1.
Estonia
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Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia, across the Baltic Sea lies Sweden in the west and Finland in the north. The territory of Estonia consists of a mainland and 2,222 islands and islets in the Baltic Sea, covering 45,339 km2 of land and water, and is influenced by a humid continental climate. The territory of Estonia has been inhabited since at least 6500 BC, in 1988, during the Singing Revolution, the Estonian Supreme Soviet issued the Estonian Sovereignty Declaration in defiance of Soviet rule, and independence was restored on 20 August 1991. Estonia is a parliamentary republic divided into fifteen counties. Its capital and largest city is Tallinn, with a population of 1.3 million, it is one of the least-populous member states of the European Union, Eurozone, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, OECD and Schengen Area. Estonia is a country with an advanced, high-income economy that is among the fastest growing in the EU. Its Human Development Index ranks very highly, and it performs favourably in measurements of economic freedom, civil liberties, the 2015 PISA test places Estonian high school students 3rd in the world, behind Singapore and Japan. Citizens of Estonia are provided with health care, free education. Since independence the country has developed its IT sector, becoming one of the worlds most digitally advanced societies. In 2005 Estonia became the first nation to hold elections over the Internet, in the Estonian language, the oldest known endonym of the Estonians was maarahvas, meaning country people or people of the land. The land inhabited by Estonians was called Maavald meaning Country Parish or Land Parish, one hypothesis regarding the modern name of Estonia is that it originated from the Aesti, a people described by the Roman historian Tacitus in his Germania. The historic Aesti were allegedly Baltic people, whereas the modern Estonians are Finno-Ugric, the geographical areas between Aesti and Estonia do not match, with Aesti being further down south. Ancient Scandinavian sagas refer to a land called Eistland, as the country is called in Icelandic. Early Latin and other ancient versions of the name are Estia and Hestia, esthonia was a common alternative English spelling prior to 1921. Human settlement in Estonia became possible 13,000 to 11,000 years ago, the oldest known settlement in Estonia is the Pulli settlement, which was on the banks of the river Pärnu, near the town of Sindi, in south-western Estonia. According to radiocarbon dating it was settled around 11,000 years ago, the earliest human inhabitation during the Mesolithic period is connected to Kunda culture, which is named after the town of Kunda in northern Estonia. At that time the country was covered with forests, and people lived in communities near bodies of water
2.
Eesti Laul
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Eesti Laul is an annual music competition organised by Estonian public broadcaster Eesti Rahvusringhääling. It determines the countrys representative for the Eurovision Song Contest, and has been staged every year since 2009, the contest was introduced in 2009, replacing the former Eurolaul festival, used since Estonias first participation in Eurovision in 1993. Since its introduction, the competition has been one of the most popular programmes in Estonia, it is also broadcast on radio. In 2012, the semifinals averaged 199 thousand viewers, and over an estimated 296 thousand people in Estonia watched the final, the contest was introduced by ERR, the organisers of the contest, with a different philosophy on the contest used previously. Eesti Laul was introduced to produce an Estonian contest, with Estonian musical tastes being presented to a European audience, the contest is also an open one, with all information of the songs being revealed in the selection process. The festival has produced three top-ten placings for Estonia at the contest, the winner of the Eesti Laul has been chosen by televoting and panels of jurors since its inception. The competition makes an impact on music charts in Estonia. The introduction of semifinals in 2011 raised the number of contestants from ten to twenty. The introduction of a grand final hosted in Saku Suurhall has attracted tourism to the city. Most of rules are dictated by those of the Eurovision Song Contest, however, regulations have been introduced by the Estonian broadcaster. The competitions official rules are released by ERR early in preparation for each years Eest Laul, there is a limit of six people on stage for each performance. All vocals had to be live, human voices are not allowed on backing tracks. Entries usually are not publicly broadcast until the songsare previewed on television, until 2017, competing songs were only permitted if they were written by all-Estonian team. Since 2017, foreign collaborations were allowed as long as 50% of the authors were Estonians. Artists and songwriters were allowed to submit up to three songs each with an exception to rule for songwriters who participated in songwriting camps organised by the Estonian Song Academy. The twenty selected songs in the contest are shown to the Estonian public through two semi-finals, from each semi-final, five acts get through to the final show. The first winner of Eesti Laul was Urban Symphony with the song Rändajad, at Eurovision, the group changed Estonias previous fortunes at Eurovision, qualifying to the final, and placing 6th in the final with 129 points. Entries which did not qualify for the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest are listed in red and this list includes those who have acted as presenters of Eesti Laul
3.
Eurovision Song Contest 1994
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1994 was the 39th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 30 April 1994 in the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. As of 2017, it was the last time the contest was held in April, the presenters were Cynthia Ní Mhurchú and Gerry Ryan. The pair hosted the evening in French, English and Irish, once again Ireland won the contest for the third time in a row, when Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan were the winners with a song written by Brendan Graham, Rock N Roll Kids. This was a sixth victory for Ireland, giving it the outright record number of victories at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was also the first time — and to date the only time — that the contest had been won by the country in three consecutive years. The contest opened with a film of stars floating in water, fireworks and caricatures dancing around, drinking coffee. The cameras then went live to the venue itself, where dressed in white and wearing caricatured heads of well-known Irish figures. The presenters entered the stage spectacularly from a bridge which descended from the roof of the theatre and this year’s video postcards had a literary theme, showing contestants reading, fishing and doing other activities around Ireland. The floor was painted with a dark blue paint to give a watery effect. Because Italy and Luxembourg withdrew voluntarily, the bottom 5 of the 1993 Contest were relegated and this meant that Belgium, Denmark, Israel, Slovenia and Turkey did not participate this year opening spaces for the new countries. This contest also saw Luxembourg withdraw from Eurovision indefinitely, Poland took part for the first time and caused a scandal when Edyta Górniak broke the rules by singing her song in English during the dress rehearsal. Only six countries demanded that Poland should be disqualified, though the rules required 13 countries to complain before Poland could be removed from the competition. The proposed removal did not occur and Poland went on to come 2nd in the contest, for the first time in Eurovision history, voting was done via satellite instead of by telephone, and as a result, viewers could see the spokespersons onscreen. When the voting started, Hungary took the lead from the first six juries and was ahead of all the other countries. However, Ireland powered their way through the board ending up the winners with a 60-point lead over second-placed Poland. The interval act was the first ever performance of the Irish dancing spectacular Riverdance, featuring Michael Flatley, ^ Contains some words in English. Each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs. With advances in technology, this was the first contest in which the spokesperson for each national jury appeared on-screen, live from their own countries
4.
Eurovision Song Contest 2001
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The Eurovision Song Contest 2001 was the 46th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. The contest took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, following the Olsen Brothers win at the 2000 contest in Stockholm, the hosting marked only the second time the contest was held on Danish soil, after the 1964 contest -37 years earlier. 23 countries took part in the contest, which was held on 12 May 2001, the host venue was the Parken Stadium - the largest venue to ever host the contest. A total of 35,000 spectators saw the live from within the stadium. The presenters were Danish journalist and TV-show presenter Natasja Crone Back, france, Greece and Slovenia were the heavy favourites to win the contest, however, as the voting progressed it became a two-horse race between Estonia and the host country Denmark. The contest was won by Estonia, represented by Tanel Padar, Dave Benton & 2XL with the song Everybody, the host nation, Denmark, finished in 2nd place with 177 points - beaten by 21 points. Coming 3rd were Greece with 147 points - giving the country their best result up till this point, france came 4th with 142 points, and in 5th place were Sweden with 100 points. Dave Benton, who was born and raised in Aruba, was the first black person and, at the age of 50 years and 101 days, Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark was the host city for the 46th edition of Eurovision. The venue choice for the contest was Parken Stadium, a stadium in the Indre Østerbro district of Copenhagen, Denmark. The logo of the 2001 Eurovision Song Contest was made out of four circles, the four circles were also present in the stage design, with the light construction was made of the same four rings. The Danish national broadcaster faced some problems whilst organising the contest such as the lack of funds, the event was eventually located in the football stadium Parken, after the company running the stadium agreed to add a retractable roof to the building. Changes occurred in the process for the 2002 Contest, along with the Big 4 countries. The other spots for 2002 would be filled by countries that were excluded from the 2001 contest because of their low point average for the years 1996–2000, the Danes were so offended that the BBC was obliged to issue an apology on Wogans comments. Controversy also surrounded the Swedish song, Listen To Your Heartbeat, eventually the EBU decided for the matter to be settled in court, with the song allowed to compete as long as the courts did not declare the song as plagiarism. During the voting the Danish band Aqua performed with a medley of their singles, Although enjoyable, people complained about it being a little bit rude as there was some swearing during the performance, both at the beginning and end of Barbie Girl. This brought the number of participating countries to twenty-three. Tanel Padar was a backing vocalist for Ines in 2000, the majority of participating countries held a televote, where the top ten most voted for songs were awarded the 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 points. This year the EBU introduced for the first time a mix of voting systems for those countries that didnt want to use 100% televoting, only three votes were allowed per household
5.
