Estonia sends Swedish singer Victor Crone to Eurovision
After last year’s top 10 result with Elina Nechayeva’s pop and opera cross over ‘La Forza’, Estonia has something to live up to in Eurovision 2019. Like every year, they organized the national final Eesti Laul and this time Victor Crone emerged as the winner. The Swedish singer who tried his luck in Melodifestivalen back in 2015, will sing the song ‘Storm’, co-written by Stig Rästa (who represented Estonia back in 2015 with the gorgeous ‘Goodbye To Yesterday’), Vallo Kikas and Fred Krieger. Does Estonia stand a chance at another top 10 finish this year?
The Estonian public (the juries almost stopped Victor’s ‘Storm’ to advance to the super final) opted for a modern sounding mix of acoustic guitar and dance beats. The overall sound seems to be inspired by Swedish producer Avicii who passed away last year. His sound is still extremely popular today and this could help Victor Crone on the Eurovision stage. ‘Storm’ is not a unique composition both in terms of lyrics and melodies and definitely not the best ever made in its genre, but the chorus is powerful and memorable. It is not unthinkable that ‘Storm’ could become a radio hit in Europe after the contest. It is likely that Estonia’s entry this year would appeal more to the televoters than the juries, like it did in the Estonian national selection too.
What about the performance? Crone is a decent vocalist who sometimes struggles slightly with the lower notes, but with some help of some backing vocalists the power of the studio recording should be possible to recreate. He starts and finishes the performance with a guitar in his hands to underline the acoustic element of the song, while he is joined by a female vocalist for the middle-eight turning the song into a duet for a few seconds. Towards the last chorus we see visuals of a storm, interchanged with shots of the audience behind him. The execution is slightly messy, but the stormy visuals should definitely make it onto a screen on stage in Tel Aviv in May in a more refined form. After some work on the performance I could see Estonia qualify for the final and get a decent result there!
Review of semi-final performance:
‘Storm’ is a decent tune, but to me personally also quite forgettable in the competition. The European juries and televoters did remember it though, as they did even forgive him the notes he missed throughout the performance. Crone is a charming performer though and the staging overall was decent to say the least with excellent use of the screens. ‘Storm’ leaves me cold, but it does not sound totally out of place in the Eurovision final.
Review of final performance and result:
Victor Crone’s qualification in the first semi-final came as a surprise to some, but although slightly forgettable, his ‘Storm’ did not seem misplaced in the grand final. Vocally he started out shaky again, but redeemed himself by hitting the bigger notes in the second half. The camera work here was shoddy to say the least though. His Avicii inspired ‘Storm’ did make it to the 20h place on the scoreboard in the end which is about right for this tune and performance I’d say.
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