As i mentioned yesterday, Tallinn was first choice for a Contact event overseas. It's an absolutely beautiful city and has an interesting nightlife.


When i went to Estonia last year i was given a fantastic run-down on the country's pop scene by the amazing Andrei of Estpop and Popjustice messageboard fame. One name that kept coming up was Sven Lohmus, an Estonian Pete Waterman responsible for some ridiculously camp pop from the likes of Black Velvet, Mr Happyman and Trinity. He was also responsible for the bulk of the mighty Vanilla Ninja's first album. And what an album it is!

The lead single, Club Kung-Fu, was the overwhelming choice of the Estonian people for their 2003 Eurovision entry but was put in last place by the jury used to select the winner. The indignity of having Michael Ball stymie your progress was presumably a factor in them deciding to compete for Switzerland instead this year. Besides, as we know from Pay TV, the best groups always finish last. As good as it is, in the context of their self-titled CD, it's one of the weakest songs. The whole album fizzes with catchy punk-pop but, as their management decided to break the German market with Tough Enough and the Lohmus-less Traces Of Sadness album with enormous success, it has slipped into obscurity.

Traces Of Sadness and the later Blue Tattoo are both very good but the group has been getting less poppy and more self-consciously epic over time. The title track from the last record contains the lyrics:

"Once upon a lifetime
The spirits of the dark
Came to kill the beauty
Of our world
Every soul was spell bound
And prisoned into ice"

.....for example, plus lots of monstic backing vocals and Teutonic soft-metal. It's also their first without key singer Maarja "Punk Bastard" Kivi who was replaced by fifteen-year-old beauty queen Triinu Kivilaan.

Vanad Teksad Ja Kitarr (Old Jeans And Guitar) is from their debut.

Buy Vanilla Ninja Stuff

Vanilla Ninja - Vanad Teksad Ja Kitarr


One singer who has had more success with domestic Eurovision juries is Ines. Her Once In A Lifetime was selected in 2000 and went on to achieve a creditable fourth-place finish. She has gone on to become Estonia's favourite female solo singer, eclipsing fellow Eurovision star "evil" Maarja. 15 Magamata Ööd is another of Andrei's finds and was originally posted on Estpop earlier this year. It's the title track from from her second album.



Buy Ines Stuff

Ines - 15 Magamata Ööd