#eurolaul 1996

[eurovision-revisited]

1996 Oslo - Number 16 - Kirile Loo - "Maatütre tants"

The third entry for Estonia in a row and this time it's for someone who didn't manage to make it to Club Decolté. As she was singing along, the producers must have had to come up with a very short-notice solution. There solution was just play the song with no one on stage. Pump in some dry ice and focus on the massive glitterball.

Halfway through the song, they must have decided that was a really bad idea so they sent on someone with a drum to dance around and to pretend to play it. Who was this mysterious man? Runner, stage-hand, musician? Who can say. He seems somewhat half-hearted. One of the only authorised stage invasions in Eurovision history.

The actual song, Maatütre tants (The Dance of the Country Girl) should have been sung by Kirile Loo and is a traditional folk piece not so much sung as chanted. If it had won, it may have challenged Nocturne for fewest words in a Eurovision song. It fits in with this year's trend for traditional, ethnic music. The insistent drumbeat that kicks in after a minute drives it forward.

Despite the non-appearance of anyone on stage involved with actually singing the song, this still appealed so much that two of the judges gave it the maximum number of points and it finished fourth overall. It's still considered to be one of the stronger songs to have been entered for Eurolaul this year, even if there are no actual words.

So who is the mysterious Kirlie Loo? Well she's a traditional singer who grew up in a forest with her grandmother, and without electricity, telephones or television. She learned singing as a child and had been discovered two years prior to this and released the LP Saatus worldwide when the trend for 'world music' was at its height. This LP is currently attracting the tags 'Avant Folk' and 'Neoclassical Darkwave' which I find ridiculously funny.

In 1996 she was still riding the wave of that popularity, but unfortunately was probably snowbound in a forest in Estonia and unable to make it for her big moment on stage. This again could have been big, and give what won Eurovision in 1996 - this would also have been a contender for the victory in Oslo - if they added some words. A strong year in Estonia.

#Youtube #esc #esc 1996 #eurovision #eurovision song contest #oslo 1996 #oslo #eurolaul 1996 #Estonia #Kirlie Loo #Avant Folk #Neoclassical Darkwave #acts not appearing

[eurovision-revisited]

1996 Oslo - Number 17 - Evelin Samuel & Toomas Rull - "Kaheksa näoga kuu"

Back to Club Decolté and again with two contrasting singers who made it through the hypothetical Tallinn snow. Toomas Rull is one of the best known drummers in Estonia, having played with several different rock bands including Ruja and Ultima Thule. In this he's showing off his voice which turns out to be kind of good. This is his only attempt at entering Eurovision.

One the other hand there's Evelin Samuel. She first entered Eurolaul in 1994 - with three different songs. In 1996, she's here with two different songs. None of these won, but she kept on trying entering again in 1998, 1999 and 2000. She even tried one last time in 2022. Of these she did win in 1999 and head to Eurovision that year, she's also gone to Eurovision as a backing vocalist - it's likely that this is not going to be the last time that Evelin appears in my top 26s.

Kaheksa näoga kuu (The Eight-Faced Moon) is a song I do not have the lyrics to, but it is pleasantly mystical, melodic and is well suited to the voices of its performers. In another guess as the content, given the folksy, ethnic, Celtic direction that several countries are trying to head in post Riverdance and Nocturne, I'd guess this has lots of natural and spiritual imagery. The strength of this song and several others in this competition shows that Estonia means business. They're definitely going for it.

This finished fifth of the thirteen songs in Eurolaul 1996, Evelin's best performing song this year. She would have been singing the winning song, Kaelakee hääl, but had to turn it down because at the time she would have been touring in Japan when Eurolaul was on. That trip got cancelled and she got two other songs instead. So close. Losing must have been galling this year.

Since this Toomas has continued drumming and Evelin not only sings, but writes children's books, teaches singing, edited several magazines, stood for parliament and is also a potter. Evelin has no spare time clearly. She's also fitted in being the Estonia spokesperson for Eurovision twice! Looking forward to hearing from you again Evelin.

#Youtube #esc #esc 1996 #eurovision #eurovision song contest #oslo #oslo 1996 #Eurolaul 1996 #Estonia #national finals #Evelin Samuel #Toomas Rull

[eurovision-revisited]

1996 Oslo - Number 18 - Kadri Hunt - "Me rõõm ei kao"

Eurolaul 1996 was deeply weird. It was held in Tallinn in Club Decolté (which still exists) and it seems several of the artists found difficulty in either finding it or getting there. I don't know if something political was brewing or if there was just very bad weather. It did occur on January 27th so that latter option is a very real possibility.

One person who managed to appear on stage was Kadri Hunt in her only attempt to qualify for Eurovision. She's no stranger to performing have been singing since childhood first appearing on an LP at the age of 7. Her metier is more traditional music, as well as more early classical and choral works.

Me rõõm ei kao (We will not lose joy) relies on the strength of Kadri's voice backed by choral voices. Yes, there's an electric guitar that turns up for a solo, but otherwise, this is a showcase for a sung, motivational hymn that appears to take the audience as a whole to another place entirely. Their response seems to take a while to kick in, but mostly because they are absolutely taken aback. It is otherworldly entire and you can see why it finished on exactly the same number of points as the winner - all given by an international jury.

I can't find out what the tie-breaker was, but Kadri didn't get any maximums while the winner received one - so I'd imagine that the only thing separating Kadri from a place in Oslo was 10 points from the Finnish judge. I think if she had made it, she would have done well. The winner finished 5th at Eurovision after all, and this sort of quality always does well.