Eurovision Song Contest 2016
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The Eurovision Song Contest 2016 was the 61st edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in the Ericsson Globe in Stockholm, Sweden, following Swedens victory at the 2015 in Vienna with the song Heroes and this was the third time the contest had taken place in Stockholm, after 1975 and 2000, the latter also being held at the Globe. The contest consisted of two semi-finals on 10 and 12 May and the final on 14 May 2016, with all three live shows hosted by Zelmerlöw and Petra Mede, the winner of the contest was Ukraine with the song 1944, performed by Jamala. This was Ukraines second win and its first since 2004 and it was also the first song with lyrics in Crimean Tatar to win or enter the contest. Forty-two countries participated in the contest, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia and Ukraine returned after absences from recent contests, while Australia also returned after debuting as a special guest in 2015. Twenty-six countries competed in the final, which was the first to be broadcast on television in the United States. In the final, Australia finished second, improving on its debut in 2015, while Bulgaria finished fourth, its best result since its debut, Justin Timberlake performed during the interval act of the final. A record-breaking 204 million viewers watched the contest, beating the 2015 viewing figures by over 5 million. The contest took place in the Ericsson Globe in Stockholm, following Swedens victory at the 2015 contest in Vienna with the song Heroes, performed by Måns Zelmerlöw. The Ericsson Globe has a capacity of approximately 16,000 attendees, host broadcaster Sveriges Television announced on 24 May, the day after winning the 2015 contest, that the Tele2 Arena in Stockholm was their first choice venue. However, other cities and arenas were invited to apply, a press centre with a specific size had to be made available at the venue. A specific number of hotels and hotel rooms had to be available in the vicinity of the venue. The host city had to be near a major airport, an announcement regarding the venue was expected from SVT by midsummer, with the Ericsson Globe announced as the venue on 8 July. These were subject to change depending on SVT, but were confirmed when Stockholm was announced as the host city. Discussions were held in 2014 between the EBU and the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union regarding the inclusion of a guest performance from the ABU TV Song Festival at the contest. The EBU confirmed on 16 July 2015 that they are looking into the possibility of the proposal, however, the EBU published the public rules of the contest on 28 October, which stated that the start time would remain at 21,00 CEST. The core team for the contest was announced by SVT and the EBU on 26 October, johan Bernhagen and Martin Österdahl were Executive Producers, while Tobias Åberg was Head of Production. The three live shows were directed by Sven Stojanović and the contest was produced by Christer Björkman, the EBU announced on 18 February 2016 that a new voting system would be implemented at the contest for the first time since 1975
6.
Eurovision Song Contest 1993
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1993 was the 38th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 15 May 1993 in Millstreet, County Cork, Ireland. Niamh Kavanagh was the winner of this Eurovision for Ireland with the song and this was Irelands fifth victory, and equalled the tally of five Eurovision victories achieved by France in 1977 and Luxembourg in 1983. However, the venue, a large indoor well- equipped equestrian centre was deemed more suitable as the location by RTÉ. With huge support from local and national authorities, plus several businesses in the region and it was also the largest outside broadcast ever attempted by state broadcaster RTÉ and was deemed a technical triumph for all involved. The stage was created by Alan Farquharson, who was also chief production designer two years later in Dublin, BBC newsreader Nicholas Witchell caused controversy by remarking on the air, shortly before the contest, that it would be held in a cowshed in Ireland. The top two countries of this contest were the same as the top two countries in the years contest, being Ireland and the United Kingdom. This was, however, merely a measure that was plainly not a sustainable solution for future years. After some extremely tight voting, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia edged through, each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs. The voting required a jury to deliberate in the midst of the war in Bosnia. Warm applause rang round the hall as a voice on a phone line was heard to deliver the familiar greeting, Hello Millstreet. By the final few juries it became clear that either Ireland or the United Kingdom were going to win, after the penultimate jury had voted, it looked to be a lost cause for second-placed Sonia of the UK as she was eleven points behind Niamh Kavanagh. Ostensibly due to technical difficulties, the final jury to announce their results was the Maltese jury. However, the name of neither country came up, instead it was Ireland that were awarded the final points of the evening, finishing with what looked in retrospect a comfortable twenty-three-point victory. Interestingly, given the way the votes were cast, having Maltas vote announced last was the way for the contest for victory to go down to the final jury. 1993 was the last year that the points were announced by telephone
7.
Lithuania in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Lithuania has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 17 times since its debut in 1994, where Ovidijus Vyšniauskas finished last, receiving nul points. Lithuania then withdrew from the contest, not returning until 1999, LT Uniteds sixth place in 2006 with the song We Are the Winners is Lithuanias best result in the contest. The country reached the top ten for a time in 2016. Having been relegated from the 2000 contest the country returned in 2001 with Skamp and You Got Style and they received 35 points, placing 13th. However the following year, Aivaras could only manage to come second last with 12 points, since the semi-finals were introduced Lithuania again came last with Laura and the Lovers and Little by Little. The following year the Lithuanian broadcaster Lietuvos Nacionalinis Radijas ir Televizija sent LT United to the 2006 contest with the football chant-like song We Are the Winners. They took Lithuania to the final for the first time since 2002, coming sixth in the final with 162 points, Lithuanias best placing as of 2016. The following year Lithuania automatically qualified for the final, however 4Fun could not replicate LT Uniteds success, in 2008 Jeronimas Milius failed to reach the final, coming 16th of 19 competing nations in the second semi-final. Lithuania threatened to boycott the 2009 contest if Russia continues to showcase power, the statement was made in reaction to the Russias actions in the 2008 South Ossetia war. Culture Minister Jonas Jucas stated that it was too early to discuss the boycott since spontaneous decisions might aggravate the efforts of diplomats and thus make the situation worse. At the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, Lithuania qualified from the finals and at the end of the voting in the final had received 23 points. LRT announced in December 2009 that, due to a lack of necessary funds, however, in the event that the necessary funds of 300,000 litas would be found the broadcaster announced that they would attempt to continue the countrys participation. Ultimately, private company TEO LT provided the funding and Lithuania participated in Bærum. In 2011 Lithuania participated in the first Semi Final on the 10 May 2011 and after coming 5th, in the final, Lithuania performed 4th and at the end of the voting had received 63 points putting them 19th. ^ Includes two phrases in French, ^ Includes two phrases in French. American Sign Language was also used during the televised performance. If a country had won the year, they did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year. In addition from 2004-2007, the top ten countries who were not members of the big four did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year
8.
Eurovision Song Contest 1995
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1995 was the 40th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 13 May 1995 in the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. This years competition was the last with one host until 18 years later in 2013 in Malmö. This contest broke the chain of victories that Ireland enjoyed in 1992,1993 and this was Irelands 3rd year in succession to host the contest - and to mark the 40th show, it was opened with a 4-minute retrospective showing images from the contests history. The Norwegian group Secret Garden was the winner of this contest with the instrumental song. Incidentally, Secret Gardens violinist was Fionnuala Sherry, who is Irish and it was his birthday that night, but according to host Kennedy, He wouldnt say which one. Nonetheless, the audience sang Happy Birthday for him, assisted by the orchestra, after winning the 1994 contest, RTÉ were worried about whether they could afford to host a third consecutive contest in 1995. The BBC had offered to take on the responsibility of hosting the contest, in the end RTÉ decided to stage the contest on its own. However they did ask the EBU that, should Ireland win once more, the favourite to win the contest, according to bookmakers, was Sweden with the pop-ballad Se på mig. Other countries in contention for the win were Croatia, Denmark, Israel, Spain, the winning song was something new at Eurovision in that it contained only 24 words accompanied by long violin solos. The United Kingdom contributed a modern rap number, while the previous year’s runner-up, Poland, after the voting was completed, Norway was the winner with 148 points, followed by Spains Vuelve conmigo with 119 points, and Sweden gaining 100 points. The stage was designed by Alan Farquharson who also designed the set of the 1993 contest that took place in Millstreet, the interval act consisted of several well known Irish performers including Clannad, Brian Kennedy and was composed by leading musician Michael OSuilleabhan. The EBU decreased the number of back to 23 to make sure the show wouldnt last longer than 3 hours. 5 of the 6 countries that were relegated the year came back to the contest, Luxembourg decided to stop participating completely and Italy withdrew voluntarily. This rumour did, however inspire a popular episode of Father Ted, in any event, RTÉ ended up hosting the contest once again in 1997. Each country had a jury that awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs. Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final, FR Yugoslavia After the breakup of Yugoslavia, third channel of Radio Television of Serbia broadcast the show, although Yugoslavia did not participate
9.
