Eesti Laul 2018, Reviews and Predictions

Estonia, 2001, won the Eurovision Song Contest, taking it home to Tallin and after their victory came a slew of decent entries and placings until recently, where the Baltic nation has struggled to make the final, with the last five years making the final only twice. Now the Baltic nation are looking to turn their fortunes around as they reveal the entries for their national final Eesti Laul.

Recently I sat down to watch the entries of semi fina, one and gove my reviews and predictions on this semi final, read below to find out what I thought!

Stig Rasta – Home – Riding on the current Ed Sheeran trend Stig, Eurovision 2015 veteran has returned with the song “Home”. The song is a sweet and warm song that plods along nicely. This song is sure to get votes. Stig making his solo debut in Eesti Laul, has managed to make quite an impact as he is one of the frontrunners to take out the edition, I couldn’t see Stig NOT qualifying from this semi, I can also see this getting quite a high placing in the final, although I doubt that this will challenge for the win.

Desiree – On My Mind – Undoubtedly the most “Spotify – friendly” song in the whole competition, “on My Mind rides the wave of current electronic house beats, but it doesn’t feel repetitive as some songs who have similar characteristics tend to do, Desiree’s vocals seem effortless and easy over the modern track, although the worry is with these kind of songs I whether the artist will be able to carry those effortless vocals over to the live shows, any sort of strain or niggles in the live performance could wreck her chances. If all goes right in the lives definitely a qualifier and may push for top 3 or the win!

Elina Nechayeva – La Forza – WINNER, THIS SONG WILL WIN! “La Forza” is a dramatic and symphonic masterpiece. Elina’s vocals are out of this stratosphere! Staging can only elevate this kind of song! “La Forza” builds and builds to an almightly operatic climax! I have no doubt Elina will smash this in the lives! I have a feeling she will win the semi and then take the final! This has so much potential for Eurovision, the last time we saw a strong female driven operatic anthem was Malena Erman in 2009 for Sweden who placed 21st, but this song has power, drive and beauty. I’m also sure that Elina wouldn’t go for the strange staging as the aforementioned Erman. Winner by far.

IIRIS & AGOH – Drop that boogie – One of the stranger entries but it has a nice appeal, “Drop the boogie” makes you want to get up and dance. The vocals on the track are an interesting tone, which could be hard to transfer to the lives and that may be the downside of this entry. The instrumentation of this song is great to, it doesn’t follow and exact formula and leaves you guessing all the time! I love the visuals they are bringing in their promo pictures, quite ‘wacky’ but they’re fun. I hope to see them qualify!

Voje – Laura (Walk with me) – Lost interest pretty quickly in this song, not my favoured style of song, I could see the appeal, but this song plods in a circle, its very repetitive, repetitive is okay, as long as you do something spectacular that people want it to be repeated, but this song is nothing special to me. I could be proven wrong at he lives but I could say that about anyone of these songs.

Etnopatsy – Kulm – Uh-oh this is going to get some people angry, I’m sorry but this is just another attempt at a traditional cultural song, this song feels cold compared to the previous entries of this genre, (Jon Henrik) who have done it so much better than these girls. This song doesn’t do much for me at all and I don’t see it getting out of the semi unless they kill everyone else with their visuals and staging, I’m sorry to the girls, but I just wish they had brought a better, more competitive song. For now a definite non-qualifier.

Sibyl Vane – Thousand Words – This feels very angst-y pop/rock, if this is done well I could see it being a borderline qualifier to the final, but this song NEEDS to be elevated by staging, this song cannot have just average staging, it needs to have brilliant staging otherwise I feel that it could be lost in the semi which would be unfortunate! For now, I’m going to put this as a borderline qualifier.

Aden Ray – Everybody’s Dressed – WOW, in all my life I don’t think I have disliked a song from Estonia as much as I have this song, (excluding Verona) this song is an absolute mess! Aden’s vocals are sub-par and the song just feels cheap, but not cheap in a good way! For me this should come last in the semi, I’m sorry to sound harsh and I’m sure Aden is a great guy but this song is absolutely dire and the lyrics and composition are absolute tripe. Last in the semi if this world has any justice.

TXOXS – Natia Oma Energiat – Oh the staging potential of this song is huge, this is an edgy Estonian language song that could do so well in Eesti Laul, I feel though if it were to go to Eurovsion, it may suffer the same fate as Baltic neighbours Triana Park from Latvia. But I actually love this song, its one of my sure qualifiers from this semi final, and to be honest I wouldn’t mind if it was TXOXS and Elina battling it out for the crown!

Miljardid – Pseudoprobleem – This song is probably my second last song of the semi final, there’s nothing offensively wrong with it but there’s nothing setting it apart from the rest, it moves so slowly and is very monotonous, there is no variation throughput the song and for some reason this song leaves me feeling deflated! I cannot even see this challenging for the fifth qualifying spot, sorry boys but it’s not the right song! Definite non-qualifier.

So for this semi-final my qualifers are:

Elina Nechayeva – La Forza

TXOXS – Natia Oma Energiat

Stig Rasta – Home

IIRIS & AGOH – Drop That Boogie

Desiree – On My Mind

Overall this was a very diverse and interesting semi-final in which I feel a few of my favourite may not get through unfortunately.

My final ranking of this semi-final:

Elina Nechayeva – La Forza

TXOXS – Natia Oma Energiat

Stig Rasta – Home

IIRIS & AGOH – Drop That Boogie

Desiree – On My Mind

Sibyl Vane – Thousand Words

Voje – Laura (Walk With Me)

Etnopatsy – Kulm

Milijardid – Psuedoprobleem

Aden Ray – Everybody’s Dressed

Last year Estonia choose Laura and Koit Toome to go to Kyiv with the song “Verona’ beating out superstar Kerli’s “Spirit Animal” after much fan hype and anticipation, a microphone fault and some “lacklustre” staging they crashed out in semi final two placing 14th behind Ireland and ahead of FYR Macedonia. Watch their performance below!!!