Ott Lepland
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 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, 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
Soviet Union
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, 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
Tanel Padar
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 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 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
Eurovision Song Contest 2002
The Eurovision Song Contest 2002 was the 47th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. The contest took place in Tallinn, 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 and Montenegro After the breakup of Yugoslavia, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia last participated in 1992. Radio Television of Serbia broadcast the show, first time as Serbia and Montenegro had planned debuts, but the EBUs late changes to the relegation procedure meant that they could not compete
Urban Symphony
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, 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 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
Soul Militia
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 participated in the 2007 Estonian Eurovision preselection with a song titled My Place
Tallinn
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 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 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 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
Russia
Russia, 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, 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 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
Getter Jaani
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
Sahlene
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, 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
For the most recent participation see
Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest
