Interview: Eesti Laul 2020 grand finalists
On Saturday, February 29, the winner of Eesti Laul 2020 was announced at Tallinn's Saku Suurhall. This year, Uku Suviste with the song "What Love Is," written by Sharon Vaughn and Suviste, will be representing Estonia at the Eurovision Song Contest.
In total, there were 12 acts in the final. In the first voting round, the three grand finalists were chosen by the audience and votes from an international jury added.
The three finalists were Anett x Fredi with the song "Write About Me", Jaagup Tuisk with the song "Beautiful Lie" and Uku Suviste with "What love is". In the second round, only audience votes were counted. There were almost 50,000 votes in total in the second round and Uku received over 33,000 votes.
Other finalists were: INGER, Rasmus Rändvee, STEFAN, Synne Valtri feat. Väliharf, Uudo Sepp, SHIRA, Traffic, Egert Milder and Laura.
ERR News visited the event and asked the grand finalists about their experience and emotions about Eesti Laul.
Anett x Fredi: "I'm leaving with only positive feelings. This day has been so long, so so long. When I think back to the whole day, there are only positive emotions," Anett said.
"Firstly, it was a surprise that we made it to the final. Not that we didn't believe in our song but it's just so alternative and we didn't think it would make it to the top 12. But because it did, our hopes were quite high, exactly as high as to make it to the top 3, so I'm very glad," Anett said.
"I think that Eurovision has been in changing already for many years, there is more and more alternative music there, and it's so cool."
Anett can be seen at Tallinn Music Week on March 27 and at Jazzkaar on April 25.
Jaagup Tuisk: "The rehearsal period in Saku Suurhall has been much more intense compared to the one for the semi-final that took place in Tartu, which is great in the sense that I got try out the bigger stage," Jaagup told ERR News.
Regarding Jaagup's song, there have many claims that the song is fairly similar to America's pop singer Billie Eilish's "When The Party's Over". "If these accusations had any basis, I wouldn't be here tonight. I knew about Billie before writing the song, she is a world-famous singer," he explained.
The young songwriter considers the fact that he has both written and produced the song himself his advantage. Jaagup was very happy with his performance and admitted that he was cheering for Anett and Fredi. Jaagup added that if he had won, he would've firstly thanked his fans.
Uku Suviste: Uku talked about how he prepared himself for the big day. "Usually I listen to certain songs, I listen to them a day earlier, I bring myself to a certain state of mind and let some thoughts go. Sometimes I go running but not so often."
Regarding the win, Uku admitted that he is of course very proud to have won the competition but the most important part is still to come. "I am not an athlete, I am a musician and what follows the win, is most important, how will I reach the listeners with my music," Uku explained.
The 37-year-old is a well known Estonian singer and pianist who last year finished second place in Eesti Laul. He has also participated in Russia's TV talent show "The voice".
But Uku won't be counting only on Russian votes to win, he and the team are going to improve everything that can be improved.
Uku added that even though the Russian superstar Philipp Kirkorov said that Uku would be a star in Russia, he is proud that he gets to represent Estonia at the Eurovision. "If somebody asked me, maybe I would represent Russia, but at the moment, it is important to focus on representing Estonia."
"I'm so glad that my creation and hard work has finally paid off," the winner said.
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Editor: Helen Wright