Category Archives: Estonia
Tanja’s “Amazing” for Estonia
As anticipated, Estonia’s Eesti Laul was a competitive affair, with ten quality entries spanning the breadth of the country’s musical tastes. From Kõrsikud’s slow, folksy waltz to ballads from Maiken and Lenna to Traffic’s alt-rock and Sandra Nurmsalu’s worldly pop, there was something for everybody. But even though most fans’ eyes were trained on Eurovision alums Sandra and Lenna, the champion and runner-up both flew more or less under the radar. Read the rest of this entry
Preview: Eesti Laul 2014
Well, the time has come once more…it’s the ESC Insider’s favorite National Final of the year (sorry, Melodifestivalen!). Estonia’s Eesti Laul consistently brings a great blend of new artists and familiar faces featuring a wide range of musical genres. Tonight from the Nokia Convert Hall in Tallinn, we’ll hear pop, ballads, folk, rock, dance, and neo-blues, and it’s a pretty wide-open field to see who will take the journey to Denmark. Read the rest of this entry
Estonia has chosen: it’s Birgit!
Another year, and another Eesti Laul is in the books. It’s been a competitive Final, with a touch of discord between the judges and the televote (and even within the televote itself, with a number of entries taking top marks from the individual jurors). Although there were a number of strong candidates for the ticket to Malmö, only one song could take the win. Read the rest of this entry
Preview: Estonia’s “Eesti Laul 2013”
One of the five (!) nations to choose their song for Sweden this weekend will be Estonia, who will hold the 2013 edition of the Eesti Laul Final this Saturday. Tallinn’s Nokia Concert Hall will once again play host to ten strong acts from a broad spectrum of genres, all anxiously waiting for a professional jury and public televote to award one participant a trip to Eurovision. At least four acts are returning to the Eesti Laul stage, while six are newcomers. Let’s take a peek at this year’s acts, shall we? Read the rest of this entry
Preview Video Mania!
Like I said a few days ago, now that most of the 2012 Eurovision entries have been released to the public, their official preview videos tend to follow nipping at their heels. Now that the official Eurovision YouTube channel is getting in gear, we’re beginning to see tons of these new promotional clips from all over the continent, with many more to follow. Let’s take a little audiovisual jaunt through Europe, shall we? Read the rest of this entry
Estonia has decided: it’s Ott Lepland!
The hotly-anticipated Final of this year’s Eesti Laul brought ten strong acts from all over the musical spectrum, from synth-pop to R&B to melodramatic indie and back again. But after the dust settled, only one act could represent Estonia in Baku. After the first round of voting, it came down to a pair of Estonian-language ballads: one by Lenna Kuurma (former lead singer of Vanilla Ninja and 2010 Eesti Laul runner-up) and Ott Lepland (the first winner of Eesti otsib superstaari, Estonia’s version of “Idol”). Read the rest of this entry
The Weekend Preview: March 3
This weekend beings us one of the last hectic Saturdays of the preseason, with three National Finals (Estonia, Lithuania, and Spain) and Sweden’s Second Chance round. Let’s take a look at what we can expect from this busy day:
Weekend Semifinal Round-Up
This weekend marked the start of the semifinals for Estonia’s Eestilaul, as well as the third heats in Sweden and Lithuania, and the continuation of the Finnish selection process. Furthermore, we’ve gotten more clarification on the songs that Spain will be choosing from for Pastora Soler. Let’s take a look at what happened this weekend: Read the rest of this entry
Eesti Laul 2012: A Closer Look
On December 12th, Estonian broadcaster ERR unveiled the twenty candidates for Eesti Laul 2012. After a pair of semifinals on February 18 and 25th, the top five from each semi will duke it out on March 3rd to see who will go to Baku. As of this moment, only about half of the songs have been released in full, but it’s a promising start for Tallinn. As is to be expected in a nation of just over 1.3 million inhabitants, there are a number of familiar names competing for the right to represent Estonia in Baku (as well as a few newcomers on the scene). Let’s take a look, shall we?
The ESC Insider 
Toe-to-Toe ESC Smackdown!
Apr 20
Posted by Samantha Ross
As I’ve said before, April is typically Eurovision No-Man’s-Land as we wait for rehearsals to start. Why not fill the time with a bit of friendly competition?
So many of this year’s artists got to where they are today by standing on the shoulders of giants. Or, at the very least, covering other people’s songs at National Finals or “Idol”/”X-Factor”/”The Voice”-type programs. By sheer luck and coincidence, many of 2012’s Eurovision performers have either covered the same songs as one another, or simply performed past ESC classics. So, in order to pass a bit of time, why don’t we figure out whose versions reign supreme?
As the Chairman would (almost) say..."Allez Musique!"
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