ESTONIA

The Estonian Final was held on March 4th at the Saku Suurhall in Tallinn, hosted by Märt Avandi & Ott Sepp. Before the final there were 2 semis, with 10 songs and 5 qualifying from each. The winner was chosen in two rounds of voting. In the first round the top 3 was chosen by a 50/50 televoting/jury mix. In the second round, the winner was chosen solely by televoting. Going to Kyiv are Koit Toome & Laura singing “Verona”

The stage show is rather simple. Laura starts off on stage in a classical, but quite tight, white dress but in silhouette. A video of Koit then starts up behind her which then turns into a normal camera shot. He is dressed smartly in a white shirt and black suit and looks very comfortable on stage. Like the theme of the song, they are in different places on the stage throughout the song. There are lots of being apart, being together, looking away, looking towards which helps build up the song.This continues until the first big chorus when they are together on stage. The background is all monochrome which maintains the simple staging idea. 

The song has a very slow build up, it takes a lot of time to get into the meat of the song. "Verona" is a song based aroundf the play "Romeo & Juliet". It starts off with a very interesting guitar chord before Laura starts singing. The first verse feels more like ‘Goodbye to Yesterday’ before the beat kicks in. There is then a slow and punchy bridge part which at first listen feels far too early. The chorus is very simple and repetitive and the ‘ahhhhh-ing part is very catchy. The bridge part appears again – this time feeling much better suited – before a final rendition of the chorus, with an ever so slighy different tune, and we then find that Laura is again alone on stage.

Neither singer is new to Eurovision. Koit came 12^th in 1998 and Laura competed in the semi-final in 2005 as part of Suntribe (but did not qualify) and has also competed many times in the Estonian selection process as a solo artist.

This is a pretty difficult one to judge. I like the way the song grows and has a turn of pace during the second verse and the bridge. I like the storytelling aspects of the staging, although not perfect. There are too many lingering head shots – especially when they are not singing – and I think Laura could wear something a bit more eye-catching. The main issue is that the first rendition of the chorus doesn't happen until half way through the song, which almost feels too late. It stands out that the first half is almost all verses and the second half almost all chorus! I would suggest deleting the first bridge, or even just curtailing it to just a couple of lines so the chorus kicks in beore one gets bored. Although Koit and Laura sing the song really well, I have huge issues with Laura’s diction and she seriously needs some English or pronunciation lessons. The song also needs to shave off about 10 seconds to be under the 3 minute mark.

I think this is a nice enough song and I think it just about stands out enough to be noticed in a very diverse bottom half of semi 2. If they give a performance akin to that in the national final, they should qualify although I don’t expect them to be on the left hand side of the scoreboard in the final.

ARTIST - Koit Toome & Laura

SONG - Verona

MUSIC - Sven Lõhmus

LYRICS - Sven Lõhmus