Estonian Eurovision star Lenna Kuurmaa: Country life has a liberating charm
In 2005, Lenna Kuurmaa represented Switzerland at Eurovision as part of Vanilla Ninja. Thirteen years ago, Kuurmaa bought Ilmaveere Farm in Setomaa, South Estonia, where she now runs a hotel and restaurant. Kuurmaa still loves playing in a band and has just released her fourth solo album "Lenn4."
According to Kuurmaa, being a musician is not so different from running a business.
"Musicians are also entrepreneurs – you are responsible for what you do, the same way as you are when you run your own business," said Kuurmaa.
"Running a hotel and restaurant is a very new experience for me. But it's been a very interesting learning period, and I'm still learning," she said of the Ilmaveere project she has been working on for the past few years.
"But all in all, things are going well," the Vanilla Ninja star said. "When business goes well, things run successfully and people come to our hotel and restaurant, then I have to say we made a pretty good decision regarding Ilmaveere,"
At the end of November, Kuurmaa released her fourth solo album "Lenn4."
"I'm still a rock girl at heart. I like instruments to be played live and I like it when my band plays these songs – the whole thing. I don't think I would make music at all otherwise. I like it when the band gets together and the team effort, I like being in a band," Kuurmaa said.
"The main orchestrator of the whole album and the creative concept as a whole was Erik Kammiste. He also created a lot of the sound on the album. He's the producer and his signature is strong on this record. With all my previous records, there has also been one person that I've worked with, and who, in many ways, guides the process," Kuurmaa said.
According to Kuurmaa, however, they did a lot of writing together. "The lyrics are very much my own, which were my heart's desire to sing about. Hyrr Innokent Vainola was also in the band, who was another main songwriter."
According to Kuurmaa, on "Lenn4," Kammiste has very masterfully managed to put combine the best of her previous work with some modern touches. "It's very strange, because Erik is much younger than me and we're not that familiar – we didn't know each other before. It was a very eye-opening process for me," said Kuurmaa.
"Living in the countryside has made me calmer. It takes very little to be happy. Rural life is much harder than city life at times, but there is a kind of liberating charm to it. I would recommend the countryside to anyone who has thought about it but hasn't yet dared to take the plunge," Kuurmaa said.
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Editor: Annika Remmel, Michael Cole