Eurovision Song Contest 1996
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1996 was the 41st Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 18 May 1996 in Oslo Spektrum in Oslo, Norway. The presenters were Ingvild Bryn and Morten Harket, Harket, lead singer of a-ha, opened the show with a performance of his single Heavens Not for Saints. Twenty-three countries participated in the contest, with Eimear Quinn of Ireland crowned the winner after the voting, with the song. The song was written by Brendan Graham, who composed the 1994 winner Rock n Roll Kids. It was also a seventh win for Ireland and the most recent win of Ireland. Germany, Israel, Denmark, Hungary, Russia, Macedonia, Macedonia eventually went on to make their debut in 1998. The 1996 contest remains the only Eurovision without a German entry and this year, they reverted to the pre-qualifying round that had been used for the 1993, but this time with just one country exempt from the process - the host Norway. The audio-only pre-qualification round, which was never televised, was used by the EBU in order to shortlist the number of participating nations that would compete in the televised final. With exception to the hosts Norway, audio entries from twenty-nine countries were played to national juries, Germany, Israel, Denmark, Hungary, Russia, Macedonia, and Romania all failed to qualify. As a result, Macedonias submission was never classified as an entry by the EBU. As a leading contributor to the contest, Germany were particularly aggrieved that their entry. It was the year in the history of the ESC in which Germany did not participate in the final. But of course the only good luck wish that was rewarded in the end was that of Irish Taoiseach John Bruton. Secondly, the section was conducted using blue screen virtual reality technology provided by Silicon Graphics. The host Ingvild Bryn introduced the viewers to the room, upon which a 3D scoreboard, views of the green room. The only physical aspects were Ingvild herself and two podiums, for the first time in the Eurovision history, during the voting a spokesperson came to stage down next to Ingvild, the Norwegian one, Ragnhild Sælthun Fjørtoft. Despite a submitted entry from Macedonia, it was never classified as a debut entry. Shaded countries were eliminated from the competition Each country had a jury that awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs
10.
Ivo Linna
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Ivo Linna is an Estonian singer. He represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 1996 with the song Kaelakee Hääl which finished 5th at the contest and he competed in Eesti Laul 2017 with the song Suur loterii. He came in fifth place overall, in 2000, the President of Estonia decorated Ivo Linna with a IV Class Order of the White Star. Solo Albums Ivo Linna 93 Iff 1 Enne ja pärast päeva Üksi, in addition to the albums mentioned above, Ivo Linna has released a number of more albums with different rock acts of Estonia, like Apelsin and Rock Hotel. Ivo Linna discography at MusicBrainz Ivo Linna at the Internet Movie Database
11.
USSR
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
12.
Eurovision Song Contest 1997
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1997, was the 42nd Eurovision Song Contest and it was held at the Point Theatre Dublin, Ireland, on 3 May 1997. Carrie Crowley and Boyzone member Ronan Keating were the presenters of the show, belgium, Finland, and Slovakia withdrew from the contest due to the relegation rule. The United Kingdom won the competition, thanks to Katrina and the Waves, Ireland hosted the contest for the fourth time in five years after winning the 1996 in Oslo. Dublin was chosen to be the host city, making it the time that the Eurovision Song Contest was staged in the Irish capital. The venue for the contest was the Point Theatre located on the North Wall Quay of the River Liffey, the theatre previously hosted the 1994 and 1995 contests. RTÉ once again produced a spectacular show, with a stage that had a smaller performance space for the artists than in previous years. This was the third Eurovision set to be designed by Paula Farrell, there was a wide array of different styles this year. Denmark brought a rap song, Croatia came with their version of the Spice Girls, the music was in general more modern than before, and for the first time in 1991, an up-tempo song won. This year, televoting was tested in five countries, Austria, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, the results of the televoting countries were, in some cases, different from those that used a jury. Iceland received 16 of its 18 points from five countries. Also, for the first time in Eurovision history, there was a country where not one, television reporter Frédéric Ferrer and 1977 Eurovision winner Marie Myriam each took turns at giving results from that country. Long-time Irish conductor Noel Kelehan was not the host conductor this year, however, from this year, entrants were allowed to use singback without orchestra accompaniment, and in 1999, the orchestra would be abolished completely. Alma Čardžić returned for Bosnia and Herzegovina after last representing the nation in 1994, maarja-Liis Ilus and Şebnem Paker both returned for a 1996 representing Estonia and Turkey respectively. 1. ^ ^ Contained some lyrics in English, iceland got most of its 18 points from the 5 countries that used televoting. Ireland was ostensibly the best scoring country across the televoting countries, the United Kingdom was only eligible to receive points from 4 of them, since they couldnt vote for themselves. Despite being the runner-up, it received only one 12-point score. The UK spokesman Colin Berry remarked, Youre going to like one, Ireland. Causing Terry Wogan to reply, Well, tit for tat, the winning song scored an unprecedented 227 points, it received points from all participating countries, including five sets of 10 points and a record-breaking ten sets of the maximum 12 points
13.
Eurovision Song Contest 1999
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1999 was the 44th Eurovision Song Contest, held on 29 May 1999 in Jerusalem, Israel after Dana International won the contest the previous year in the United Kingdom. The venue for the contest was the International Convention Center, the place that hosted the 1979 contest. Israels two previous winners, Izhar Cohen, who won in 1978 with A-Ba-Ni-Bi and Milk and Honeys Gali Atari who won it the year with Hallelujah attended as spectators. The winner of the Contest was Charlotte Nilsson, representing Sweden with Take Me to Your Heaven and this was Swedens fourth win in the Contest and the second in the 1990s. In the run-up to the Contest, many speculated that it would not be held in Israel, long-standing rules in place for decades were abolished during this Contest, rules that each country had to sing in one of their national languages was abolished for the first time since 1977. Furthermore, live music became optional for the first time in the Contests history, IBA took advantage of this and decided to drop the orchestra from the Contest as a way to conserve money for the show. This meant that for the first time all entries used backing track during their performances and this caused controversy for Eurovision traditionalists, with three-time winner Johnny Logan criticising the move, describing the event now as karaoke. Latvia had attempted to participate in the Contest for the first time and this gave Hungary a chance to enter the Contest, however, Magyar Televízió decided not to take part. This allowed Portugal to compete as the 23rd country, austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark and Iceland returned to the Contest after being relegated from competing in 1998. Lithuania also returned to the Contest for the first time in five years, the Lithuanian delegation had had budget problems to contend with, and so the EBU allowed the Lithuanians to arrive in Israel a day later than everyone else. The first delegation on the hand to walk the Holy Land were Estonia. After being relegated from the 1998 Contest, Russias Channel One had decided not to broadcast that years contest, however, as only countries which had broadcast the previous years contest were allowed to enter the next years contest, Russia was forced to miss another year. They were joined by Finland, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia and Switzerland, the favourites to win the Contest came from Icelands Selma with All Out of Luck, and Cypruss Marlain with Tha Ne Erotas, after an internet poll by fans. But, while Iceland finished second to Sweden, Cyprus failed to inspire televotes, a number of controversies occurred before the Contest. Both artists would eventually represent their countries in Eurovision, in 2006 and 2002 respectively, croatias entry attracted objections from the Norwegian delegation, due to synthesised male vocals being used on the backing track of Doris Dragovićs entry. The interval act was provided by Dana International, who performed a cover of the Stevie Wonder song Free, Dana International also appeared at the end of the show, handing the winning trophy to Nilsson. After pretending that the trophy was too heavy to lift, she fell to the stage, below is a summary of all 12 point in the final
14.
Eda-Ines Etti
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Eda-Ines Etti is a singer and celebrity in Estonia, also known for her participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2000. Under her abbreviated stage name Ines, she was Estonias representative for the contest in Sweden and her song Once in a Lifetime received 4th place in the contest. Ines was designed to be once again Estonias public face at the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 held in Estonia, however, she pulled out at the last moment, and an experienced Swedish singer, Sahlene was hurriedly drafted in to perform Runaway at Eurolaul. This caused some controversy, with Ines role in the affair coming under question, in the same year, Ines became the face for the Finnish mobile ticketing company Plusdial. Since then, she has once been the national spokeswoman during the procedure of Eurovision Song Contest. Iness first album in Estonian,15 magamata ööd, was issued in 2004, the title-track of the record brought her the second Female Artist of the Year at the Estonian Music Awards. Ines backup band was formed in 2005, including her brother Ivo Etti, Siim Mäesalu, Erki Pärnoja, the first two instrumentalists were freshly recruited from Ruffus, the participants of Eurovision Song Contest 2003. The first record of the new formation was Ines album Uus päev and this included Ines second Eurolaul entry, the song Iseendale. The song came a second to the winner Through My Window. Iseendale was notable as the only Estonian language song entered in 2006, Ines third Eurolaul entry was the song entitled In Good and Bad in 2007 and achieved the 7th place. Her album Kustutame vead earned her the nomination for the Female Artist of the Year, in 2008, Eda-Ines Etti won the Estonian version of the Just the Two of Us reality television singing contest in duet with the Chief General Manager of IBM Estonia Valdo Randpere. Ines released her studio album Kas kuuled mind in the end of November 2009. The album includes the singles Ükskord, Ja sina, Öine linn and her sixth album Kiusatus released in May 2011 and included a hit track Tule-tule which also has a video. This album came on sale with the cooperation of A Le Coq and was possible to purchase with A Le Coq beer six pack
15.
