Eesti Laul 2023: Let’s Talk About It.

It all happens so quickly, doesn’t it? Welcome back, readers, to yet another Eurovision Season over here on the “Oisín Talking Shit About Eurovision Songs” blog.

Much like last year, Eurovision 2023 has started quickly. We already have our first four artists, and the songs from two national finals – surprisingly, none of which are from Festival i Kenges, as Albania have decided to preview the songs DURING the shows. If you ask me, this is an absolute travesty, but that’s not the subject of today’s post so I’ll move on.

Last year ERR decided to spice up the roleplay a little and increase the number of songs in Eesti Laul 2022 to FORTY, which would go through four quarter-finals (in which only music videos were played), then two semi finals as usual and a final. Shock horror, this turned out to be anything but a success as we didn’t end up with a markedly strong Eesti Laul final; instead we got a final which was packed to the brim with returning artists who had already had their time in the sun about ten fucking years ago. And that was only AFTER we combed through some of the awful crap that masqueraded itself in the semi finals. So many dull ballads and songs that just go nowhere. The final itself was marked by all of these artists failing to make the superfinal – with Anna Sahlene, Ott Lepland, Elina Nechayeva and Stig Rasta finishing 4th 7th 8th and 9th, respectively. The superfinal consisted of perennial participant Stefan Airapetjan’s country-and-western inspired “Hope”, the lounge music that was “What To Make Of This” by Minimal Wind, and… Elysa, who in spite of not even performing her song in the semi final due to COVID qualified, and in spite of a hindered performance, received a five-digit sum of televotes in the final… only to receive barely any in the final. Sim-cards, anyone? So yeah, Stefan won and went on to finish 13th, smack bang in the middle of the final scoreboard. Good stuff.

Anyway, enough about last year. We now have only twenty songs, as the failed experiment has been reverted. It seemed the Estonian returnees tired themselves out last year as we have only one past Eurovision act in the lineup – Malcolm Lincoln’s lead singer Robin Juhkental, who has brought an experimental piece called “Kurbuse matused”, which is very sparse instrumentally and is unlikely to make any impact here.

Looking at the other nineteen songs we have this year, it’s a pretty strong year. The first song that jumped out on listen was from none other than Elysa, who I slandered a few paragraphs above. Her song “Bad Philosophy” rides on the synth-wave that has landed upon Eurovision the last few years – it’s a lot more of a full song than “Fire” was and is backed up with a very catchy instrumental. The song is written by Stig Rasta, which shows a sort of versatility given this doesn’t sound like a guitar ballad.

Also among my favourites is Meelik, a band who have brought us the song “Tuju” this year. Named after the one member of their band who didn’t show up to a meeting on time, Meelik bring a quirky irreverence with their song, which features the lyrics “tuju, tuju, tujunowadimin” (do you know what I mean), presumably because if your song is in Estonian (as the rest of the song is) you pay a lower fee than in English. It’s got shades of Two Door Cinema Club to it and it’s one I’d genuinely keep listening to outside of Eesti Laul. Heaven knows if the audiences will take it as well as I have, but it remains to be seen.

Having nearly pipped Uku Suviste to the win in a shock result in 2021, Sissi has returned with a powerful piano-driven ballad in “Lighthouse”, which she has written herself. It’s very different to “Time”, but it’s a lovely song and I’m certain Sissi will deliver when it comes to the live performances as she has before. As the daughter of Dave Benton, who pulled off a shock win for Estonia in 2001, she has pedigree as a Eurovision artist and it wouldn’t shock me if this is the year she makes it.

Another ballad that’s attracted a lot of attention recently has been “Bridges” by Alika – another piano ballad much like “Lighthouse”, this song was written by Alika alongside two Dutch songwriters, one of which actually cowrote Duncan Laurence’s victorious 2019 entry “Arcade”, so it seems this is the product of a songwriting camp. The song starts off calm and then swells into a much stronger song. This could have an incredible performance live if Alika can deliver with these powerful long notes.

On the topic of ballads written by songwriters with Eurovision history, Janek has a real contender in “House of Glass”, yet another ballad which starts quiet and then climaxes in a powerful drum driven ending. It’s exactly what you’d expect from a Eurovision song and I can see it going very far. The song itself is written by Janek and Kjetil Morland, one-half of Norway’s 2015 entry with the song “A Monster Like Me”, and you can tell the song has Morland’s handprints all over it.

Other entries worth noting include the two rock songs: the more EDM-inspired (marginally) “Monsters” by Bedwetters (superb band name), and “Venom” by Ollie, which has become a fan favourite rapidly in the community. Dark horse, perhaps? Aside from that, there’s also returnee Inger with a cute little ditty in “Awaiting You”, and m els, who has brought us “So Good (At What You Do)”, a punchy little song in the vein of Upsahl.

So, who’ll win? You tell me.