[LMBTO] First time as Eurovision Press & Juror? That's Eesti Laul 2017...

Look at me trying to be all calm and professional, having a one to one interview with the talented and beautiful Kerli - immediate thanks goes to Lisa-Jayne Lewis for taking the picture of me, otherwise I'd have no evidence of this meeting (actually I lie, I do have the audio and it is in this post).  I actually look as though I've done this before - I suppose that I had a go with interviewing with Paddy O'Connell, Krista Siegfrids and Joe & Jake at Eurobash 2016 but this seemed so much more official.  Looking at the picture, I must either lose some weight or get pictures from behind or in front!  Lisa-Jayne joked that the colour of my fleece was spot on for the Eesti Laul brand - that was totally unintentional and more luck than judgement when I was desperately trying to find suitable winter clothing for this trip on February 28th:
I'll talk more about Kerli later on and what I asked her - hopefully my inexperience did not shine through!

I suppose some of you were wondering how all this came to pass - how did I end up in Estonia and how did I get to be one of the Eurovision 'press bods'?  Okay, here's the backstory and it's a reasonable one...


So naturally I thought it would make a decent memory to attend my first foreign NF on a landmark birthday.  After making all enquiries, I purchased two Restaurant tickets so we (myself and my partner Ellen) had a nice birthday meal:
And then made all suitable arrangements for flights and hotel, that being the Palace Hotel which apparently is one of the poshest in Tallinn, according to Estonian Facebookers and an Uber taxi driver who had lived in Chicago for ten years, apparently not changing much visually outside for decades.  Here's the outside, look at their site for the innards:
Now I could have just left it at that, have a few days looking around Tallinn, doing all the touristy stuff and then attend Eesti Laul on the evening of Saturday 4th March, have a great time and lovely food, then return to the UK the next day, job done for my birthday and being a Eurovision fan.

Now we did do the touristy stuff anyway for the first couple of days we were in Tallinn, getting to see Old Tallinn:
The Tallinn Song Festival Grounds is inspiring, with an official stage capacity of 15000 performers and a rumoured 300000 spectators able to fill that space.  The statue of Gustav Ernesaks always gets a perfect view...

Having set up all the travel and accommodation however, I thought that I'd try to 'get closer to the action' - in other words see if I could also get Press Accreditation for the event.  As I had never had that privilege and me being a mere blogger, rather than a member of one of the Eurovision news websites, I didn't really give myself much of a chance but the old adage "If you don't ask, you don't get" came to mind and after submitting a request at the beginning of February, I had a reply two weeks later from the Head of Press at Eesti Laul:
Yes, I know, everyone who reads this and has been part of the Press at a NF or the Contest will be wondering what the fuss is about but this was a huge deal to me - yet another addition to what was turning out to be the best Birthday ever!  A matter of five days before we both turned up in Tallinn on 1st March, I received the coveted information about what having Press Accreditation meant:
I felt that I was still dreaming - I was actually being invited to be involved with a NF, be able to watch the artists practice, be able to ask them questions and also get a free show to boot!  This was truly beyond my wildest dreams - all I had to do was balance my desire to experience as much of this opportunity as possible with having a holiday with my partner, who isn't a Eurovision fan at all and was visiting Estonia due to my obsession with all things ESC!  I wasn't expecting two days of this - for some reason I thought that it would have been just on the day of Eesti Laul itself - another aspect of this process that I would obviously take on board for next time (hopefully).

Now 3rd March was upon us and I decided to split my day part holiday, part Press Centre - so I eventually trundled up at about 4pm at the Eesti Laul venue:
Okay, the forecourt was devoid of people and vehicles when I turned up but you get the idea of the venue in Estonia, if you've never been.  Somewhere in the region of 10000 fans were going to be there the following evening - as it was, there was probably about 100 or so during rehearsal day.  After being guided to the Press room, I wandered in on this sight:
I was momentarily stunned - what the hell was I doing here, amongst people whose words I had read on ESC websites, who had been many times to these events and were proficient in knowing what to do and how to ask Eurovision artists pertinent questions without appearing a fool?  I recognised immediately two of the people in the above picture - Richard Taylor from Eurovision Ireland and Ellie Chalkley from ESC Insight - would they say hello, would they be prepared to put up with a total newbie?  Nothing ventured, nothing gained, I thought, so I got my badge and that made me feel better!
Maybe there were some super powers within that plastic because it suddenly gave me the confidence to just walk up to people and say hi.  I had already met the Head of Press, Laura Kõrvits, when she signed me in - I was slightly surprised to see so many passes still on the table, as I thought I was going to be the last one attending.  Maybe a lot of the Press pack only attended on the Saturday, I don't know, but they missed out on something special.  The other Eesti Laul Press there was the brunette in the checked coat, Inga Aalde - both Laura and Inga were very helpful during my two sessions as Press at Eesti Laul 2017, Inga especially as she unknowingly made my 50th Birthday into a one-off that I suspect that I will never repeat...but more about that later.

Remember I said that I recognised Richard?  He was busy being the sole Eurovision Ireland representative so I didn't want to interrupt his work too much but I did say hello and he was kind enough to take a picture for posterity of me pretending to be an Estonian ballet dancer...no, really, keep reading!  I also introduced myself to Ellie but this was done via the indomitable force that is Lisa-Jayne Lewis, currently of ESC Buzz, who welcomed me and did the intros, far better than I could have done, and also to Ellie's sister, Emily, who was the ESC Insight photographer for the event.  My late attendance meant that I had missed interviewing a lot of the stars on show - I had got questions prepared in advance.

Unfortunately I was unable to ask...

• Laura if she would consider releasing a jazz scat duet with Inga from Alvistar Funk Foundation, after their scat duel in the SF Green Room;
• Lenna if her contemporary dancing routine being described as 'rapid tai chi' was fair;
• Daniel if he was going to go crowd surfing again;
• Elina if she was happier vamping it up to the max in "In Or Out" or having to shed a tear on demand in "Goodbye To Yesterday";
• Ivo if singing in Estonian was important to him and if he felt that got him into the Final;
• Whogaux, Karl-Kristjan and Maian if there was a hint of "Islands" from The xx in their song;
• Ariadne if she was going to continue her 'girl next door' look for the Final;
• Rasmus anything at all, as I had no prepared questions for him, so I would have had to 'wing it'!

To be honest, this was the most clothes I saw Kerli wearing all the time I watched her perform and talk at Eesti Laul!  It looked as though her routine was going to be much the same as in the SF, just on a bigger scale and with pyros which generated a fair amount of heat.  Having watched that, I decided to attend her conference and record it - would I pluck up the courage to ask anything?  Before you get to listen to that, Kerli attended wearing, well, this:
I think that 'wow' is the phrase I was looking for - definitely a candidate for my "Eurovision Beauty" blog at some point.  She looked absolutely stunning - hopefully I wouldn't get as tongue tied with her as I did with Krista Siegfrids at Eurobash.  Anyway, onto the Q&A session - it is interesting stuff and I do get to ask one of my questions (at 6:18):



So research does pay off but I wasn't expecting her to ask ME a question!  Be better prepared next time, Martin...

I got the feeling that Kerli was the artist that a lot of the Press had come to interview and that was made particularly clear with the number of people who wanted 1-2-1 interviews with her.  Fortunately for all of us, Press lady Inga told me that Liis, the next artist to be interviewed, was running late so that gave us all more time with Kerli.  I was therefore able to have my own interview with her and get some pictures taken, seeing I'm still a fan:
Lisa-Jayne took some great pictures with my new camera - well worth the £100 investment in upgrading from my mobile phone camera!  Onto my 1-2-1 - I did try to remember the words of Jamie McLoughlin, journalist and fellow Eurovision addict : "People don't want to listen to you"...hopefully I let Kerli do most of the talking:



Yes, I know the last question was a bit naff but I tried to have something original to ask and Kerli actually was a great interviewee - so many artists could have given me one sentence answers but she elaborated and spoke so well that I am sure that a more experienced interviewer could have got more out of her.  I am especially looking forward to hearing Ellie Chalkley's interview with Kerli that I sat in on beforehand - some amazing stuff I heard there but that is all for Ellie to reveal on ESC Insight...

As I thought that the last day of me being 49 couldn't get any better...


Earlier in the Press Room I had overheard her asking Ellie, Emily and Lisa-Jayne if they would be able to help her out by being 'stand in jurors' during the Dress Rehearsal Final the next day - in other words, pretending to be a famous person that would be giving out their scores during Eesti Laul, so that camera angles could be sorted, timings of putting the scores up on the screen could be made and being part of the earlier show.  Of course they all said yes!  I thought no more about it - okay, I did, I was slightly envious but as a newbie, I knew that such wonders come to those that wait...

I didn't have to wait very long - half an hour later, Inga asked me the same question!  Being a pretend juror meant attending the Dress Rehearsal Final and giving out an 8, 10 and 12 score, with a comment or two about why I had given the 12 to who I chose.  I told Inga that I could do that - was this trip ever going to stop getting better?  I could not believe it - it did mean that I would now be spending most of my 50th birthday at the Saku Suurhall but I could cope with that!  Hopefully Ellen would be understanding...

We were able to do some more tourist stuff that night - we were invited along to the well recommended tavern and eatery in the heart of the Old Town, to dine with the three ladies plus Kylie Wilson and John Withers from ESC Pulse:
Having walked past it at least twice and ignored the Medieval barkers inviting us in both times (ironically earlier that day at lunchtime), it seemed only fair to enjoy this truly unusual experience.  Candle light, jugs to drink out of, loads of meat and little carbs, chatting about Eurovision, it all finished the day off nicely.

If March 4th had been a cricket match, I would have been raising my bat to the proverbial crowd in thanks for their support during my years on Planet Earth.  As it was, I left my partner to have a rest at the hotel whilst I travelled by taxi (Uber works very well in Estonia) to the Saku Arena, ready to do my duty as a 'stand in juror'.  Inga took us down to the venue floor about 1pm, ready for the start of the show - decent view from the second juror's chair on the right hand edge:
And that's me:
pretending to be Toomas Edur, Estonian ballet dancer, who is actually this guy and who got the real slot at the Final itself.
He was a lucky man - he got to sit next to Måns Zelmerlöw, special guest star who sung "Heroes" and "Glorious", the footage of which I got as he ran up and down the aisles from the stage to the green room (apologies for the tilting twice in this, I repeated my stupid knack of twisting my phone from landscape to portrait, forgetting that the camera doesn't automatically swap around):



All the artists enjoyed his coming into the Green Room, especially Ariadne and Maian, and even Ivo was giving it large!  The Green Room gave some decent views for the artists and Liis and Daniel enjoyed "Glorious" a lot:



The actual Dress Rehearsal Final was all a total blur, to be honest - apart from my contribution:
I'll let you into a little secret - as the Eesti Laul production staff had to test the scoreboards were working and the timings, we were actually supplied scores that matched what was going to go up there.  I was assigned the following scores:


I did give a quick comment about my reasons for my 12 points but "Måns Zelmerlöw" just read out her scores and didn't comment so it threw me a bit - I did say that I agreed with the crowd and their flags and I was going for the more modern, contemporary and fun love song, which was "Have You Now".  Maian did blow me a kiss at that point...

As it wasn't broadcast, I'll give you all a summary of how I saw the Dress Rehearsal Final:

• The hosts did a good job almost all the way through although they did flag at the end;
• The Reklaam sketches were funny although I could only understand one of them and the subject matter of a couple of them would not have been shown on UK tv (jokes about hunting and domestic violence);
• The Estonian acrobats who spun and tumbled to "Rockefeller Street" were superb to watch, even though one of them was VERY close to landing on me after being flung in the air - and was it Getter Jaani singing?;
• Lenna's contemporary dancing lost a certain something when she went with the literal interpretation of her song and got flung into the air on wires;
• Elina's vampish performance wasn't really 'one for the kids';
• EVERYONE in Estonia loves Ivo Linna;
• Kerli's stage show was the best and I really couldn't see anyone stopping her going to Kyiv at this stage;
• Daniel Levi and Ariadne were great with the Estonian kids, signing anything put in front of them and taking selfies galore;
• If the parents attending the dress rehearsal had been the only ones to vote, Ivo Linna would have won;
• If the kids attending the dress rehearsal had been the only ones to vote, Ariadne would have won;
• Poli Genova was on the jury - THE REAL POLI GENOVA! On the Dress Rehearsal one and the real one - watch the Eesti Laul footage, I can't find a picture of her and her dreadlocks (has she been to the Caribbean?);
• As it was, the Super Final was between Ariadne, Ivo Linna and Lenna Kuurmaa;
• And Lenna ended up winning, giving the Eesti Laul production team another chance to practice her 'slingshot' over the crowd;
• And as my birthday got even more surreal, I got to sit next to a very attractive Estonian actress by the name of Jekaterina Novosjolova:

