in Latvia.
PeR have three main objectives for Malmö. Firstly to qualify for the Grand Final. Secondly to win the Eurovision Song Contest and thirdly to hopefully, get to know some producers and other musicians so they could expand the PeR movement, and get to perform in more countries. “It would be amazing if we could establish some contacts in Sweden.”
In the semi-finals of the Latvian selection this year, Ralph was ill and had a 38 degrees temperature. However, that wasn’t a big problem for him and most of the people didn’t even notice that he was feeling sick. “That’s the magic about music – on stage, no matter what has happened to you, you become a complete different person. You just have to hide all your problems, because nobody cares." (Source)
Eurovision Song Contest 2013
What does the Eurovision Song Contest mean to PeR?
“The thing about Eurovision is that we think that the contest is getting more cheesy and cheesy every year. As years pass, some things have changed, but the biggest problems still have remained the same – the songs are made few weeks before Eurovision, new ‘once in a lifetime’ projects take action in the contest just to get more votes. I’m not a fan of what Eurovision has become; I’m a fan of what it could be”.
“We think that Eurovision is not as a ‘one song contest’, but an opportunity for artists like us, which have their material. and which have something to say. That’s why our song wasn’t written especially for Eurovision, it’s just a song from our debut album. When Eurovision comes, the voters should stop thinking in the category ‘Is this suitable for Eurovision?’ and start thinking in the category ‘Is this good music?’ (Source) Template:Brclear