The Estonian Final (Eesti Laul) was held on March 6th at Saku Suurhall in Tallinn, hosted by Tõnis Niinemets & Grete Kuld. Before the final there were two semi-finals with 6 qualifying from each. The winner was chosen in two rounds: first to find a top 3 using a 50/50 televoting/jury split then the winner was chosen solely by televoting. The winner was last year's Estonian entrant, Uku Suviste, with the song "The lucky one".
The staging of this is simplistic and helps deliver the message of the song. The stage is rather dark and Uku looks tiny amongst the darkness. He is wearing a white buttoned shirt and dark trousers with an undone bowtie around his neck and kneeling on the floor. There is a clever insert where it looks like Uku has fallen backwards and the stage turns to water but is actually a video clip. He walks forward onto the stage where chains are hanging all around him which seems like an odd shift of metaphors having just had the water one. Slowly, the back drop starts to light up, with more underwater shots in between, and as the song gets to the end flashes of pink start appearing on the backdrop before turning totally dark.
The singing starts almost immediately with Uku singing in a very low hushed tone. The backing track is very atmospheric making the whole thing rather mysterious and intriguing. During the second part of the verse his voice is more full but still with a sense of mystery. The bridge has an unusual mix of long held notes followed by short sharp rhyming parts which certainly catches your ear. The chorus has a good mix of choir and synth beats although feels a bit mid tempo. However this section is rather short compared to the amount of time it takes to reach it. Verse 2 is much shorter and this time goes straight into the chorus which doesn't quite have the power as before. Strangely the bridge then comes after the chorus and really builds up to the final chorus.
Uku comes from a bit of a showbiz family; his father being a tv producer and his mother being an opera singer. In fact many of his close family are opera singers but Uku studied pop and jazz in Estonia before studying for some time at Berklee College in America learning the art of modern song writing and production techniques. In 2012 Uku took 3rd place at the New Wave contest and started a brief career in musicals. He's also participated in the Voice Russia, getting to the semi-finals. This song is his 4th entry in Eesti Laul with two wins and one second place to his name which cements him as one of the competition's most successful participants.
Compared to his winning song last year, it's in the same vein but slightly less annoying! I enjoy the build up through the first verse, bridge and chorus but that takes up over half the song so the second half feels rushed and squeezed which undoes all the good work. I wonder what difference it might make if the bridge was put after the second verse and had a double chorus after it. Personally, I like the water motifs but would lose the chains (unless there were chains visible when underwater maybe..?) In a sea of female bangers, a song like this could stand out as something safe and more stereotypically Eurovision for the casual waters at home but I wonder if the entry is powerful enough to get people to actually vote for it.
ARTIST - Uku Suviste
SONG - The lucky one
WRITING CREDITS - Dimitris Kontopoulous, Uku Suviste, Sharon Vaughn
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