This article forms part of the OnEurope archive and was originally published on oneurope.co.uk. It has been permanently migrated to oneurope.net, the official home of OnEurope.
Just two people prancing around on stage to the word “Amazing” 349823094 times does not a Eurovision song make. This is only one of Estonia’s 2014 entry’s failings – but vocally Tanja (Tatjana Mihhailova-Saar) is, as you would expect, really good, even while being thrown about with gay (!) abandon by the male dancer, Argo Liik (for those that like that sort of thing).
“Amazing”, written by Tanja and Timo Vendt, won Estonia’s Eesti Laul 2014 superfinal by public vote on 1 March, earning its trip to Copenhagen. The contest performance also included backing vocalists Kaire Vilgats, Marilin Kongo and Marvi Vallaste, although the singer-and-dancer pairing dominated the visual presentation.
It is, however, an Ice Dance routine set to music and relies heavily on that – in fact too heavily. The lifts, throws and contemporary-dance acrobatics sometimes look very, very silly, and maybe, just maybe, Europe will think that it still sounds like Euphoria with different lyrics, think “bored of this” and move on. That comparison was not entirely fanciful: contemporary commentary also noted similarities to Sweden’s 2012 winner, particularly the barefoot singer, flowing dress and male dancer.
The staging changes so it looks like they are dancing on parquet flooring, with wooden floors, window frames, brick details, flying birds and moving lines on the LED backdrop. Tanja and Liik even begin lying on the stage floor – and that parquet observation is, sadly, still the best bit.
At the time of writing, before Estonia’s first semi-final, I feared that it would grate too much to qualify. In retrospect, on 6 May 2014 it did indeed fail to make the final: “Amazing” finished 12th of 16 with 36 points.
