We lost and we found our Verona!
The Estonian Eurovision stars, Koit Toome and Laura (real name: Laura Põldvere), gave a concert to their fans in Helsinki on the 23rd October 2017. The concert was a lovely event for both Finnish Eurovision fans and the many Estonians currently living in Finland.
Koit and Laura represented Estonia in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Kyiv. The duo failed to reach the final, but their melodic entry “Verona” charmed many of us who are fond of nostalgy, romance and 80’s pop music. Now we had the chance to hear an acoustic version of the song, as Koit and Laura had brought their own musicians to the stage.
A historical venue for Eurovision melodies
The concert was held at the Alexander Theatre, also known as the Russian Theatre, which was built in Helsinki for Alexander II of Russia in 1879. The concert lasted for an hour and a half. Both Laura and Koit are established artists in their home country. Both of them also have a long Eurovision history: Koit first participated in the ESC in 1998 with “Mere lapsed”, Laura was a part of the girl band Suntribe in the ESC in 2005. Laura has participated in the national preselection Eesti Laul several times after that. In the concert, we heard live versions of “Sunflowers”, her 2007 entry and “Supersonic” from 2016.
Koit performed some of his biggest hits, such as “Nädalalõpp” and “Valged ööd”, originally a duet with Getter Jaani, who represented Estonia in the ESC in 2011.
Koit and Laura talked about their songs and work on their music, but unfortunately – for a Finnish reporter – only in Estonian. But to compensate for the language barrier, it was wonderful to listen to the sympathetic singers that have great live voices and who work well as a team. The audience could sing along to the chorus in many of the songs.