I guess this is party time (Eesti! Eesti! Eesti!)

[jawnbc]

After many options and a fair bit of teeth gnashing, I have extended my trip to Europe by a massive 3 days. I'm jetting off to Tallinn Estonia, one of my 2 major Eurovision crushes (Malta being the other).

*squee*

I've been fascinated by Estonia for years, and Finland is largely to blame. In the years of the "official language rule" (when countries could only send songs in one of their offiicial languages) Finland did uniformly badly at the Eurovision, never placing higher than 6th and often placing near the bottom. Which I always assumed was about how Finnish sounds as a sung language. Then in rolls Estonia who, after a poor showing their first entry in 1994, goes on to a top 10 placing in all but one of the next 7 entries--including a win in 2001. Their entries in 1996 (5th), 97 (8th), 98 (13th) were all in Estonia. So I figured Finland wasn't being punished for the sound of Finnish so much as the sound of Finnish music. And the entrants for Estonia all seemed so nice and clean. Like my favourite Maarja, who's big in Japan and was signed to Geffen Records at one point:

Watch on YouTube

It finished 8th, but if they had been permitted to use the English lyric - Hold on to Love - they might have won in 98. Wonder where I need to go to stalk run into her.

Estonia gained its independence from the former Soviet Union thanks to the pan-Baltic "Singing Revolution of 1987-1990. Estonia declared its independence in 1991 and gained membership in the European Union in 2004--an amazing accomplishment in just over a decade. Estonia gave us Skype and is giving us Joost as well. In fact, when I booked my flights on Estonian Air they asked for my Skype name--and you can Skype their reservations office!

How can anyone not love Estonia?

Tallinn apparently has a great old city (where I"m staying), vibrant café culture, and long sunny evenings in July. My accomodation (2 star) is a whopping €42 a night, right in the old town. I wonder how many CD shops there are?

Yo zurcherart take a couple of days off and come wit me! 9-12 July (Mon-Thur)!

Comments

[moonhot97.livejournal.com]

I will always love Estonia for their habit of sending beautiful songs and beautiful women to ESC. Their people even got it right in 2003 while the international jury got it so clangingly wrong in shunning the splendid Vanilla Ninja.

[jawnbc]

I think if Diamond of Night was sung better (Evelin was very good rather than great), they could have won in 99. The only Estonia song I didn't care for was Let's Get Loud.

[aadroma.livejournal.com]

I've liked quite a number of the Estonian entries. Ironically, their one win was one of my least favourite Estonian songs, ever (and one of my least favourite songs in the contest :: laugh ::). Also in terms of production, the 2002 contest in Tallinn was pretty meh too -_-

But still, I thought they did fantastic this year, and I'm amazed how poorly they scored. /_\ Hell, it even got Carl's douze points.

[bunnygirl79.livejournal.com]

Finally! Somebody comes here:)! Btw, you were right about Finland, they have no musical taste what's so ever:).

We have one big CD shop here, well, at least big in our sense:), can't compare that one with Virgin Music Store in London though.

You could always e-mail me if you have questions, I have been in tourism field for 5 years, so I think I should know something by now:).

[jawnbc]

Thank you I will!

So where's the best place to "run into" Tanel, Maarja, Evelin, Koit, Ivo, Neikoso, Vanilla Ninja.....

:)

[crowroadaw.livejournal.com]

The old city in Tallinn is fabulous, and Estonia is a lovely country (mind you, so is Finland). I spent four days there last year. Click here (http://crowroadaw.livejournal.com/2006/07/01/) for my LJ entry, including links to holiday snaps.

[jawnbc]

Kewl! Thanks!

[arktos62.livejournal.com]

Tallinn's adorable. I've only happy memories of my time there in 2002. Attending the Eurovision was the icing on the cake of a truly happy week. If you have half a good a time as I did, you'll go home a happy man.

[jamaisneutral.livejournal.com]

Was "Tiii" Estonian? I loved that.

[jawnbc]

It was. I saw them on the streets of Istanbul the day after the semi (I had just arrived in town). They were all gorgeous and smiley!

[jamaisneutral.livejournal.com]

and they had knives in their pockets, probably even then! ;-)

[zurcherart.livejournal.com]

Doing that, would probably cost me my job and my relationship.

But yeah. Ok. I can always get new ones.


So see you there!