Fomins & Kleins

The Latvian rock band Fomins & Kleins was founded at the end of 2002. Its members Ivo Fomins and Tomass Kleins were already accomplished and wellknown rock musicians. Both are from the western Latvian city of Liepāja, which is famous for its rock music traditions.

Both have worked together previously, in Soviet times forming the underground group Saldās Sejas, which also featured well known Latvian musicians Zigfrīds Muktupāvels and Guntars Račs.

At the end of 2002, the band signed a contract with the largest local record company Mikrofona Ieraksti. At the start of 2003, the first song that they recorded together, Sniegs, brought the group success at radio stations, as well as winning 3rd place at the LNT Music Video Competition. The next single Solījums is often played on many Latvian radio stations, and the song's video is frequently shown on television and was nominated for the Best Music Video Award at the Latvian Music Awards. In July, the musicians participated in the international festival "Baltic Song Contest" in Sweden and achieved fourth place. The festival itself is shown on Swedish television as well as Polish television.

The group's debut album Muzikants was released in 2003, and the album's title track became a huge hit after the duo successfully performed at the Latvian national final for the Eurovision Song Contest and gained a convincing second place with the song Muzikants. That year it was the only song to be performed in Latvian and the public was on its feet during the performance.

In 2004 they again found themselves singing the only Latvian-language song in the Latvian Eurovision pre-selection. This time they won, and the song Dziesma Par Laimi was selected as Latvia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 in Istanbul where they stranded in the semi-final. Nevertheless, they subsequently remained upbeat about the experience, and about Latvia's future in the contest.

Fomins & Kleins frequently give concerts and are still very successful.