During his first rehearsal at Eurovision 2016, Latvia’s Justs stood on his own — and he was standing tall. The “Heartbeat” singer wore his signature leather jacket and bobbed in place, once again serving a unique brand of detached cool. As at Supernova he doesn’t rely on theatrics and over-the-top staging, but rather his voice, song and ability to vogue to the camera.

The number starts with Justs standing on a grey LED floor with subtle blue accents. It almost feels like he is emerging from a mausoleum. A series of three white lines then appear down the centre, creating some sort of futuristic, intergalactic road. But just as quickly as that appears the camera pans away, framing Justs’ face against the vast space. During the chorus everything goes red. During the bridge the floor transforms into some sort of blue static vista — kind of like when your TV goes all black-and-white fuzzy.

Vocally you can’t fault this. Once again it sounded like the .mp4 of the studio version was shooting out of his mouth and into the arena.

Latvia: First rehearsal at Eurovision 2016

Latvia: First press conference 2016

Latvia: Interview with Justs in Stockholm

Justs’ “Heartbeat”: Reviews and Reactions

Read all of our Eurovision rehearsal reviews

Photo: Eurovision.tv (EBU)

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Porty
Porty
7 years ago

Dark horse of 2017. very dark! 🙂

We’ll see!

Grete Paia
Grete Paia
7 years ago

“Its all about her. The only thing I want to look at is Denise”….. That customised oufit she is wearing is incredible. Is this the first time she has folded her arms in a video. I like when she is a bit feisty from 2:33 onwards and she is arguing so hard for her blond boy and his cold, dull entry.

silvester
silvester
7 years ago

Beautiful guy and a good singer. Just don’t force it, Justs! 🙂

Adam
Adam
7 years ago

@Kane is completely right. The queens who can’t get enough of the “strong” solo female divas and anything scandinavian are the dominant fans in OGAE, youtube, and even on sites like wiwibloggs. It’s annoying because when you point that out they get so pressed, they won’t listen to reason. They somehow convince themselves every year that they’re right. They forget that theres 200,000,000 other voters who aren’t fangirls and need fruity music to vote for 🙂

cheesecake
cheesecake
7 years ago

My runaway favorite out of the semi final entries. The staging looks good as well, although we didn’t see a lot. But I agree, why change something that ain’t broken?

power b.
power b.
7 years ago

What I love about this song is verses, kinda vintage sound, but when it comes to chorus I am getting bored, don’t know why. But I would like to see him at top 5 for sure.

SLY
SLY
7 years ago

Simply the winner of the 1st semi!

Danish
Danish
7 years ago

Great job Latvia!

I hope Justs will change his outfit (at least to his red jacket). Black on black does not match.

Rubén
Rubén
7 years ago

This will stand out for its simplicity, energy and modernity. Should finish at least top 3 in this 2nd semifinal.

Let’s go Justs!

Huh
Huh
7 years ago

@Alvaricomg
Let’s make it 1st place of Semi Final 2 to make it fair

Fransen
Fransen
7 years ago

What Justs keeps saying – that the same team that worked with Aminata last year also took care of his performance – is simply untrue.

This team – Rockart Design – worked instead on Italy’s performance and two more.

http://wiwibloggs.com/2016/04/20/italy-conchitas-creative-director-is-working-with-francesca-michielin/138267/

Nicoline Refsing, founder of Rockart Design, declared the rumour about the Latvian performance to be false.

https://www.facebook.com/rockartdesign/posts/1168476456531040

Leaf
Leaf
7 years ago

@fikri

Why fix what ain’t broken?

bis
bis
7 years ago

I love the simplicity of this song and of Just’s excellent performance. Modern, genuine, real. Latvia 12 points!

georgekirkas
georgekirkas
7 years ago

The song is really good, but the performance is nothing exciting.

Olga...(the one from Latvia)
Olga...(the one from Latvia)
7 years ago

@fikri how can you tell by a 20 second snippet? The visualisations are completely different and he also moves a lot more.

Kane
Kane
7 years ago

light star, it’s because the OGAE voters are 95% queens who fangirl over the same old scandi pop and any song sung by a “diva”

in short, OGAE accurately represents most people on wiwibloggs as their musical taste is dreadful

fikri
fikri
7 years ago

@kane. ouch. 😛 but of course latvia gonna qualify. i’m just a little disappointed that it is the exact same performance from the national final.

Darren
Darren
7 years ago

I do love Latvia’s entry this year, the song is so chart worthy, Justs has an amazing voice and stage presence while the stage lacks the overproduction of most of semi 1 participants, I think this works in his favour. Latvia will do extremely well. Mark my words!

Steven
Steven
7 years ago

I can’t get behind this act. I don’t mind listening to the song, occasionally, but Justs lacks everything as a performer. Definitely not going to replicate the heights of Aminata but it should qualify.

Olga...(the one from Latvia)
Olga...(the one from Latvia)
7 years ago

Today is the 25th anniversary since Latvia regained the indeoendence from USSR, so what can make me more happier than a great rehearsal from Justs?

Btw, Vista in Latvian means chicken.

Patrick
Patrick
7 years ago

He sounds so good LIVE.

Hopefully, he will change the jacket. Other than that, with the right angles and accents, this can be a last minute wild horse.

Nicky91
Nicky91
7 years ago

i don’t like his outfit, needs an outfit change just like Ira needs a dress change as well

this is a first rehearsal, not a dress rehearsal 🙂

Alvaricomg
Alvaricomg
7 years ago

top 3 semifinal 2, I see Latvia doing really well this year, (again), I’m really happy for them

Huh
Huh
7 years ago

Top 5 in the semi final 2.

Kane
Kane
7 years ago

very good performance. of course it won’t appeal to the likes of fikri who need flashing lights, loads of movement and stage gimmicks, but true fans of music can appreciate the simplicity of this.

fikri
fikri
7 years ago

well, that’s one performance that is out of contention.

JL
JL
7 years ago

Yaaaaaaaas Queeeeeeen!