Aisha

Aija Andrejeva-Aišpure, known as Aija Andrejeva and formerly as Aisha, is a Latvian singer and musical theater actress. She was born on January 16, 1986, in Lielvārde, Latvia.

Aija spent her childhood in Lielvārde and attended Edgars Kauliņš Lielvārde Secondary School. At five years old, she competed in the children’s vocal contest Cālis ’91 and won second place. She started learning to play the flute and piano at the Lielvārde Music School at age ten. At eleven, she participated in a young flautist competition, earning 12th place. A year later, she won the Jauno diriģentu parāde competition. In 2002, she conducted the wind orchestra Sirius.

In 2004, Aija, using the stage name Aisha, joined the TV5 reality show Fabrikas muzikālais teātris. She won the final, thanks to viewer votes. That summer, she participated in the musical Tā ir jānotiek and performed with her father in a concert celebrating Latvia’s accession to the European Union, singing “Tu un es.”

At the end of 2004, Aisha won the Best Soloist of the Year award at the LNT Music Video Awards Ceremony. In February 2005, she debuted in theater, playing Dorothy in the Daile Theater’s musical The Wizard of Oz. In the spring of that year, she toured with the group Credo.

On July 8, 2005, Aisha performed as the opening act for the Russian band BI-2 with Opus Pro at the Ogre stage. In 2006, she hosted the TV show Mīl — nemīl and recorded the album “Tu un es” with her father’s band.

In 2007, Aisha participated in the LNT show Divas zvaigznes with Frīdis, launching her solo career afterward. At the beginning of 2008, she competed in the national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “You Really Got Me Going,” making it to the final and finishing second.

A year later, she also participated in the TV3 show Dejo ar zvaigzni! 2, finishing second. She released her first solo album, “Viss kārtībā, mincīt,” featuring successful songs like “Dziesma pustumsā.”

Coming in 2009, Aisha competed in the Eurovision national selection again with the song “Hey, Hey,” finishing sixth overall. She won the European selection of the New Wave competition in Riga and placed fourth in the main event. In September 2009, she released her solo album “Dvēselīte.”

In 2010, Aisha won the Latvian national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “What For?” She represented Latvia in Oslo, Norway, but did not qualify for the final, finishing last in her semi-final on May 25.

In September 2011, she presented a website with her own name, Aija Andrejeva, and a new single, “Kafijas krūze”. She played the role of Baiba in the musical “Pūt, vējiņi”. In 2013 she started performing as the soloist of the Ventspils Bigbend. In October she released a single, “”Mežā”, as an announcement of the album with the same name. The album itself came out in November.

Aija won the contest Muzikālā Banka in 2015 with the song ”Soļi”. A ‘ten years on stage’ tour followed with guest performances of big names in every single show. She teamed up with Goran Gora for the song “Pavasaris”.

A year later, she started a project, “Satikšanās mūzikā”, where people could register to make music with Aija. In October of that year, her song “Mazais Princis” was released. Two months later she teamed up with Kārlis Būmeisters to sing the song “Ēnas”. With Alex she released the song “Mēs pārejam uz tu”, in 2017. The song was awarded most valuable song of the year. With Colt she recorded “Man ir viss”, solo “Tu mani sauc”. Her new album was also called “Mēs pārejam uz tu”, which was released in February 2018.

It was in 2013, Aija married Toms Bērziņš in Valmiera, but they divorced in 2016. Since 2021, she has been married to singer Jānis Aišpurs.