Shopping malls are places of desire: Ladies want that handbag and children need that toy. And today in Riga’s Alfa shopping centre, thirty Supernova 2018 hopefuls coveted something even bigger: a spot in Latvia’s national selection for Eurovision.

So, as live auditions kicked off this morning, Latvian wiwiblogger Edgars Balins packed his camera and notepad and headed to today’s judging, which saw a panel of experts evaluating thirty of the 63 songs submitted to this year’s competition.

Only these thirty acts survived the first cull. They were whittled down by a panel of Latvian and foreign music experts (including Edgars) who judged the songs blindly. And today these acts were required to sing their tunes acoustic or a cappella, thereby putting their voices front and centre as the judges narrow the field down even further.

The judges — and only the judges — have the results of the People’s Jury, which saw the public like or dislike the songs without knowing who was singing them. And today we can exclusively reveal the names of all 30 acts who made it to today’s judging. There’s nothing like sitting in the audience to help you attach names to songs.

Toms Grevins — a jury member and host of Supernova — told Edgars that this year’s selection marks something of a turning point, as there is “no absolute stand-out” as with Triana Park in 2017 or Aminata before that. So there could be some major surprises in store.

Madara Fogelmane — “Esamiba”

Among the most talked-about songs of the year is “Esamiba”, which we now know belongs to the singer Madara Fogelmane.

Madara is a Latvian singer who has spent the past few years singing and writing in Amsterdam. She tells Edgars that she was absolutely shocked that Eurovision fans like her song.

She also said that if “Esamiba” qualifies for Eurovision 2018 in Lisbon, she won’t change the language of the song, because the Latvian words fit perfectly to the meaning. “It wouldn’t have the same energy in English,” she says.

She already has ideas about her stage performance and her backing vocalists if this song qualifies for the semi-finals in Latvia.

Katrine Lukins — “Running Red Lights”

Katrine Lukins, a Latvian singer who was born in Sweden, is a veteran of Latvia’s national selection process. And with “Running Red Lights” she is also a huge fan favourite, having topped the wiwibloggs poll of the 63 shortlisted songs.

Both Madara and Katrine performed well vocally and are earning rave reviews in the comments section of the videos above.

Markus Riva also advanced to today’s auditions, performing his song “This Time”. Unfortunately we arrived shortly after he sang, so don’t have a performance video, and he had to rush off after his auditions. He’s beyond busy hosting X Factor this evening!

Edgars Kreilis, another Supernova favourite with his song “Younger Days”, was the very first act to perform. We had our ears to the ground, and word has it the jury really liked him. Consider him a major contender.

You can see the complete list of artists who sang today below.

Supernova 2018: Artists at the Live Auditions

Did your favourites make it to today’s live auditions? What do you think of “Esamiba” and “Running Red Lights”? Let us know in the comments box below!