Through our Best of the Bunch series, we gave a recap on the Eurovision entries from 2006 to 2015 and gave you the opportunity to choose your Best of the Bunch. As you may remember, the current Best of the Bunch winners were put into our ‘Ultimate Eurovision’ but it’s time to see which of the latest three entries have remained as your favourites! In our Best of the Bunch: The Trials series, we are going to recap the entries from a certain nation starting with 2016 and continuing through to the latest Eurovision season of 2018. Your job is to simply enjoy the music, and vote for your Best of the Bunch winner!
Today we are travelling to Estonia who have had a mixed history when it comes to Eurovision. Throughout their early days, Estonia found a fair bit of success, with a range of Top 10 results, and even a win in 2001! Things went a bit downhill from there, but today we will just be focusing on the last three entries, from 2016 onwards!
Estonia 2016
Coming off a Top 10 finish the previous year, the pressure was on for Estonia to pull another successful entry out of the bag. Through their national selection Eesti Laul, Jüri Pootsmann was chosen as the representative for 2016 with a song called Play, which was co- written by Stig Rästa, who was one half of the successful Estonian Eurovision duo from the year previous. The song was similar in style to their previous entry Goodbye to Yesterday, with a dark, mysterious sound, matched with quite a dark staging. Although the song and the ideas behind the staging were nice, there was something that just didn’t click on camera, and that was reflected in the results. Unfortunately Estonia finished in last position in the semi-final with 24 points.
Estonia 2017
The positive thing about finishing in last place the previous year, is that things can only go up from here! Through the national selection process Eesti Laul one again, the public decided that the duo of Koit Toome and Laura would be best to represent the nation with their song Verona. It became a favourite amongst fans, and it was expected to breeze through to the final, but this was just proof that you never really know what’s going to happen at Eurovision! Unfortunately it would be the second year in a row that Estonia would miss out on the final, finishing in 14th place with 85 points.
Estonia 2018
That leads us to the most recent entry, which as you will remember was Elina Nechayeva with the operatic song La Forza. This was the first time that Estonia had sent a song that wasn’t in English since 2013, but in authentic opera style, the song was performed in Italian. Not only was the song epic, but the stage performance was epic as well, with an incredible dress which featured moving projections that you just have to see to believe. The performance was full of power, and Elina’s incredible vocals were too good to miss out on the final… so lucky she didn’t as Estonia qualified through to the final in 5th place. In the final, the televotes and jury votes placed Estonia in 8th place overall with 245 points.
So now you’ve seen all three performances, it’s time to vote for your Best of the Bunch!
If you want more Best of the Bunch from Estonia, check out our original series:
If you want to check out who made our Ultimate Eurovision, check it out here: