Estonia is one of the countries we always pay some extra attention to during selection season. With the exception of the small mishap last year, they have consistently provided ESC with topnotch entries the past five years. Modern, fresh, high quality stuff from the likes of Malcolm Lincoln, Getter Jaani and Urban Symphony have been loved and adored by all sorts of people, from the hardcore fans to the self declared Eurovision hater who only watch the annual final for a good laugh and a chance to gloat.
Because of this, our approach to the Estonian entry is always genuinely positive; we basically expect it to be good. So does a rather generic dance track satisfy our high expectations? Not so much. Perhaps it’s not fair to this year’s performer Tanja to compare her to previous Estonian entries; after all she’s not competing against them. And when looking at this year’s line up, we suppose Amazing is one of the better ones.
There’s just something about this act that doesn’t sit well with us. We sort of get the feeling that the song plays second fiddle while the main purpose for Tanja’s appearance in ESC is to show off her fabulous dance moves. Maybe it’s a smart move. Popular TV shows like Strictly come dancing and So you think you can dance have proved that dance as an art form makes excellent TV entertainment as well. There’s even a separate biannual competition called Eurovision Young Dancers, which draws a fair amount of viewers around the globe. So if Tanja decides to keep the extremely busy dance routine from Eesti Laul, it will stand out in Copenhagen. Whether it will be perceived as distracting remains to be seen, and we also wonder if she will manage to sing well throughout the whole song. We hope for her sake she has a gigantic set of lungs and the shape of a marathon runner.
Since this is one of the tracks most likely to lure us into hitting the dance floor at Euroclub in May we have the sneaking suspicion it will rise in our estimation. To be honest, most of our critical sense and integrity has pretty much vaporized half through the final week, and we wobble around aimlessly telling everybody we love most songs. So for all we know we might end up as Estonia’s keenest supporters. We’re just not entirely there yet.
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