ESTONIA

The Estonian Final was be held on March 3rd at the Saku Suurhall in Tallinn, hosted by Ott Sepp & Meelis Kubo. Before the final there were 2 semi-finals reducing the field of 20 in half. The winner was chosen in two rounds of voting - a top 3 will be announced through by televoting (50%) and an "expert" jury (50%), but in the second round the winner was chosen solely by televoting . The winner was Elina Nechayeva with “La Forza” (The force)

The setup of the song is very simple yet utterly mesmerising. She is stood quite high up centre stage in a very very very long dress which covers the entire stage. This then becomes the canvas for a series of projection images – mostly abstract images, patterns or scenes rather than of actual things or people. Behind her, the screen show different coloured starry skies. Her upper chest, lower arms and hands are covered in glitter which is used to good effect on the close ups.

The song starts off quietly and gradually builds with the backing track. There is some camera trickery near the start to surround her with what looks like shooting stars. Elina’s voice really changes depending which notes she is singing which makes the whole piece very intriguing. In terms of structure you only get a verse-chorus-verse-chorus before the song ends on a very high note. I would not say any of the parts was too long but because of the speed of the song it needs this long to totally fulfil its journey. I would love to hear a longer version of this with possibly another verse-chorus or bridge-chorus to see where it could go next. The entirety of the song is in Italian which makes it difficult to understand but does make it feel more genuine in its field.

Opera, although possibly ore accurately Popera, is style not alien to Eurovision. As recent as 2015 the Italian entry featuring 3 young male operatic men came second. That said it has not been a particularly successful genre either. In its favour, this has a real simplicity in all angles. The visual aspect is very clear, her voice is very distinctive and legible and the build up in the instrumentalis memorable too. It is the only opera song we have this year. I think this will stand out a mile from everything else around mainly because of how well it is sung by Elina.

ARTIST –  Elina Nechayeva

SONG –  La Forza (The force)

MUSIC - Mihkel Mattisen, Timo Vendt, Ksenia Kuchukova, Elina Nechayeva

LYRICS - Mihkel Mattisen, Timo Vendt, Ksenia Kuchukova, Elina Nechayeva