After a disastrous start to the semi-final era with five straight non-qualifications between 2004 and 2008, Estonia’s qualification record has been pretty decent the past few years, having reached four of the past five finals – so will 2014 keep their good record going?
Tatjana Mihhailova, better known as Tanja, is this year’s Estonian entrant, winning Eesti Laul over the Super Hot Cosmos Blues Band and fan-favourite Sandra Nurmsalu. Tanja was born in the Russian SFSR and moved to Estonia at a young age, and 2014 was not the first time she had tried to represent Estonia at Eurovision: in the early noughties she was a member of the female group Nightlight Duo, who were beaten into second place by Sahlene in 2002 and also competed in 2003.
Lots of fans have been comparing Tanja’s performance of Amazing to that of Loreen’s Euphoria, and I can sort-of see the resemblance in that they are both dance-pop songs with intricate choreography, but otherwise I think it is a bit of a lazy comparison. However, I do think that the similarities could be a detriment to the Estonian song’s success.
To Tanja’s credit, she sings the song flawlessly, and that is not an easy task to do when you are being thrown around the stage like she is. The choreography is also on-point and looks good on the screen, though I wonder how Tanja will feel after countless rehearsals – let’s just hope she doesn’t pick up another injury like she did for Eesti Laul!
My verdict: I rather like this song and with the mass of ballads this year, there are relatively few female-led uptempo pop songs, so I think this will stand out. I think it’s definitely a qualifier, especially from the first semi-final which is 90% ballads. As for the final though, I don’t think it’s much of a contender as I imagine it will get a bit lost in the mix and it is likely to finish in the upper half of the right side of the scoreboard. I don’t think Estonia would be too disappointed with that result though.
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