Eurovision Song Contest 2000
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It was the first time since 1996 that the contest was held on mainland Europe. The contest was the second to be held in Stockholm, the presenters were Kattis Ahlström and Anders Lundin, and the contest was won by the Olsen Brothers who represented Denmark with the song Fly on the Wings of Love. The song was written by one of the brothers, Jørgen Olsen, the Globe Arena was, at the time, the largest venue chosen to host the contest with a capacity of 16,000 spectators. The postcards used to each country participating involved Swedish themes that incorporated each nation in some respect. All the postcards are filmed in Stockholm, Sweden, however, the exception is the postcard for Sweden. The favourite in this years contest was Estonia, who was also a fan favourite, however, as the voting results came in, Denmark immediately took control of the scoreboard, beating Russia into second place and Latvia into 3rd place. Slovakia, Greece and Hungary decided not to compete for financial reasons and these countries were, Finland, Macedonia, Romania, Russia and Switzerland. Latvia also joined contest as the country to debut. For the first time, an official CD compilation was released, such a disc was attempted in the previous year, however it lacked four of the competing songs. SVT announced on July 7,1999 that the contest would be hosted by the Globe Arena in Stockholm, other possible candidates had been Scandinavium in Gothenburg and Malmömässan in Malmö. They had previously hosted Eurovision Song Contest 1985 and 1992 respectively, the Globe was said to be chosen because Stockholm hadnt hosted the contest since 1975 and that it would be somewhat cheaper than the other options. The graphic design programme for this years contest was developed by Stockholm Design Lab and was centred around a stylised mouth symbol and it was given the Excellent Swedish Design award later that year. The softness of the mouth was contrasted with a pointy typeface, the intermission during the finale of the ESC was Once Upon a Time Europe Was Covered With Ice, a movie/song directed, composed and edited by Johan Söderberg and produced by John Nordling. For the film Söderberg had traveled all over Europe to record children performing the score, on stage were violinist Caroline Lundgren, drummer Strängnäs Trumkorps plus street musicians from Stockholm and dancers from the Bounce Street Dance Company. There were some controversies concerning some participating countries, israel, who opened the contest, entered a group who waved Israeli and Syrian flags advocating peace between the two nations. The two male singers in the also ran up to each other and kissed for a brief moment. This issue was rejected by the European Broadcasting Union, later, NOS declared that it was both for practical reasons as well as because they found it inappropriate to broadcast a light entertainment programme on the night of such a catastrophic event. As a result, televoting had to be suspended and the Dutch votes were given by a jury instead
16.
Tanel Padar
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Tanel Padar is an Estonian singer. He is best known internationally for winning the Eurovision Song Contest 2001, Padar became famous by winning the Kaks takti ette, a biennial televised competition for young Estonian singers, in 1999. In 2000, Padar was one of the vocalists for Ines – who at the time was also his girlfriend – at the Eurovision Song Contest 2000. In 2001, he, along with the boyband 2XL and Aruba born Dave Benton claimed the spotlight by winning the Eurovision Song Contest 2001 with the song Everybody, Padar performs in a band called Tanel Padar & The Sun, one of the most popular bands in Estonia. In 2006, Tanel Padar & The Sun had the positions in the Estonian 2006 chart, #1, #4, #12, #23, #29. One of their songs also claimed the R2 Hit of the Year prize, the song Hopelessness You made it to the MTV World Chart Express. Tanel Padar was married to Katarina Kalda, a former model
17.
Dave Benton
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Dave Benton is a pop musician from Aruba who lives in Estonia. He is the 2001 winner of the Eurovision Song Contest, since 2011, he has been a guitarist and songwriter for the Brooklyn-based lo-fi indie rock band LVL UP. He has released music under the moniker Trace Mountains. Born Efrén Eugene Benita in 1951 on the Caribbean island of Aruba and he was fluent in English, Spanish and Papiamento, the creole language of the island. He married and had a daughter, in his 20s, he separated from his wife and moved to the United States. As a drummer and a backing vocalist, he worked with The Drifters, Tom Jones, Billy Ocean, José Feliciano, while living in the Netherlands in the 1980s, he met his future wife Maris, an Estonian, on a cruise ship. They settled in Estonia in 1997 and have two daughters, Sissi and Lisa, Benton has had a varied musical career in Northern European countries. He speaks eight languages, English, Spanish, Papiamento, Dutch, French, German, Portuguese and he performed in the German production of the musical City Lights, after which he was asked to replace Engelbert Humperdinck on his Australian tour. Benton has released and produced quite a few albums already, one of which in his native tongue and he has had more of a career as a performing artist. In 2001 he performed with budding Estonian rock singer Tanel Padar, Benton was a contestant at the 1981 OTI Festival held in Mexico City, he represented the Netherlands Antilles with the song Vaya un amigo as Efrén Benita. He finished in 20th place at this contest, Benton won the Eurovision Song Contest for Estonia, before he had learned to speak Estonian. In 2010, Benton participated as a celebrity contestant on the season of Tantsud tähtedega. His professional dancing partner was Valeria Fetissova and his oldest daughter Nathaly, from his first marriage, has a girl called Tanisia
18.
Yugoslavia
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Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast Europe during most of the 20th century. The Serbian royal House of Karađorđević became the Yugoslav royal dynasty, Yugoslavia gained international recognition on 13 July 1922 at the Conference of Ambassadors in Paris. The country was named after the South Slavic peoples and constituted their first union, following centuries in which the territories had been part of the Ottoman Empire, renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia on 3 October 1929, it was invaded by the Axis powers on 6 April 1941. In 1943, a Democratic Federal Yugoslavia was proclaimed by the Partisan resistance, in 1944, the king recognised it as the legitimate government, but in November 1945 the monarchy was abolished. Yugoslavia was renamed the Federal Peoples Republic of Yugoslavia in 1946 and it acquired the territories of Istria, Rijeka, and Zadar from Italy. Partisan leader Josip Broz Tito ruled the country as president until his death in 1980, in 1963, the country was renamed again as the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The constituent six socialist republics that made up the country were the SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SR Croatia, SR Macedonia, SR Montenegro, SR Serbia, and SR Slovenia. Serbia contained two Socialist Autonomous Provinces, Vojvodina and Kosovo, which after 1974 were largely equal to the members of the federation. After an economic and political crisis in the 1980s and the rise of nationalism, Yugoslavia broke up along its republics borders, at first into five countries, eventually, Serbia and Montenegro accepted the opinion of the Badinter Arbitration Committee about shared succession. Serbia and Montenegro themselves broke up in 2006 and became independent states, the concept of Yugoslavia, as a single state for all South Slavic peoples, emerged in the late 17th century and gained prominence through the Illyrian Movement of the 19th century. The name was created by the combination of the Slavic words jug, Yugoslavia was the result of the Corfu Declaration, as a project of the Serbian Parliament in exile and the Serbian royal Karađorđević dynasty, who became the Yugoslav royal dynasty. The country was formed in 1918 immediately after World War I as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes by union of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and it was commonly referred to at the time as the Versailles state. Later, the government renamed the country leading to the first official use of Yugoslavia in 1929, on 6 January 1929 King Alexander I suspended the constitution, banned national political parties, assumed executive power and renamed the country Yugoslavia. He hoped to curb separatist tendencies and mitigate nationalist passions and he imposed a new constitution and relinquished his dictatorship in 1931. None of these three regimes favored the policy pursued by Alexander I, Alexander attempted to create a centralised Yugoslavia. He decided to abolish Yugoslavias historic regions, and new internal boundaries were drawn for provinces or banovinas, the banovinas were named after rivers. Many politicians were jailed or kept under police surveillance, the effect of Alexanders dictatorship was to further alienate the non-Serbs from the idea of unity. During his reign the flags of Yugoslav nations were banned, Alexander was succeeded by his eleven-year-old son Peter II and a regency council headed by his cousin, Prince Paul
19.
