Stare at a map of competing nations in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest and Estonia would likely be the last nation you’d expect to chance their arm in this children’s entertainment show. Their bordering nations of Russia and Latvia are not part of the family, neither are their nearest Baltic Sea neighbours Finland, nor Sweden or Lithuania further afield.
However the answer doesn’t come from external factors, but from within the country itself. Estonia is a country of song, hundreds of thousands took part in the Singing Revolution and the Song and Dance Festival still attracts over 100,000 people even in the modern era.
It’s little surprise the nation also harbours a culture of singing from an early age.
A Carousel of Song
As you may expect within a smaller broadcaster, Head of Delegation Laura Kõrvits does not work on Junior Eurovision or even May’s Adult Contest for twelve months of the year. Instead for the last ten years, she has worked as a producer and editor for the public broadcaster ERR in various roles. Part of Laura’s role is in the production of the show Nova, a 15-minute daily show where young people can request different topics for the young presenters to investigate deeper, from school life or their free time. This program has also been a place for this year’s Junior Eurovision songs to be previewed to the Estonian audience.
Another project that Laura Kõrvits produces for Estonian television is ‘Tähtede Lava’, a biannual singing competition organised by the broadcaster for children from ages three to fifteen (although they compete in different age brackets). This is an Estonian institution that has been running since 1992, shortly after independence, and was originally known as ‘Laulukarussel’.
“Everyone knows this show,” explains Laura, “and lots of singers who have been in Eesti Laul have won the same children’s competition,” listing names such as Ines, Birgit Õigemeel, Kerli and Maarja-Liis Ilus as previous contestants who made their first steps on national TV here.
The new format of Tähtede Lava spruces up production to be more “like Idol”, featuring a live band and a flashy TV studio setting for Estonia’s next generation to shine on. The 2022 edition was hosted by Jaagup Tuisk and via four different age category heats the finale saw nine acts compete not just with a solo song but also in a duet with a famous Estonian singer.
The Biggest Prize
The decision to take part came from management at Estonian broadcaster ERR, discussing with Laura the way to grow their competition for the nation’s top young singers further.
“We thought about what would be the biggest prize for winning this competition, and we thought that Junior Eurovision would be the best thing,” explained Laura Kõrvits. “We plan to change the format of this singing competition, it would be great if the winner would get to represent Estonia in Junior Eurovision.”
While the jump from a big national singing competition to an international singing competition may not be a big one to make mentally, it does financially. Estonia will broadcast Junior Eurovision this Sunday on the second channel of their national broadcaster. Laura Kõrvits believes this “probably” makes this the most expensive show that Estonian television produces on that station.
The finances of taking part in Junior Eurovision are a challenge for Estonia, one of the continent’s smaller broadcasters, but for Laura there is reason to justify the cost because “we do this for our young people.”
In 2024, when the next edition of Tähtede Lava is set to take place in the spring, the connection with Junior Eurovision will be formalised, and that show will that year serve as a direct way to select Estonia’s 2024 Junior Eurovision representative. Beyond that, funding is not guaranteed at this stage.
Finding Arhanna
The internal selection of Arhanna, this year’s Junior Eurovision representative for Estonia, was an obvious choice. She has been a successful entrant in Tähtede lava before, winning not just once but twice before. Arhanna won the younger category in the 2019 edition and was the jury winner in the 2022 edition.
When the decision was made to head with Arhanna to Junior Eurovision, the team worked to find songs to match her style. The team missioned with this task, which included Karl-Ander Reismann of numerous Eesti Laul songwriting credits including 2021 winner ‘Hope’, did not find the solution immediately. Instead, they stumbled across a demo of ‘Hoiame Kokku’ on Arhanna’s YouTube channel (a video that has now been taken down) which had all the melody and emotion they were looking for.
The story of the song creation is simple. “I was at home bored one evening,” explains Arhanna, “and I wrote this melody and my friend [Rael Laikre, another previous entrant in Tähtede lava, amongst other competititons] helped me write the lyrics”. This creative process has been a part of the vision for the Estonian delegation throughout the production of their Junior Eurovision number, with Rael being part of the music video and the pair being interviewed together on the broadcaster’s Ringvaade talk show.
I was speaking to Arhanna after her first rehearsal in Nice, and while the scale of Junior Eurovision may beat what is on offer for young people in Estonia, Arhanna has not been phased by the step up to international competition. Arhanna “really enjoyed the stage” and “was not afraid”, indeed to the point that the delegation’s vocal coach had to remind her that it was only a rehearsal and she could save some of her huge vocals for later in the week.
This Year’s Only Debutant
While Estonia stands isolated in Europe compared to the other nations taking part in Junior Eurovision this year, the reasoning for their debut is because of the growth and change in style of their own internal competition for children. The hope is that the carrot of Junior Eurovision participation makes that competition even more alluring next year.
While this is a significant financial decision for one of the smaller broadcasters in the family, they hope that the inspiration it provides to Arhanna and to other young people makes it a worthwhile investment of resources.
And in Arhanna they have a debut entrant who is the only artist in this year’s competition with a songwriting credit on their Junior Eurovision entry. Sharing her music with the rest of Europe is the biggest prize an 11-year-old could wish for.