Musiqq


Musiqq is a Latvian pop music duo from Liepāja formed by Marats Ogļezņevs and Emīls Balceris. The duo first gained exposure in June 2009 with the release of their first single “Klimata kontrole”, but on October 1 their second single "Abrakadabra" came out, which was a radio hit in Latvia and "SEB Musical Bank 2009" winner. Their debut album "Šī ir tikai mūzika" was released in March 2010, which included radio hits such as "Abrakadabra", "Dzimšanas diena" and "Klimata kontrole". Both singers were awarded as "Gada Liepājnieks" in nomination "'Music" and received three Copyright infinity prizes, because their songs are the most played on the radio, television and concerts. Musiqq represented Latvia in 2011 Eurovision Song Contest in a German city Düsseldorf with the song "Angel in Disguise". They are also known as Latvian rap duo called "Bermudu Divstūris", which formed in 2011.

History

2009: Formation

Musiqq formed in 2009, when founding member Marats Ogļezņevs left his previous group "Device" and invited Emīls Balceris to a meeting. The singers had previously met by participating in the TV show "Koru kari" in 2008, where Emīls Balceris and Marats Ogļezņevs sang together in Liepājas red choir, led by singer Chilli. In the same year, Marats Ogļezņevs saw Emīls Balceris perform in the youth broadcast "SeMS" and decided to write him a letter with an invitation to meet and work together. At group's first meeting, they wrote four demo versions of songs.

2010: ''Šī ir tikai mūzika''

Musiqq released their debut album, "Šī ir tikai mūzika", on 24 March 2010, which was recorded at MicRec recording company in cooperation with the producer Jānis Kalvis. Four singles were released from "Šī ir tikai mūzika", including their first single "Klimata kontrole" and "Abrakadabra", which won the main prize of the pop music survey "Musical Bank". Other singles from the album were "Pirmā manā Ziemassvētku sarakstā", which was Christmas themed, and the hit "Dzimšanas diena", which reached number 3 in "SEB Musical Bank 2010".

2011: ''Another musical project - "Bermudu Divstūris"''

In 2011, Musiqq decided to form new musical project called "Bermudu Divstūris" with the nicknames Biceps and Triceps. In this project, they create Latvian humorous rap - style songs. In 2014 they released their debut album "Ballējam, neguļam", which got a record of the year prize "Zelta mikrofons" in category "The best hip-hop or dance music album". To date they have created many party hits such as "Labi", "Ballējam, neguļam", "Šūpojam masas" and "Zaudējam brāli".

2014: ''Vēl viena mūzika''

After the success of "Šī ir tikai mūzika", Musiqq returned to the studio to begin work on their second album, "Vēl viena mūzika", continuing to collaborate with the producer Jānis Kalvis. The album was released in November 2014, celebrating the 5th birthday of the group, and spawned several popular singles including "Sekundes", "Cтрана без называния", performed with musician Giacomo and "Angel in Disguise", which had already competed in the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest selection. To date the largest Musiqq live performance has been their fifth birthday concert in a concert hall Palladium in Riga on November 16, 2014, in which they revealed album "Vēl viena mūzika".

2015- to the present: ''Silta sirds''

Musiqq latest album, "Silta sirds", is their first acoustic album made in collaboration with group "DaGamba", pop group "DoReMi", guitarist Uldis Beitiņš, bass guitarist Viktors Veselovs and saxophonist Alex Han. The album got his name from the lead single, also called "Silta sirds". The members of the group are very excited about this album idea being realized, because they started thinking about an acoustic album a while ago, and its title "Warm Heart" shows album emotional impression.
In this time Musiqq announced their first acoustic concert tour "Silta sirds" and they visited five cities in Latvia – Valmiera, Rīga, Rēzekne, Liepāja and Jelgava. Members of Musiqq performed together with the guitarist Uldis Beitiņš, bass Roberts Rasa, pianist, guitarist Edgars Jass, Viktors Veselovs, saxophonist Alex Han and back vocal - Rūta Dūduma to create an acoustic sound.

Musical style

Musiqq's musical style has generally been regarded in pop and R&B style. The author of the lyrics and music is Marats Ogļezņevs. They arranges and produces their own songs by themselves in three different languages - Latvian, English and Russian.

Band members

Since 2009, Musiqq's songs have regularly been considered as some of the highest selling in Latvia, and their songs are often played on the radio, television and concerts, which confirms three Copyright infinity prizes, which receives author, whose works have been used the most in different ways. The band also received the award "Gada Liepājnieks" in nomination "Music" in 2010.
Musiqq contributions to music have also received recognition with "Abrakadabra" consistently being ranked as the most "valuable" song in the Latvian Radio 2 pop and rock song survey "SEB Musical Bank 2009 and the next year they got third place with the song "Dzimšanas diena" from their debut album. In 2011, the band participated in the TV song contest "Eirodziesmas 2011" final with the song "Angel in Disguise", and won the opportunity to represent Latvia in the international Eurovision Song Contest in Germany, where they ranked number 17 in the second semifinal. In 2015, Musiqq won three nominations in the record of the year prize "Zelta Mikrofons 2014" - "Labākais pop albums", "Labakā dziesma" and "Alfas gada dziesma" with the song "Sekundes" from their second album. The band was ranked in "SEB Musical bank" top 15 for many years, and in 2017, the song “Debesis iekrita tevī”, which they wrote and performed with fellow Latvian music group Prāta vētra, ranked first place as the most valuable'' song, and won the record of the year prize "Zelta Mikrofons 2017" in the category "Labākā dziesma".