Marie N
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Marie N is the stage name of Marija Naumova (b. June 23 1973), winner of the 2002 Eurovision Song Contest for Latvia.
A singer from Latvia's substantial ethnic Russian population, her performance of I wanna wowed the crowd and the voters at the contest, not only with a boppy tune but with the lithe Ms Naumova gradually stripping down from a gender-bending white suit and hat through several configurations into a long red dress, and indulging in flirtatious dancing with her dancers of both sexes. She also wrote the music and co-wrote the lyrics for the tune.
Naumova is apparently a popular performer in Latvia, singing a broad range of music ranging from pop, through musical theatre jazz, has recorded several albums (her latest in French), and also possesses a law degree from the University of Latvia.
She was discovered by famous Latvian musicians in 1994 and after a year she performed on tv in searches for talent. She never won but again and again she was noticed by the audience.
She performed in the concert celebrating the 100 years jubilee of George Gershwin. In March 1998 she performed on stage in concerts with famous Latvian musicians, and one of those concerts was recorded on CD. That gave her career a real boost and she now could participate in several music events, television and radio shows and she gave interviews for Latvian newspapers.
Ms. Naumova was blasted in the Lithuanian and Estonian media for her irredentist remarks in the European press. She had claimed that Latvia's Baltic neighbours were repressing the linguistic and artistic rights of ethnic Russians inhabiting the post-Soviet republics.
Marija Naumova's first solo album was released in 1999. The album was completely in Russian. In 2000 Latvia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time. Marija was in the national finals but she became second behind Brainstorm. In 2001 she was chosen by the audience to represent her country in the contest with Hey boy follow me. Unfortunately, the expert jury had another opinion so she had to wait for one more year until I wanna took her and Latvia to victory.
She again demonstrated her talent for plain speaking in the round of press interviews that followed her win. The German and Swedish media were understandably exercised by the fact that their countries' highly-fancied entries had failed to make much impact, while two songs that had generally been regarded in the build-up to the contest as forgettably average - the Latvian and Maltese entries - had dominated the voting. Ms Naumova pointedly told one questioner that Germany in particular should forget about being a large country which ought to be winning and instead concentrate on putting some warmth back into their entries. And perhaps the lesson demonstrated on the night by Ms Naumova and some of her fellow contestants was indeed that an elusive 'warmth', rather than formulas or even having the best song, is the key to success at the Eurovision. The seemingly bleak prospects of a somewhat bland Maltese song had been transformed by probably the most charismatic performer of the night, Ira Losco - complete with irresistible smile and an all-round captivating stage presence - which Ms Naumova herself was still able to trump with the help of somewhat less subtle sex appeal, enhanced by imaginative and witty choreography.
In November of her victory year she recorded a new solo album, or rather two: one in English, and one in French. She presented the albums to the audience by a tour throughout Latvia.
Marija Naumova co-hosted the 2003 contest along with Renars Kaupers of the Latvian band Brainstorm, who came 3rd place in the contest in 2000.
External links
- Official website Marie N (http://www.marien.lv/)
- Marie N fanclub Germany (http://www.marie-n.de/)
| Preceded by: Tanel Padar, Dave Benton & 2XL | Winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 | Succeeded by: Sertab Erener |