Eurovision Song Contest 2002
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The Eurovision Song Contest 2002 was the 47th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. The contest took place in Tallinn, Estonia, following Tanel Padar, Dave Benton & 2XLs win at the 2001 contest in Copenhagen, for the first time, a slogan was implemented. This years theme was called A Modern Fairytale, which was evident in the postcards aired between the songs, which showed classic fairytales ending in modern Estonian situations, the final took place on the 25 May 2002 at the Saku Suurhall. Opening the show were the champions, Tanel Padar and Dave Benton. The contest was won by Latvia, represented by Marie N with the song I Wanna, the United Kingdom and host country Estonia shared 3rd place with 111 points each, while France finished in 5th place with 104 points. Despite being one of the favourites to win the contest, Denmark finished last with just 7 points and had to sit out of the years contest. Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia and it is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland,80 km south of Helsinki in Finland, east of Stockholm in Sweden, and west of Saint Petersburg in Russia. Founded in 1248 but the earliest human settlements back to 3000 years BC. Due to its important strategic location the city became a major trade hub. Tallinns Old Town is one of the best preserved and intact medieval cities in Europe and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Saku Suurhall was chosen as the venue for the contest. It is the largest arena in Estonia, built in 2001 and it is named after the Estonian brewery and soft drink company Saku. These countries replaced the bottom 6 countries from the 2001 contest, portugal declined to enter the Contest due to internal problems in the Portuguese broadcaster RTP. Controversy erupted during the competition over remarks by commentators on Swedish and Belgian TV, the song received zero points from the Swedish audience but earned two from the Belgians, finishing 12th overall. In the televoting household shall not be permitted to vote more than three times and this year saw allegations that the juries in use were guilty of swapping votes between each other. Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final, For the first time, founded by Christer Björkman and Richard Herrey, the awards are named after the creator of the annual competition, Marcel Bezençon. The awards are divided into 3 categories, Press Award, Artistic Award, as had been the case every year since the mid-1980s, the contest was broadcast in Australia on SBS-TV with the BBC commentary. Within a few years, the contest would grow to be so popular in Australia, Serbia and Montenegro After the breakup of Yugoslavia, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia last participated in 1992. Radio Television of Serbia broadcast the show, originally, first time as Serbia and Montenegro had planned debuts, but the EBUs late changes to the relegation procedure meant that they could not compete
20.
Tallinn
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Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland,80 km south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm, from the 13th century until 1918, the city was known as Reval. Tallinn occupies an area of 159.2 km2 and has a population of 444,591, approximately 33% of Estonias total population lives in Tallinn. Tallinn was founded in 1248, but the earliest human settlements date back 5,000 years, making it one of the oldest capital cities of Northern Europe. The initial claim over the land was laid by the Danes in 1219 after a raid of Lyndanisse led by Valdemar II of Denmark. Due to its location, the city became a major trade hub, especially from the 14th to the 16th century. Tallinns Old Town is one of the best preserved cities in Europe and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Tallinn is the political, financial, cultural and educational center of Estonia. Often dubbed the Silicon Valley of Europe, it has the highest number of startups per person in Europe and is a birthplace of international companies. The city is to house the headquarters of the European Unions IT agency, providing to the global cybersecurity it is the home to the NATO Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence. It is ranked as a city and has been listed among the top 10 digital cities in the world. The city was a European Capital of Culture for 2011, along with Turku in Finland and it has been suggested that Quwri may have denoted a predecessor of the modern city. The earliest names of Tallinn include Kolyvan, which is known from East Slavic chronicles, up to the 13th century, the Scandinavians and Henry of Livonia in his chronicle called the town Lindanisa (or Lyndanisse in Danish, Lindanäs in Swedish and Ledenets in Old East Slavic. It has been suggested that the archaic Estonian word linda is similar to the Votic word lidna. According to this suggestion, nisa would have the meaning niemi, producing Kesoniemi, another ancient historical name for Tallinn in Finnish is Rääveli. The Icelandic Njals saga mentions Tallinn and calls it Rafala, which is a variant of the name Raphael, after the Danish conquest in 1219, the town became known in the German, Swedish and Danish languages as Reval. The name originated from Revelia Revala or Rävala, the adjacent ancient name of the surrounding area and it is usually thought to be derived from Taani-linn, after the Danes built the castle in place of the Estonian stronghold at Lindanisse. However, it could also have come from tali-linna, or talu-linna, the element -linna, like Germanic -burg and Slavic -grad / -gorod, originally meant fortress, but is used as a suffix in the formation of town names
21.
Sahlene
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Born in Söderhamn on 11 May 1976, Sahlene was the oldest of seven children having three younger brothers and three younger sisters. Both her parents had strong musical inclinations which were passed on to their children, with Sahlene herself singing from an age in addition to learning cello, guitar, oboe. She was among the members of One Voice who formed the chorale for the Charlotte Nilsson performance of Take Me to Your Heaven at Eurovision 1999 where, representing Sweden, the number won. Sahlenes own recording career began in 1997 when she fronted the band Rhythm Avenue on their album Twelve Steps Down the Avenue, Sahlenes first solo single in 2000 was called The Little Voice. The Little Voice and the 2001 single release House were both minor Swedish chart hits for Sahlene with respective peaks of #51 and #52. Sahlene recorded tracks for a The Little Voice album release which was shelved due to EMGs buyout of Roadrunner Arcade Music and its eventual fall into bankruptcy. Runaway debuted at #20 on the Swedish singles chart dated 12 June 2002, Sahlenes name was leaked as a possible performer for the Melodifestivalen 2004 entrant Baby I Cant Stop, however the eventual performer of the song was Gladys del Pilar. Sahlene was a guest performer on the album What a Wonderful World by the Joybells, Sahlene was one of the contestants on the 2007 season of the Swedish TV show Lets Dance on TV4. Sahlene was voted off the show, which was won by Lasse Brandeby, on 11 August 2007 Sahlene began an extended run in the female lead in the musical Footloose in Gothenburg, the show moved to Stockholm on 20 February 2008. However, by the end it was confirmed that Sahlenes schedule would not permit her to participate in Selecția Națională. On 24 October 2010 Sahlene performed at a Eurovision Night After Dark party held at the Swedish embassy in Washington D. C, from the fall of 2010 Anna Sahlene and LaGaylia Frazier extensively toured Sweden with an R&B-oriented live show entitled the Blues Mothers. It has been announced that as of 27 December 2012 Sahlene will perform in the role of Maria Magdalena in the Göta Lejon Theatre production of Jesus Christ Superstar. In 2013 Sahlene voiced the character of Queen Tara in the Swedish-language dubbed version of the animated film Epic released by 20th Century Fox May 2013, at the 5 May 2016 rehearsals for Ims semi-final performance Sahlene and Norberg performed their background vocals offstage
22.
Urban Symphony
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Urban Symphony is an Estonian music group. It represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 with the song Rändajad and this is the best place for Estonia in the contest since 2002. In autumn 2007, Sandra Nurmsalu took part in the talent show called 2 takti ette, biennially held by the Eesti Televisioon. In a week of the contest, the contestants were tasked to form bands each on their own, Nurmsalu had studied the violin for two years in the Georg Ots Music School and had previously arranged the song Nothing Else Matters by Metallica for a string set of the school. Therefore, she decided to use one again, Nurmsalu turned to her former school, where she was introduced to Mann Helstein playing the viola, Johanna Mängel playing the cello, a female contrabass player and a male keyboardist. The band re-scored the song Hungry by Kosheen and were pleased with the resulting televised, at the end of the series, Nurmsalu, Helstein and Mängel agreed to continue their collaboration. Mängel brought the new cello player Mari Möldre to the band, in the same while, Sven Lõhmus, a music producer invited the group to work with him. The first track the team completed was Rändajad for the contest of Eesti Laul, the song went on to gain 6th place in the Eurovision final. For this project, Marilin Kongo and Mirjam Mesak joined the group to sing backing vocals and they sing Päikese poole, Skorpion and Crying in the Rain too. Marilin Kongo was 8th with her entry Be 1st in Eurolaul 2006, the backing singer Mirjam Mesak supported Gerli Padar with backing vocals on stage of Eurovision Song Contest 2007
23.
