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       ESTONIA      

Song : "Leto Svet" (Summer Light)
Performer : Kreisiraadio
Music & lyrics : Priit Pajusaar, Peeter Oja, Hannes Võrno, Tarmo Leinatamm, Glen Pilvre

Running Order : #3 in the first semi-final 

Audio file
Preview video

THIS YEAR'S ENTRY

The Baltic republic of Estonia was the first former member of the Soviet Union to become involved in the Eurovision Song Contest, when it unsuccessfully entered the pre-qualifier for the 1993 competition. Despite that set-back, Estonia kept on trying and surprisingly won the contest in Copenhagen in 2001. However recent results have been very poor, with four unsuccessful attempts to qualify from the semi-final  

Despite the lack of success in recent years, ETV stuck to the same formula, with the Eurolaul national final being staged in Tallinn on February 2nd, with the public choosing the entry for Belgrade, over two rounds ov voting. The first, reduced he field from ten finalists to three, and the second round saw the winner being chosen. The overwhelming choice of the Estonian public was the locally well known comedy team of Kreisiraadio (Crazy Radio) and their novelty entry "Leto Svet" (Summer Light) performed in a gramatically questionable mixture of Serbian, German and Finnish. 

Kreisiraadio is an  very popular three-man team, who first met up in the city of Tartu. Having recognised each other’s hidden comedic desires Peeter Oja, Hannes Võrno and Tarmo Leinatamm immediately decided to crack some jokes and this is what they are still doing today. In April 1993, the trio started their radio careers and continued onto Estonian national television, and in many other places where people have tolerated them. They do not set limits in their activities and could care less about established practices. And this is why they have no real competitors in Estonia.

Kreisiraadio has tried their hand at everything during their lifetime. They have performed in opera, conducted a symphonic orchestra and acted in films, not to even mention their countless TV and radio performances. Kreisiraadio has a section named after it under the Estonian National Culture Fund and soon Kreisiraadio will publish a book and open a pub also called Kreisiraadio.

Hannes Võrno has a higher education in fashion design and is most widely known as a TV show host. For years, Hannes has been voted one of the best compères around. He is the host of the Estonian version of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" He has been a member of parliament and was recently awarded the rank of junior lieutenant by the President of the Republic of Estonia. Hannes is also a reserve army officer.

Peeter Oja is a  actor, who stopped working as an on-the-staff actor in the mid-1980s and has enjoyed the joys and sorrows of a freelancer now for a couple of decades. Peeter is one of the hosts of the most viewed socially critical ridicule show on an Estonian commercial TV channel and the recognised author of widely commented newspaper articles.

Tarmo Leinatamm is a orchestra conductor, whom the viewers of the 1996 and 1997 Eurovision Song Contest would have seen conducting the orchestra. Tarmo also finds time to host TV shows for almost ten years. Tarmo has also been a member of parliament. All counted, he has nine professions.

Once the trio announced their plans to enter the Estonian Eurovision selection, they became the hot favourites to take the Estonian ticket to Belgrade. They involved two songwriters which extensive Eurovision experience, to help them on their way. Priit Pajusaar has composed three previous Estonian Eurovision entries; Kaelakee Hääl (Sound of Necklace) which finished 5th in Oslo in 1996, "Diamond Of Night" which finished 6th in Jerusalem in 1999 and "Tii" which failed to qualify for the final in 2004. Priit has also been involved in several other songs in the Estonian national finals. Fellow songwriter Glen Pilvre was the co-composer of "Tii" and "Diamond Of Night" and his first experience of the Eurovision Song Contest came as a backing singer in 1996. 

"Leto Svet" was a controversial choice of winner in Estonia, as like in Ireland many people felt that the high public profile of the performers meant that a novelty song had an unfair advantage over musically more worthy songs in the selection. 