And this was only halfway through the day!  I had to make a very quick dash back to the centre of Tallinn to pick up my partner (this was when I made the acquaintance of the Estonian driver from Chicago), eat a complimentary piece of birthday cake provided by the hotel, get changed and return to the Arena as a fan, not a Press person (although I did have my pass still on me).  Up to the Restaurant we went to this amazing view:
Give it an hour and our slap up eat-all-you-want meal (alcohol not included) and every seat was taken, with a change of colour to a pinky-purple:
Now I am not going to do a full review of the Eesti Laul Final, otherwise this article will be going on forever!  I also penned my thoughts in my last post and to be honest, the majority of the acts were identical as far as their vocals and staging were concerned, apart from it being scaled up on the bigger Suurhall stage.  What I will do is give a little summary of how each artist impressed me on the night, given I was actually further away from the action in the Restaurant and I was relying partly on the two big screens to show what was going on.  Overall, no-one embarrassed themselves and it was a superb show, although the Estonian guy sitting in front of me on our table could not keep still in his chair and I was almost tempted to 'accidentally spill a drink in his lap' to see if that would get rid of him!  Enough of what is a common issue at any gig, on with the Final:

• Liis Lemsalu kicked the Final off nicely, her vocals were spot on and she kept the wavy glow sticks which allowed an unusual form of audience participation;
• Laura provided me with the best picture of the night - a superb silhouette shot as "Verona" began:
• Absolutely gorgeous dress she was wearing too and it was only during the Final that my sage partner actually pointed out that "Verona"WAS BEING STAGED 100% CORRECTLY - if I listened to the lyrics of the song all the way through!  Of course she was right - I think that a lot of us fans had latched onto the fact that the song mentions Romeo and Juliet and sounds like a love song, therefore we expect Koit Toome and Laura to be all lovey-dovey on stage, smiling and laughing, being close.  What the lyrics actually lead you to is that this pair were ONCE like the famed star-crossed lovers but now have grown so far apart emotionally that they merely inhabit the same space but that there is no love left between them.  Their backs to each other, singing apart and walking past each other makes absolute sense now although for full effect the pair need to stop smiling.  By the end of the evening, it would seem that the Estonian public thought the same - I never questioned their vocal prowess, both were superb in the Arena;
• I still prefered the innocence of youth that followed - Whogaux, Karl-Kristjan and Maian gave us the traditional boy-girl couple having fun, with Maian now dressed her age, rather than wearing the rather frumpy grey dress she had on in the SF.  I wish that they had made it to the Super Final as they were a great watch;
• The one entry that I felt lost something when switching from SF to Final was Lenna Kuurmaa's "SlingShot".  It was probably the intention all along but I actually loved her contemporary dance and her dancers all the way through the SF - having the literal interpretation of Lenna being shot out over the audience by wires was impressive, especially as she still had to sing but I felt the acrobatics was totally unnecessary and it didn't look that impressive on screen;
• The best visual effect of the night?  Daniel Levi's laser show - unfortunately it overshadowed his stock standard band performance:

• For me, the biggest shock of the night was how badly Elina Born did in the Final.  Last with Jury AND televote?  How on earth did that happen?  One of the pre-show favourites was nowhere near the SuperFinal that most fans expected her to be in.  I have watched her shows back and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it - vocally sound, great acting, in your face performance.  There was one thing that I picked up upon - maybe the act was too sexual for Eesti Laul?  She didn't get a massive response during the Dress Rehearsal which was mainly parents and kids which suggested to me that her outfit and strutting during "In Or Out" might appeal more to adults - I realise that it was probably more me it appealed to, a straight guy!  What was not to like - I have to say that watching her walk past me and away towards the stage in the first show was a delightful sight but where I saw her being a vamp, I had the same comment from two separate women that her act came across as 'slutty'.  Very strong word to use but if that was how some women felt, that might explain the lack of support.  Still a major shock though to me that she was rock bottom of the pack at Eesti Laul 2017...
• As I said above, all of Estonia seemed to love Ivo Linna!  Not enough to put him into the Super Final though - not that I understood any Estonian but a couple of the 'real' jurors praised him with their comments but then didn't give him big votes.  To be fair, his song was so easy listening you could have totally chilled out to it but it did make me smile and I was glad he was there in the Final...
• Rasmus Rändvee couldn't believe that he got to the SuperFinal - I have to say that I would have agreed with that sentiment but I got it totally wrong with Elina.  It was a decent song, a real crowd pleaser and stomper, although the staging didn't really work for me - you didn't get the camera shaking in the hall but you saw the words perfectly, whereas tv viewers would have got the shakes but not seen the words.  I suppose if he had made it to Kyiv, it could have been sorted for him -  he was delighted with third though;
• At least Ariadne had the chance to move around the stage in the Final - I thought that she might be a possible contender for the top 3 but her 'girl next door / teen bff' persona wasn't enough.  She did like my tweet though (the word 'televise' was meant to say 'televote'):
• Last but definitely not least was Kerli.  She was all dressed in white in an outfit that was almost Victoria's Secret in design and she strode towards the stage as though she meant business.  Lots of pyros and party streamers to finish were the main differences to the SF staging and as she hinted in my interview "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".  I still could not see how Estonia would not vote to send this amazing artist of Kyiv and if I had been able to score freely in the Dress Rehearsal, Kerli would have definitely got my 12 points.  She was top with the jurors but in the end, the televoters had the final say...

It was only after the Final that the breakdown of the scores (courtesy of Wiki) came out and it became obvious that as long as the juries didn't totally scupper their chances by 'doing an Elina Born' on them, the only winners were going to be Koit Toome and Laura:
The pair won EVERY televote they participated in - ironically most fans thought that they'd need the backing of the jurors to get to the SuperFinal but the reverse was true.  If the scoring had involved the juries in any way, Kerli would now be the Estonian entry for Kyiv but this is how Eesti Laul rolls - to be honest, "Verona" is a great entry to be going to Ukraine and there won't be too many better vocalists there.  The main issue will be getting the staging across to the viewers who might not take on board that Koit and Laura are people falling out of love, not lovers in the first stages of love and lust - it took a more astute viewer than I to point it out to me and I thought that I knew what I was doing when reviewing songs!

I didn't get the chance to go to the Press Room again after the show to interview the winning duo - I had a very tired girlfriend to get back to the hotel together with an unexpected birthday present from the Euro-Ian Channel (otherwise known as Ian Muller and David Holt).  Much appreciated, guys!

My Eesti Laul and Estonian experience ended the next day, when we returned home to the UK, my 50th birthday treat complete.  My thoughts on the whole experience?

• Estonia and Tallinn was amazing as a tourist destination - everyone was extremely friendly, the food was superb and the Palace Hotel was top notch.  Definitely a country to visit again, perhaps in summer when it wasn't always near freezing!  If you ever go in March, you need thermals, decent coat, sturdy walking boots, gloves and a hat!
• Get on a tour of the city, especially the Old Town - everywhere is in easy walking distance and you can see the bits of Tallinn you want to visit afterwards;
• Loads of places to eat - Kompressor for pancakes and Olde Hansa for a medieval experience are highly recommended, as is Grillhaus Daube for its steaks;
• If you want to attend a 'foreign' National Final, Eesti Laul is a wonderful spectacle and for me had a lot of the best bits of Melodifestivalen.  Of course getting a Press Pass and having the opportunity to help out with the production by being a 'Dress Rehearsal Juror' was a massive, massive bonus;
• Laura and Inga did a superb job looking after us guys at the Press Room in the Saku Suurhall - I hope that Laura won't mind me quoting her after I thanked her by email when I returned to the UK for her giving me Press Accreditation:

Yes, I know, I have the biggest smile there - I really enjoy these 'selfie' moments.  Barei, Krista, Kerli...