Eurovision Song Contest 2009
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The Eurovision Song Contest 2009 was the 54th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest and was hosted by Russia after their win in 2008. It took place between 12 and 16 May 2009 at the Olympic Indoor Arena in Moscow, Russia, third place went to Azerbaijan, fourth to Turkey, and the United Kingdom taking 5th, seeing their best placing since 2002. Forty-two countries participated in the contest, Slovakia announced that it would return to the contest, Latvia and Georgia originally announced their intention to withdraw, but it was later stated by the European Broadcasting Union that both countries would indeed participate. However, Georgia later decided to withdraw after the EBU rejected its selected song as being a breach of contest rules, the contest was held in Russia following its victory in the 2008 contest in Belgrade, Serbia, with Dima Bilans Believe. Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister of Russia, stated that the contest would be held in Moscow and it was proposed by Channel One that the contest be held in Moscows Olympic Indoor Arena, and this proposal was evaluated by the European Broadcasting Union and confirmed on 13 September 2008. The Director-General of the venue, Vladimir Churilin, refuted rumours of emergency reconstruction of the building, saying and we now can take up to 25 thousand spectators. The contest final took place on 16 May 2009 at the Olympic Indoor Arena in Moscow, thirty-seven countries participated in one of the two semi-finals of the contest, with the Big Four countries and the host pre-qualified for the final. In addition to those pre-qualified, the final included the ten selected countries from each semi-final. However, it was confirmed that the Big Four countries would continue to qualify for the final at the 2009 contest. Host broadcaster Channel One presented the sub-logo and theme for the 2009 contest on 30 January 2009, the sub-logo is based upon a Fantasy Bird, which can be used with many colours. As in previous years, the sub-logo was presented alongside the generic logo,2009 was the first year since 2001 that there was no slogan for the contest. The stage was designed by New York-based set designer John Casey, Casey, who had previously designed the stage for the Eurovision Song Contest 1997 in Dublin, was also involved in design teams for the 1994 and 1995 contests. He explained that even before worked with the Russians on the TEFI Awards in Moscow in 1998, was inspired by and drawn to art from the Russian Avant Garde period, especially the constructivists. Tried to come up with a design for the contest that incorporates Russian avant-garde art into a contemporary setting. Casey explained that together, the various LED shapes form the finished product, furthermore, large sections of the stage can move, including the circular central portion of curved LED screens, which can be moved to effect and allow each song to have a different feel. Finally a phrase in transliterated Russian and its English translation were shown, the music accompanying the postcards was written and produced by Matthew Herbert. On Friday 30 January 2009, the draw to decide which countries would appear in either the first or second semi-final took place, the participating countries excluding the automatic finalists were split into six pots, based upon how those countries have been voting. From these pots, half competed in the first Semi Final on 10 May 2009, the other half in that particular pot will compete in the second Semi Final on 12 May 2009
24.
Ott Lepland
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Ott Lepland is an Estonian singer, who is best known as the winner of the third season of Eesti otsib superstaari. Lepland represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku, Lepland has been singing since he was a child. He released four albums with songs in 1995 and 1996. At the moment Lepland is studying at Georg Ots Tallinn Music School pop and he has also studied piano for ten years. Ott has performed in plays, including the role of Troy Bolton in Estonian State Puppet & Youth Theatres musical. In 2010, Lepland released his self-titled first album after winning the Estonian version of Pop Idol, the self-titled album consists of 12 songs, including singles Otsides ma pean su jälle leidma, Süte peal sulanud jää, etc. In December 2010, a fan book of Lepland was released, in 2011, Ott participated in another TV3 TV show Laulupealinn, where Ott represented Estonian town Kärdla. Every week, Lepland had to perform with partners from Kärdla or Hiiu County, including his grandmother, nephew, Lepland won the show and Kärdla has now the title of Singing Capital of Estonia. His second album Laulan ma sind was released in November 2011
25.
Eurovision Song Contest 2012
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The Eurovision Song Contest 2012 was the 57th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Baku, Azerbaijan, following Ell & Nikkis win at the 2011 contest in Düsseldorf, the contest was held at the newly constructed Baku Crystal Hall, with semi-finals held on 22 and 24 May 2012, followed by the final held on 26 May 2012. The contest was won by singer Loreen from Sweden with the song Euphoria—written by Thomas G, son and Peter Boström, russia finished in second place, with Serbia finishing in third. They were followed by the host country, Azerbaijan, which reached the 4th place, albania finished 5th, achieving its first top 5 placing. Germany, Italy and Spain were the three members of the Big Five that managed to rank within the top 10, finishing in 8th, 9th and 10th places respectively. Azerbaijan got the right to host the 2012 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest after winning the previous 2011 edition with the song Running Scared performed by Ell & Nikki. Shortly after Azerbaijans victory at the 2011 edition, officials announced that a new 23,000 seat concert venue was to be built near National Flag Square in Baku, as a potential venue for the event. Three days later, other options were revealed by organisers, such as the 37, 000-seat Tofiq Bahramov Stadium. On 2 August 2011, Alpine Bau Deutschland AG was awarded the contract to construct the Baku Crystal Hall, preparations for construction began in the area shortly after the announcement. Even though the full cost of the contract was not named, on 8 September 2011, Azad Azerbaijan TV reported that Baku Crystal Hall would be the venue of the contest, but no formal confirmation was made at the time by the EBU. On 25 January 2012, it was confirmed that the Baku Crystal Hall would be the venue of the contest, even though the venue had an extended capacity of 23,000 people, only 16,000 people were able to attend each show. Tickets for the contest became available online for purchase on 28 February 2012, the results format of each show remained the same with each countrys votes being decided on a 50,50 split between televoting and a national jury. Each participating country had their own jury, which consisted of five professional members of the music industry. Under the official released on 24 November 2011, the number of participants in the final was raised to 26, including the host nation, the Big Five. This was the time in the Eurovision Song Contest that 26 countries were in the final. The draw that determined the semi-final running order was held on 25 January 2012 at the Buta Palace, the participating countries, excluding the automatic finalists, were split into six pots, based upon how those countries voted in past contests. From these pots, half competed in the first semi-final on 22 May 2012, the other half in that particular pot competed in the second semi-final on 24 May 2012. 1. ^ Armenia withdrew approximately a month and a half after the allocation draw
26.
Elina Born
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Elina Born is an Estonian singer. She represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 along with Stig Rästa with the song Goodbye to Yesterday and she was the runner-up of the fifth season of Eesti otsib superstaari. Elina Born was born on 29 June 1994 in Lehtse, Estonia, Stig Rästa discovered Elina Born on YouTube, she was singing Cruz by Christina Aguilera, he said I was completely charmed by her musicality. Elina was at school when a message from Stig appeared on her Facebook, on the experience, Born stated To be honest, I started crying. It took me a couple of days to gather the courage to write back, in 2012 Elina Born took part on Estonian reality-competition gameshow Eesti otsib superstaari. The program seeks to discover the best singer in Estonia through a series of nationwide auditions and she made it through the audition, theatre round, studio round and final. She reached the Super Final but finished runner-up to Rasmus Rändvee, Elina Born took part on Eesti Laul 2015 with Stig Rästa, organised by the Estonian broadcaster Eesti Rahvusringhääling. Elina and Stig took 7th place in the final with the total of 106 points
27.
Eurovision Song Contest 2015
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The Eurovision Song Contest 2015 was the 60th anniversary edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest musical event. The contest took place in Vienna, Austria, following Austrian Conchita Wursts victory in the 2014 and this was the second time that Austria hosted the contest, the 1967 being the first. The 2015 contest consisted of two semi-finals, which place on 19 and 21 May, and a final, held on 23 May 2015. The shows were presented by Mirjam Weichselbraun, Alice Tumler and Arabella Kiesbauer while Conchita Wurst was hosting the green room, forty countries participated in the contest, with Australia making a guest appearance, and Cyprus, the Czech Republic, and Serbia returning. Ukraine, however, announced their withdrawal due to financial and political reasons around the Ukrainian crisis, once all the votes had been announced, based on 50% jury and 50% televoting, Sweden won the contest for the sixth time, with Måns Zelmerlöws song Heroes. Sweden became the first country to win the contest twice in the current format, and this was the second win in four years. Italy won the voting with Russia in second place. Sweden won the voting, with Latvia in second place. This is the first time since the juries were reintroduced alongside the televoting in 2009 that the winner didnt place first in the televoting, for the first time, the top four of the contest all scored 200 points or better. Russias entry A Million Voices became the first non-winning Eurovision song to score over 300 points, Austria and Germany became the first countries 2003 to score no points in the final. Austria is also the first host country to score nul points, the 2015 contest also saw the best ever result for Montenegro since its independence, and the Czech Republic. Also the top two countries of this contest were the same as the top two countries in the 2012, being Sweden and Russia, over 197 million viewers worldwide watched the contest, beating the 2014 viewing figures by 2 million. The Wiener Stadthalle hosts the annual Erste Bank Open tennis tournament, after Austrias victory in the 2014 Contest, their delegation revealed the possibility of hosting the contest either in the capital city, Vienna, or in Salzburg. Vienna, considered the front-runner, had two venues in the phase, Wiener Stadthalle and the trade centre, Messe Wien. Also in the race were Stadthalle Graz and Schwarzl Freizeit Zentrum, with a maximum capacity of 30,000, the Wörthersee Stadium in Klagenfurt also joined the race, however, it would require the construction of a roof for the contest to be hosted there. Innsbruck also joined the race with Olympiahalle, which hosted ice hockey, a fifth city, Linz, joined the race with Brucknerhaus, although the venue is not big enough for the contest. Being geographically close to Linz, Wels showed desire to host the event as well, oberwart, with the Exhibition hall, and Vorarlberg, with the Vorarlberger Landestheater, were the latest cities to declare an interest. On 29 May 2014, Austrian host public broadcaster ORF and the EBU released some requirements, ORF requested interested parties to respond by 13 June 2014
28.