Unlike other novelty entries, the Estonian entry has not gained international attention and is not one of the favourites to qualify from the semi-final, perhaps because of its unfortunate position in the running order and the poor recent record of Estonia at Eurovision. The song has also failed to gain much support in internet fan polls.

 

SAMPLE LYRICS

Potatoes, beans, onions
Lobster, that's enough
Summer light, it's summer light
Summer light, it's summer light

 

BROADCASTER

RATINGS

Bookmakers

Eurovision history

Runnning order
Fan Poll
Webmaster

LAUNCH PAD

  1. Estonian television website
  2. The song's lyrics (from Diggiloo.net)
  3. Information on Estonia's selection

 

ESTONIA AT EUROVISION

First entry: 1994 (failed to qualify in 1993) 
Number of previous entries: 13
Best result: Winner (2001)  
Worst result: Second last (1994)  

TEN YEAR FORM GUIDE

 

WEBMASTER REVIEW

In a year where novelty entries have gained most of the headlines, this awfully unfunny attempt at humour seems to have lost out, as the attention concentrated on the entries from Ireland and Spain. While the chorus of the Estonian entry is catchy enough, the presentation is a charmless mess and the whole thing comes across as a silly piece of nonsense which hopefully will fail miserably in the semi-final. Mind you, having said that, I thought the same about “We Are The Winners” for Lithuania in 2006, and that grew on me and did very well in Athens.     

REVIEWS

"If you're gonna do a pisstake, at least do it interestingly. And isn't it a little disingenuous for a country that benefits from the Scandi-bloc to deride the Balkan and ex-Soviet blocs?" - John Egan (Canada)

"Another novelty act - in Serbian,German and Finnish - kinda orignial but not even a real song. It reminds more of a circus act, Europeans seem to love freaky acts but will they like that too ? I wonder how the Eurovision 2009 entries might look after success of one of the novelty entries" - Paul Hutter (Germany)

"THE bad joke of the evening, no music, no voices, absolutely unlistenable, the three longest minutes I ever heard." - Yom (France)      

"Strange song. It belongs in a circus with dogs jumping through the hoops and clowns bopping each other's noses."- David Berlinger (Israel)

"Oh my God!! Why dear Estonians, why? In their final there were three great songs and this is not one of them. It is the worst of all the participating songs. Bad choice and I am really frustrated with Estonia. This is not even Verka Serduchka!" - Atmantas (Greece)

"A local joke for local people. This is probably hilarious in Tallinn but is bound to be lost on the rest of Europe. Nonsense of the worst kind." - David Bridgman (U.K.)

"Oh my God, where do I start? This isn’t like the joke or novelty entries before it, as at least Verka, LT United et al. had some appeal or purpose – this is just childish and stupid, a desperate attempt to be ‘funny’ in order to get votes. What makes matters worse is that they’re not the only ones this year, but this is by far the worst of the bunch. Other songs in the selection could have taken Estonia to the final, but I hope this sinks like a stone." - John Withers (U.K.)

"I wasn't particularly satisfied when this won the Estonian final, over several better and more "serious" songs, but as novelty goes, it's not bad at all. It has a reggae / ska feel too it. Similar to bands like Madness / Bad Manners . Summery and cheerful. A hint of "For Real" too. OK, it's silly, but it's good natured entertainment I think. Probably a kind of novelty song that will be overlooked in the voting" - Steinar

"It makes you smile for ten seconds, unfortuatly, it goes on for three minutes" - Ian Carson

"Some interesting musical parts but annoying on the whole" - Etienne Micallef (Malta)

"Actually, one of the more interesting and effective backing tracks of the contest, but this will be completely overshadowed by the weirdness of the three unflatteringly ageing, fat and ugly guys performing it. Lacks the sexiness of LT United that made you grab the phone and vote, and even though it makes me smile a lot more than some of the other joke entries, this is bound to bomb in the semi." - Thomas (Germany)

"The Olsen Brothers on speed. Makes me wonder where I left my sense of humour. This just isn't fun"- Alesta (Norway)