Estonia hold the title of being the first ever Eastern European country to win at Eurovision.  Their victory came in 2001, on just their 7th attempt.  Estonia, to me, have always entered good songs, and have been duly recognised when it comes to the voting (4th in 2000, 3rd in 2002), and left behind (failure to qualify in 2004 and 2005).  Indeed, since the Semi Final has been introduced, they've yet to make it through.

 

 

From I heard this song I loved it, and it's still one of my big favourites this year.  It's catchy, upbeat and beautifully sung and presented by Sandra, a Swedish fame academy performer.  The bells during the chorus really lift the song, and Sandra's vocal does do the song wonderful justice.  I think it would be a shame for this not to qualify, but I doubt it will appeal to the Balkans...

 

 

I think Sandra has one of the best songs in the whole contest.  Polls aren't favouring her much, but I'm sure she'll prove them wrong.  This song won't appeal to South-Eastern Europe at all, but I'm sure Estonia's Baltic and Scandanavian counterparts along with Western Europe (especially Ireland and the UK) will give it high scores.  On the other hand, Ireland and the UK favoured the Lithuanian entry last year - and it still managed to finish last.  Another problem is that she's performing in a run of four very good contenders, and she's following the Swedish entry.  If Europe were to favour one over the other which I think is unlikely, I'd say this has the upper hand - for me it's certainly better than the Swedish entry, but I'd still say both songs are safely in there.  Qualification is on the cards here, but I'd say it will get left behind when it comes to the voting in the final.

 

 

Another disappointing result for Estonia after initially being so popular in Eurovision land.  Estonia have now failed to make the Final for 3 years in a row.

 

 

Surprisingly for me, Sandra's performance did come across as being rather bland, and it was very insignificant compared to Carola's previous performance. Having a bland song that ended up being sandwiched between songs that ended up coming 3rd and 5th, didn't bode to well for it's chances which is why this probably only got 28 points. The song itself is still a nice number, and Sandra looked well, but unfortunately this made it to Eurovision 15 years too late and ended up both looking and sounding so 1991. As for my prediction, well, I was well wrong, wasn't I?!