We know a lot about Eurovision; this is knowledge we want to share with you. Therefore we’d like to bring you a blast from the past. Today: the 2004 Estonian entry.
Semifinal
2004 was the first year that Eurovision knew a semifinal. The best scoring countries of the year before automatically went to the final. As Estonia was not among them, they had to participate in the semifinal first. Ten semifinalists would join the other countries in the final.
Eurolaul
The Estonian national final for the contest was called Eurolaul in these days. Artists and composers could submit their songs for the final, to be held on february 7th in the ETV Studios in Tallinn. Maarja-Liis Illus (as Maarja) and former winner Tanel Padar (with Slobodan River) were familiar faces for the Eurovision family. The complete field of participants was:
1.”Surrounded“, by Slobodan River, 3rd with 2080 votes
2.”Dance“, by Ewert Sundja, 7th with 640 votes
3.”Turn the tide“, by Zone & The Cardinals, 8th with 581 votes
4.”Whatever you say“, by Charlene, 6th with 785 votes
5.”I wanna stay“, by Airi Ojamets, 9th with 393 votes
6.”Whenever blue“, by Hatuna & Sofia Rubina, 10th with 188 votes
7.”Homme“, by Maarja, 4th with 1320 votes
8.”Tii“, by Neiokõsõ, 1st with 8696 votes
9.”Beautiful inside“, by Kerli Kõiv, 2nd with 3638 votes
10.”I’ll give you a mountain“, by Charizma, 5th with 1157 votes
Neiokõsõ
The all girl band Neiokõsõ was made up of the sisters Anu and Triinu Taul, Diana Põld, Astrid Böning and Kadri Uutma. The group was made up especially for Eurolaul by producer/composer Priit Pajusaar. For the live performance at Eurolaul, and later the Eurovision Song Contest, Peeter Jõgioja joined the group. “Tii” was their only song, shortly after the Eurovision Song Contest the group split up.
Tii
It was said that the song “Tii” was inspired by “Sanomi”, the song Urban Trad brought to the second place in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2003. The song was sung in the Võro-language. The title “Tii” means road. You can find the entire lyrics here. Võro is a language of the Uralic language family. It is spoken by 87,000 people in the southern part of Estonia.
Results
In the semifinal “Tii” received the 12 points from two countries: Finland and Latvia. Lithuania gave it 10 points. In total, the song received 57 points. That was enough for an 11th place. It was not enough for a place in the final for Estonia.
photo credits: Daniel Aragay, Wikimedia Commons