Soul Militia
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Soul Militia is an Estonian hip-hop act, internationally most notable for winning the Eurovision Song Contest 2001 as backing singers for Tanel Padar and Dave Benton, with the song Everybody. The group consists of Lauri Pihlap, Sergei Morgun and Kaido Põldma, a fourth member, Indrek Soom, left the group in 2004. 2XL was founded by Morgun and Soom in 1997 and they later participated in the 2007 Estonian Eurovision preselection with a song titled My Place
29.
Everybody (Tanel Padar and Dave Benton song)
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Everybody was the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2001, performed in English by Tanel Padar, Dave Benton and 2XL, representing Estonia. The song was performed twentieth on the night, following Germanys Michelle with Wer Liebe lebt, at the close of voting, it had received 198 points, with the win coming at the head of a 23-song field. Estonia were the first from the former Soviet Union countries to win the Contest, with the second, Tanel had previously provided backing vocals for Estonias 2000 entry, sung by Eda-Ines Etti, his then-girlfriend. Tanel and Dave got supported by a group of 4, 2XL, Lauri Pihlap, Kaido Põldma, Sergei Morgun. The song was succeeded as Estonian representative at the 2002 contest, held in the Estonian capital of Tallinn, lyrically, the song is simply an invitation to party, with the duo singing that every nights a Friday night. The song is famous for two major reasons, the first of these is that Benton is the oldest contestant to win the grand prize. The second is that he is the first black contestant to do so, maarja-Liis Ilus has recorded a cover version
30.
Tii
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Tii was the entry of Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004, performed by Neiokõsõ. It was composed by Priit Pajusaar and Glen Pilvre, and the lyrics, written in the Võro language, Tii was the first Estonian entry that was chosen by televoting rather than a jury. There were 10 songs in the national final Eurolaul and Tii won overwhelmingly, receiving 8696 votes, as Estonia had not finished in the top 10 at the previous Contest, the song was performed in the semi-final. It was succeeded as the Estonian representative at the 2005 contest by Suntribe with Lets Get Loud
31.
Moscow
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Moscow is the capital and most populous city of Russia, with 13.2 million residents within the city limits and 17.8 million within the urban area. Moscow has the status of a Russian federal city, Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, and scientific center of Russia and Eastern Europe, as well as the largest city entirely on the European continent. Moscow is the northernmost and coldest megacity and metropolis on Earth and it is home to the Ostankino Tower, the tallest free standing structure in Europe, the Federation Tower, the tallest skyscraper in Europe, and the Moscow International Business Center. Moscow is situated on the Moskva River in the Central Federal District of European Russia, the city is well known for its architecture, particularly its historic buildings such as Saint Basils Cathedral with its brightly colored domes. Moscow is the seat of power of the Government of Russia, being the site of the Moscow Kremlin, the Moscow Kremlin and Red Square are also one of several World Heritage Sites in the city. Both chambers of the Russian parliament also sit in the city and it is recognized as one of the citys landmarks due to the rich architecture of its 200 stations. In old Russian the word also meant a church administrative district. The demonym for a Moscow resident is москвич for male or москвичка for female, the name of the city is thought to be derived from the name of the Moskva River. There have been proposed several theories of the origin of the name of the river and its cognates include Russian, музга, muzga pool, puddle, Lithuanian, mazgoti and Latvian, mazgāt to wash, Sanskrit, majjati to drown, Latin, mergō to dip, immerse. There exist as well similar place names in Poland like Mozgawa, the original Old Russian form of the name is reconstructed as *Москы, *Mosky, hence it was one of a few Slavic ū-stem nouns. From the latter forms came the modern Russian name Москва, Moskva, in a similar manner the Latin name Moscovia has been formed, later it became a colloquial name for Russia used in Western Europe in the 16th–17th centuries. From it as well came English Muscovy, various other theories, having little or no scientific ground, are now largely rejected by contemporary linguists. The surface similarity of the name Russia with Rosh, an obscure biblical tribe or country, the oldest evidence of humans on the territory of Moscow dates from the Neolithic. Within the modern bounds of the city other late evidence was discovered, on the territory of the Kremlin, Sparrow Hills, Setun River and Kuntsevskiy forest park, etc. The earliest East Slavic tribes recorded as having expanded to the upper Volga in the 9th to 10th centuries are the Vyatichi and Krivichi, the Moskva River was incorporated as part of Rostov-Suzdal into the Kievan Rus in the 11th century. By AD1100, a settlement had appeared on the mouth of the Neglinnaya River. The first known reference to Moscow dates from 1147 as a place of Yuri Dolgoruky. At the time it was a town on the western border of Vladimir-Suzdal Principality
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Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
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2008 South Ossetia war
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The Russo-Georgian War was a war between Georgia, Russia and the Russian-backed self-proclaimed republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The war took place in August 2008 following a period of worsening relations between Russia and Georgia, both constituent republics of the Soviet Union. The fighting took place in the strategically important Transcaucasia region, which borders the Middle East and it was regarded as the first European war of the 21st century. The Republic of Georgia declared its independence in early 1991 as the Soviet Union began to fall apart, following the war, a joint peacekeeping force of Georgian, Russian, and Ossetian troops was stationed in the territory. Meanwhile, a stalemate developed in the region of Abkhazia. By August 1,2008, Ossetian separatists began shelling Georgian villages, to put an end to these deadly attacks and restore order, the Georgian Army was sent to the South Ossetian conflict zone on 7 August. Georgians took control of most of Tskhinvali, a separatist stronghold, Georgia later stated it was also responding to Russia moving non-peacekeeping units into the country. Russia accused Georgia of aggression against South Ossetia, and launched a land, air. Russian and Ossetian forces battled Georgian forces in and around South Ossetia for several days, Russian and Abkhaz forces opened a second front by attacking the Kodori Gorge held by Georgia. Russian naval forces blockaded part of the Georgian coast and this was the first war in history in which cyber warfare coincided with military action. An active information war was waged during and after the conflict. President of France Nicolas Sarkozy negotiated an agreement on 12 August. Russian forces temporarily occupied the Georgian cities of Zugdidi, Senaki, Poti, the South Ossetians destroyed most ethnic Georgian villages in South Ossetia and were responsible for an ethnic cleansing of Georgians. Russia recognised Abkhazia and South Ossetia as separate republics on 26 August, in response, Russia mostly completed its withdrawal of troops from Georgia proper on 8 October. In the aftermath, Russias international relations were largely unharmed, the war displaced 192,000 people and while many returned to their homes after the war,20,272 people remained displaced as of 2014. Russia has, since the war, occupied Abkhazia and South Ossetia in violation of the agreement of August 2008. In the tenth century AD, Georgia for the first time emerged as a concept in the territories where the Georgian language was used to perform Christian rituals. After the Mongol invasions of the region, the Kingdom of Georgia eventually was broken up into several kingdoms, in the nineteenth century, the Russian Empire gradually annexed the Georgian lands
34.
Siren (Malcolm Lincoln song)
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Siren is the debut single from Estonian duo Malcolm Lincoln, written and composed by frontman Robin Juhkental. The song was produced by Vaiko Eplik and is featured on the groups debut album Loaded With Zoul. In December 2009, the song was selected amongst the ten finalists of the Eesti Laul 2010 competition, in an unexpected result, Malcolm Lincoln ended up winning the competition, and thus the opportunity to represent Estonia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 in Bærum, Norway. Malcolm Lincoln were drawn to perform in the slot in the first semi-final, following Russia. They were joined on stage by male singing quartet Manpower 4 who provided backing vocals, unfortunately, despite receiving the maximum 12 points from two countries, they failed to qualify, receiving 39 points and placing 14th out of 17 competitors. The music video for Siren was released in late February 2010 and it was directed by Hanna Samoson and casts Robin Juhkental walking through a snowstorm with his head fully covered in a larger-than-life paper mask
35.
Malcolm Lincoln
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Malcolm Lincoln are an Estonian band that formed in October 2009. The members are Robin Juhkental, Jakob Juhkam, Siim Raidma, Ott Adamson, Johan Alexander Petti, the original lineup consisted of Robin Juhkental and Madis Kubu. Juhkental has described their style as pop with a slightly quirky undertone. The bands name originates from the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, where a woman incorrectly answered Malcolm Lincoln to a question involving the first name of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States. Malcolm Lincoln, together with a group of backing vocalists called Manpower 4, won the competition Eesti Laul 2010 with the song Siren, the band released their debut album Loaded With Zoul in May 2010. Malcolm Lincoln first started out as a solo-project of Robin Juhkental, later, he asked Madis Kubu to join him for their first gig on 31 October 2009 in Tallinn. Later, Juhkental submitted two songs from the upcoming album – Im Still Standing Here and Siren – to the song contest Eesti Laul 2010. Siren was picked as one of the 10 final songs and later exited the competition, held on 12 March. It was performed together with a vocal quartet Manpower 4, as a result of winning Eesti Laul 2010, Malcolm Lincoln represented Estonia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. In the end of April 2010, Malcolm Lincoln signed an artist contract with Universal Music, the band released their debut album Loaded With Zoul on 20 May 2010. They performed at the first semi-final of Eurovision Song Contest on 25 May 2010 in Bærum, in February 2011, Malcolm Lincoln went through a line-up change and Ott Adamson and Jakob Juhkam were added to the band. The band competed again in Eesti Laul 2012 with the song Bye, Loaded With Zoul Siren Loaded With Zoul Man On The Radio Bye Malcolm Lincoln on Myspace Entering the Malcolm Lincoln Centre – a feature story by Maria Juur on DiveDiveDive. org
36.
Getter Jaani
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Getter Ragnila Jaani is an Estonian singer and actress. She represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 with the song Rockefeller Street, getter was born and raised in Tallinn. In 2015, she graduated night school and was awarded a school diploma. Jaani first became known in Estonia as a participant in the third season of Eesti otsib superstaari. She finished fourth and her performance gained her role of Sharpay Evans in the Estonian version of High School Musical, Jaani represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011, with her entry Rockefeller Street coming in 24th place in the final. That same year, she participated as a celebrity contestant on Tantsud tähtedega, in 2012, Jaani presented the scores on behalf of Estonia for the grand-finals of the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan. In 2013, Jaani landed the role of Sandy in the musical Grease,2010, Parim Päev EP2011, Jõuluvalgus Rockefeller Street Talveöö NYC Taxi Sulle, kes sa kaugel Kes on süüdi Meelelahutajad Official website
37.
Kuula (song)
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Kuula is a song by Estonian singer Ott Lepland. It represented Estonia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012, alongside Lepland, Marvi Vallaste appeared on stage in Baku to provide backing vocal. The song was performed in Estonian, Ott Lepland has also released Spanish, English and Russian versions of the song. In the second semi-final, Kuula had gained 100 points, ranking 4th, whereas in the grand final Ott Lepland ended on 6th place with 120 points at close of the voting
38.
Estonian language
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Estonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken natively by about 922,000 people in Estonia and 160,000 outside Estonia. It belongs to the Finnic branch of the Uralic language family, Estonian belongs to the Finnic branch of the Uralic languages, along with Finnish, Karelian, and other nearby languages. The Uralic languages do not belong to the Indo-European languages, Estonian is distantly related to Hungarian and to the Sami languages. Estonian has been influenced by Swedish, German, and Russian, furthermore, the apocope of word-final sounds is extensive and has contributed to a shift from a purely agglutinative to a fusional language. The basic word order is subject–verb–object, modern standard Estonian has evolved on the basis of the dialects of Northern Estonia. The domination of Estonia after the Northern Crusades, from the 13th century to 1918 by Denmark, Germany, Sweden, the oldest written records of the Finnic languages of Estonia date from the 13th century. Originates Livoniae in Chronicle of Henry of Livonia contains Estonian place names, words, the earliest extant samples of connected Estonian are the so-called Kullamaa prayers dating from 1524 and 1528. In 1525 the first book published in the Estonian language was printed, the book was a Lutheran manuscript, which never reached the reader and was destroyed immediately after publication. The first extant Estonian book is a bilingual German-Estonian translation of the Lutheran catechism by S. Wanradt and J. Koell dating to 1535, an Estonian grammar book to be used by priests was printed in German in 1637. The New Testament was translated into southern Estonian in 1686, the two languages were united based on northern Estonian by Anton thor Helle. Writings in Estonian became more significant in the 19th century during the Estophile Enlightenment Period, the birth of native Estonian literature was in 1810 to 1820 when the patriotic and philosophical poems by Kristjan Jaak Peterson were published. His birthday on March 14 is celebrated in Estonia as the Mother Tongue Day, a fragment from Petersons poem Kuu expresses the claim reestablishing the birthright of the Estonian language, Kas siis selle maa keel Laulutuules ei või Taevani tõustes üles Igavikku omale otsida. In English, Can the language of this land In the wind of incantation Rising up to the heavens Not seek for eternity. Kristjan Jaak Peterson From 1525 to 191714,503 titles were published in Estonian, in modern times Jaan Kross and Jaan Kaplinski remain as two of Estonias best known and most translated writers. Writings in Estonian became significant only in the 19th century with the spread of the ideas of the Age of Enlightenment, after the Estonian War of Independence in 1919, the Estonian language became the state language of the newly independent country. In 1945,97. 3% of Estonia considered itself ethnic Estonian, when Estonia was invaded and occupied by the Soviet Union in World War II, the status of the Estonian language changed to the first of two official languages. As with Latvia many immigrants entered Estonia under Soviet encouragement, in the second half of the 1970s, the pressure of bilingualism intensified, resulting in widespread knowledge of Russian throughout the country. The Russian language was termed as ‘the language of friendship of nations’ and was taught to Estonian children, although teaching Estonian to non-Estonians in schools was compulsory, in practice learning the language was often considered unnecessary
39.
Eurovision Song Contest 1998
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1998 was the 43rd annual Eurovision Song Contest. The contest took place in Birmingham in the United Kingdom, following Katrina and it was the UKs fifth win, and the eighth time that the UK hosted the contest, the last being in Harrogate in 1982. The UK has not won or hosted the contest since, belgium, Finland, and Slovakia returned to the contest after a 1996. Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Italy did not return until 2011. Dana International eventually went on to win the contest, scoring 172 points, with the song Diva, written by Svika Pick and Yoav Ginai. The singer had attracted media attention both in Israel and Europe since she had undergone gender reassignment in 1993, being the first openly transgender performer to enter the competition. The United Kingdom, along with their national broadcaster the BBC and it was the first time since the 1982 that the Eurovision Song Contest was staged in the United Kingdom, and the last to date. This was an eighth time that the United Kingdom staged the contest, having done so for the 1960,1963,1968,1972,1974,1977. The National Indoor Arena had been used for major events in the past. The week after the Eurovision Song Contest, the city was to host the 24th G8 summit, with Terry Wogan vacating his hotel room to make way for Bill Clinton. Ironically, the contest was held in an English speaking country for the last time the contest was run without the free language rule, so only the UK, Malta, and Ireland performed in English. The postcards continued with the theme of Birmingham old and new, looking at a traditional object. Popular Britpop songs and also pieces of classical music were used as background music. Finally, the flag of the country about to perform was formed, a jury was used if there were exceptional reasons not to use a televote. Macedonia, participating as Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, took part for the first time, Israel could have returned in 1997, but opted not to due to Holocaust Remembrance Day, meaning they returned for the first time in three years. The Italian broadcaster, RAI, decided to withdraw from the contest, Russia and Italy did not broadcast the event due to withdrawals. Because Russia did not participate, Channel One decided not to broadcast the 1998 contest, according to other sources Channel One had expected Channel Russia to broadcast the contest. Danijela returned for Croatia after last taking part in 1995 as part of the group Magazin, egon Egemann who was the violinist for Gunvor this year, last participated for Switzerland at the 1990
40.
Koit Toome
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Koit Toome, is an Estonian singer and musical actor. In 2017, Koit Toome took part and won in Eesti Laul in a duet with Laura Põldvere with the song Verona, in late 1994, a highly successful pop duo Code One, consisting of Koit Toome and Sirli Hiius was formed by the producer Mikk Targo. A long run of top hits in Estonian music charts were to follow until 1998, in 1998, Koit Toome represented Estonia at the Eurovision Song Contest, held in Birmingham. He finished 12th with 36 points with the song Mere lapsed, the same year he recorded his debut solo album of mostly self-penned material on it. Toome has released five albums all together, both as a solo artist and with Code One, in 2007 he won Tantsud tähtedega with Kertu Tänav. In March 2010, he released Koit Toome first studio album, Koit Toome has also embarked on a voice acting career, dubbing animated films. He provided the Estonian voice for Lightning McQueen in the Disney movie Cars among others. In 2017, Koit Toome took part and won in Eesti Laul in a duet with Laura Põldvere with the song Verona, Koit Toome has played a number of important roles in stage musicals in his native Estonia and with touring companies. His debut was Alfred in Tanz der Vampire, followed by Marius of Les Misérables, Chris in Miss Saigon, leading roles in Chess, Rent and Hair were to follow in Estonia and Germany. As of the fall of 2014, he was starring as Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera in theatre Vanemuine, taking over the role of Phantom in 2016 from its originator, Toome comes from a prominent family, with his uncle Indrek Toome the Prime Minister of Estonia. Koit is a father of one, a daughter, as of 2016, the family are expecting their second child to be born in 2017. Koit Toome at the Internet Movie Database
For the most recent participation see
Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest
