The twenty-first artist to feature in our Who Is series for the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest is Uku Suviste from Estonia.
Uku Suviste was born on June 6th 1982 in Võru, Estonia. He began his career at a young age, having attended a specialised music class at Tallinn School No. 21 alongside Tallinn Boys Choir at six years old. His professional music career began in 2004 when he began to take part in international competitions, and one year later he participated in “Kaks Takti Ette”, a well-known Estonian song contest, placing 3rd overall.
Throughout his career, he has appeared in multiple televised singing competitions such as Russia’s “New Wave” in 2010 where he finished in 3rd place, “Sinu Nägu Kõlab Tuttavalt” (Your Face Sounds Familiar”, and The Voice Russia, where he was eliminated in the semi-finals.
Uku has attempted to represent Estonia two times before his most recent successful attempt. His 2017 song “Supernatural” didn’t make it past the semi-finals, and his 2019 song “Pretty Little Liar” placed second in the final. In 2020, he was selected to represent Estonia with his song “What Love Is”.
Following the cancellation of the contest, Estonian broadcaster ERR announced that they will once again use Eesti Laul to select their entrant for 2021 and that Uku would have to enter the contest again for the chance to represent his country. And that’s exactly what he did, with his song “The Lucky One”. The final was held on 6th March and featured ten artists who had qualified from two semi-finals. In the end, Uku had qualified to the superfinal round and then won the competition over Sissi and Jüri Pootsmann.
Uku will sing “The Lucky One” for Estonia in the first half of the second semi-final on May 20th.
Image source: Kairit Leibold/ERR
Estonia debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994 alongside six other countries. At the contest in Dublin they were represented by Silvi Vrait, who finished 2nd last scoring just 2 points. In 2001 Estonia won the Eurovision Song Contest for the only time to date. They were represented by Tanel Padar, Dave Benton & 2XL, who performed the song “Everybody” and took a surprise victory in Copenhagen. After the success of the late-90s and early 00s, Estonia failed to qualify for the final from 2004-2008. In 2009 Estonia launched a new selection show, Eesti Laul, and has since qualified for the final six out of ten attempts.
