We can not wait for the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool. Therefore, we have a closer look at one of the contestants every day. Today: Estonia.
Alika
The Estonian final Eesti Laul has been won by Alika. She will sing the song “Bridges”, which is written and composed by herself together with Wouter Hardy and Nina Samperman. Wouter Hardy is known for two more successfull Eurovision songs: “Arcade” and “Tout l’univers”.
Alika’s full name is Alika Milova. She was born in Narva in the east of Estonia. She rose to fame in Estonia when she won Eesti Ootsib Superstaari, the Estonian version of Pop Idol, in 2021. It resulted in her debut single “Önnenumber”. She reached the number 1 spot at the Estonian charts. Other singles were “Bon appetit” and “C’est la vie”, both released in 2022.
photo credits: Wikimedia Commons
Eurolaul and Eesti Laul
The Estonian final is called Eesti Laul. The contest has this name since 2009, in the years before that it was called Eurolaul. Estonia has always chosen their representant from a field of at least 10 different artists. The only exception was in 1993, when Janika Sillamaa was the only contestant. Her “Muretut meelt ja südametuld” did not reach the Eurovision final, because it got stuck in a Eastern European pre-contest. A very remarkable Eurolaul performance was the one of Vanilla Ninja in 2003. They sang “Club Kung Fu“, the favourite of the televoter but clearly not the one the juries liked. The juries were wrong: “Club Kung Fu” was the start of Vanilla Ninja’s (international!) career. Another very remarkable entry was that of punkband Winny Puhh in 2013. They reached a 3rd place with “Meiecundimees üks Korsakov läks eile Lätti“. Watch the performance, it’s worth it!
Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest
As said, Estonia wanted to debut in 1993 but failed to qualify. Their real debut came in 1994 with the late Silvi Vrait, who became 24th. But already a year later, Maarja-Liis Illus and Ivo Linna put Estonia on the Eurovision map: “Kaelakee hääl” became 5th. Other successes were “Once in a lifetime” for Ines in 2000 (4th), winner Tanel Padar & Dave Benton with “Everybody” in 2001 and Swedish Sahlene in 2002 with “Runaway”. After these successes, Estonia did do well, for example with Urban Symphony in 2009 and Ott Lepland in 2012, but never entered the top-5 again.
Bookmakers
In the betting odds Estonia is currently 22nd. That tells us that there will be a place in the final, but not a very high place. Let’s hope for Alika she is going to end up higher.
The song
And of course, this is the song:
