ESTONIA 2024

The Estonian act and song was chosen on February 17th through their well-established national final "Eesti Laul". Along with five automatic qualifiers, 5 more finalists qualified from the 15 song semifinal held two weeks previously. The overall winner was selected over two rounds of voting: After the scores of an international jury and public vote were amalgamated, the top 3 went to a televote only second round where a winner was determined. Going to Malmö is 5miinust and Puuluup performing the song 

"(Nendest) narkootikumidest ei tea me (küll) midagi"   [We don't (yet) know anything about (these) drugs] 

This entry is an amalgamation of two well known, but slightly disparate music groups. 5miinust is an Estonian-language four-piece hip-hop group from Võsu. The collective have released two albums up to now, both charting in the top twenty. Their song "Aluspükse", a collaboration with Nublu, spent six weeks at the top of the Eesti Tipp-40 becoming the 3rd best-selling song in Estonia in 2019. They then signed a deal with Universal, with their next 3 songs all reaching number one, They have won in the Artist of the Year category on two occasions. Puuluup is an Estonian nu-folk duo consisting of Ramo Teder and Marko Veisson. They have called their style "neozombie postal folk". In particular, they create compositions on talharpas – a traditional bowed lyre -but use alternative bowing and drumming techniques. These sounds are then fed through loop pedals and given different sound effects. They have received several music awards in Estonia including the best band, the best ensemble and best album.

The song is mainly driven by the members of 5miinust but the instrumental has some very heavily interwoven folk traits from Puuluup. The song starts with a verse which has a rhythm reminiscent or MIA's "Paper Planes" but in Estonian. There is then a short instrumental break before the chorus in which a member of each band takes in turn to sing. Their vocal techniques and timbres are very different making it very engaging to listen to. There is then another sizable verse and instrumental before a short bridge and then into a final chorus. The song begins and ends with shouts of 'hey' in time with the music. During the song, it feels a bit like the two groups are competing against each other, in a kind of Aerosmith/Run DMC kind of way but during the final part of the song they all join in with what feel like a stylised half cancan.

The staging is rather simplistic with mostly yellow and blue lights flashing on stage but with the middle of the backdrop being an eyeball which contains a kind of nebulae/nerve ending motif. The movement of the participants is well rehearsed but always seems raw and spontaneous, although it is very much not. The rough and ready visuals very much matches with the rugged vocal style. The prominence of the instruments also gives this another earworm to remember it by. The song - in some ways - is very calculated as there is plenty of scope for audience participation physically or vocally, even if you don't know any Estonian. Many have already compared this to "Cha Cha Cha" and have suggested that is it some kind of copycat entry and personally I don't quite see the direct comparison. Although on paper they seem to have a lot in common (a genre-bending song in a minority language with an accompanying dance routine and charismatic singer) there is enough about them that gives them their own identity.  I feel this will have little trouble picking up televotes in the semi-final or final, however this entry came 3rd, albeit not too far off 1st place, with the international juries during Eesti Laul so it may have something in common with Cha Cha Cha after all.

ARTIST - 5miinust and Puuluup

SONG - (Nendest) narkootikumidest ei tea me (küll) midagi

WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Kohver, Lancelot, Päevakoer, Põhja Korea, R Teder, M Veisson,, K Wennerström