Estonia 2024: 5miinust & Puuluup with (nendest) narkootikumidest ei tea me (kull) midagi

Honestly, typing that title alone feels like it met my wordcount so let’s get straight into this one:

5M&P and ‘Nendest’ as they will be referred to by me from now on are the most interesting act Estonia have sent in a long time and not only that there’s a catchy beat and a great atmosphere. You might even say “it's crazy, it's party”. They are not the only ones trying that approach this year with neighbours Finland (again) going that route as will be almost certainly Croatia with Baby Lasagna. Whilst there's definitely overlap here, there is room for the three stylistically in the contest but the Netherlands are yet to muddy the waters too…

This does however have a big problem for me in it's presentation. Vocals are particularly patchy from our older bald beard man (I'm not researching names) and the whole thing is a complete overload that takes away from the fun rather than adds to it. The closest similarity I have is to Greece's ‘Alcohol Is Free’ - another ethnic, young and old party song ending in a dance. By May they had brought a clean and nailed down staging to Malmo that kept the fun and that’s what I want to see Estonia do heading to the same city. Not wholesale changes but a refinement.

You could argue the televote either goes for this or doesn't and juries will pretty much ignore it regardless which is a fair point but here’s where that competition comes back into it; is there room for all 3/4 to do well? Maybe. Is there room for all 3/4 to do well if one is significantly inferior in presentaion? Probably not, and so far windows95man has shown a more coherent staging whilst yle are more trusted and Baby Lasagna and Joost are still unknown. I'm less optimistic of a 100+ televote score than I was when this was first released.

This does have a good draw in the second half of semi 2 with only the unkown Joost (who I'm pessimistic on) in from those 3 rivals. I'm not concerned at all over this qualifying in that lineup but in the final I think we're looking lower midtable overall and a bottom 5 jury score.

Personal Rating: 8/10

Competitve Rating: 5/10

Early Prediction: Semi 2 3rd-7th, 15th-20th in the final.