Since 1996 and her appearance at Club Decolté, Kadri has continued making music and is still singing as well as conducting early music and choral works. She has been part of several groups and ensembles most notably Vox Clamantis, themselves founded in 1996.

#Youtube #esc #esc 1996 #eurovision #eurovision song contest #oslo #oslo 1996 #eurolaul 1996 #Estonia #national finals #Kadri Hunt #Vox Clamantis

[eurovision-revisited]

1999 Jerusalem - Number 23 - Hedvig Hanson - "If You Could Only Hear Me"

Eurolaul are still in the same studio. That experience in the nightclubs of Tallinn in 1996 was clearly a lesson they learned hard.

Hedvig Hanson has already been to Eurolaul - competing twice in a duet with with Pearu Paulus. They finished second in 1994 and then seventh in 1996 - the nightclub in a snowstorm year. She made her name winning another televised singing competition Kaks takti ette, a very long running Estonian show for young vocalists. She's back on her own in 1999 with If You Could Only Hear Me. Unlike her previous two entries, this is her first self-written entry.

Her stock in trade is jazz vocals - this is much more a standard ballad, but that lends itself to the expressiveness of her voice. Only an acoustic guitar breaks the laid-back instrumentation. It's a showpiece for Hedvig's vocal tone and strength, which she displays with such ease, you'd think it was an easier song to sing. There's more than a hint of Mariah Carey about it.

Once again, it was not to be for Hedvig. She finished fourth this year. She tried once more, in 2000, but that was it for her and Eurolaul. However, since then, she's been a prominent singer in Estonia. She's released fourteen albums with the most recent in 2017.

#Youtube #esc #esc 1999 #eurovision #eurovision song contest #jerusalem #jerusalem 1999 #national finals #Estonia #Eurolaul 1999 #Hedvig Hanson

[eurovision-revisited]

1997 Dublin - Number 16 - Maarja-Liis Ilus - "Keelatud Maa"

It's the second year at Eurovision in a row for Maarja, one of Eurolaul and later Eesti Laul's ever presents. Last year she got lucky, snagging the winning song when the intended singer looked like she couldn't make it. Even then she only scraped into Eurovision on a Eurolaul tie-break.

This year it's much clearer. Dominating Eurolaul 1997, Maarja-Liis Ilus bring Keelatud Maa (Forbidden Land) all the way to 8th place in the final - even if this was a little disappointing considering she'd been one of the favourites to win the entire contest, and it didn't hit the heady heights of fifth, where she'd finished in 1996. Nevertheless Estonia was becoming a Eurovision contender and Maarja was the voice driving that.

Keelatud Maa itself is a wistful ballad tinged with sadness. A lover reaching out to her partner, wanting them to adapt and not remain rooted in a past which they can't let go. It's a plea for them to move on, lest the forbidden, foggy, marshy land between them grow so impenetrable there's no way back together. That's a maturity that's not often witnessed at Eurovision; it's hauntingly poised on the threshold between encouragement and hopelessness.

Those wonderful lyrics were written by Kaari Sillamaa, the mother of Janika Sillamaa, Estonia's first ever Euro Laul winner in 1993 who nearly made it to Eurovision, but fell short in the qualification round. I've already written about her.

Maarja doesn't stop at having represented Estonia twice at Eurovision. She tried to get there twice more. She sang at Eurolaul 2004, but finished fourth. The year before that she entered Melodifestivalen in Sweden, but got eliminated in the heats. She's been spokesperson for Estonia twice and has also hosted Eesti Laul, most recently in 2022.

Beyond Eurovision, she's released 11 albums, been named as Estonia's best female singer four times, she's sung the role of Eva Péron in the Estonian production of Evita, as well as several other leading roles in musicals. She was a judge on three seasons of Eesti otsib superstari, including the season in which Jüri Pootsmann won. Maarja is absolutely one of the biggest names in Estonian music.

#Youtube #esc #esc 1997 #eurovision #eurovision song contest #dublin #dublin 1997 #Estonia #Eurolaul 1997 #national finals #Maarja-Liis Ilus #Kaari Sillamaa

[eurovision-revisited]

1997 Dublin - Number 26 - Kate - "Perpetuum mobile"

Eurolaul this year has wisely relocated back to the studio after the mess of Eurolaul 1996. With that transfer comes the first appearance of Kate aka Katrin Mandel and her partnership with songwriter Aivar Joonas. Given that title and the solo violin opening, it would appear that they've been listening to the Penguin Café Orchestra when composing.

The lyrics to this were written by Leelo Tungal, children's author and translator. An interesting character for a song about being stuck in the perpetual grind of life and work and the need to celebrate the joys outside that ever-turning circle. It's a delicate little thing not in the typical Eurovision groove. Kate has a strong voice held back to deliver this with authority and feeling.

This finished joint fifth with the panel of international jurists who chose Estonia's entry this year. The British and German judges especially liked it. As the winner of Eurolaul was a runaway, all the other places were separated by just a few points. Not a great year to make a debut, but neither Kate nor Aivar were deterred. This was their first entry of four with consecutive appearance from 1997-2000.

She never won. This was a strong opening to her Eurolaul career so I'd guess that she's going to appear in my top 26s again in the next few years. This song featured as a track on her first LP, released the same year. As well as releasing another five albums after this, she teaches music.

#Youtube #esc #esc 1997 #eurovision #eurovision song contest #dublin #dublin 1997 #Estonia #Eurolaul 1997 #national finals #Kate #Leelo Tungal #Aivaar Joonas #Katrin Mandel