Blog Post 2: Estonia On Stage (Revised)

Blog Post 2: Estonia On Stage

Alana Robell

Seattle University

UCOR 1400 04 21WQ Eurovision: 3 Minute Europe

Dr. Green

March 11, 2021

I have chosen “La Forza”, performed by Elina Nechayeva (Estonia, 2018), for my second blog post. While the performance is unique, unforgettable, and extremely entertaining, there is a lot of room for digging deeper to gain a better understanding of the story behind what we see on the stage. This blog post will carefully analyze the performance based on the country’s use of literary and visual devices, and will review Estonia’s national identity while determining how “La Forza” aligns or misaligns with it.

“La Forza'' was Estonia’s entry for the Eurovision 2018 Song Contest. The memorable performance earned Nechayeva fifth place in the first semi-final and eighth place overall in the final. The performance was successful because of the combination of Nechayeva’s vocals, the unique projection dress, and advanced quality of the projections. The pop-opera genre and the flawless articulation of the performance made the song choice much more interesting. Between the twist on traditional opera music, along with the stunning visuals, “Nechayeva’s song and performance are classy and stylish” (Vos, 2018, para. 2). Nechayeva says that the song is “about real love that lightens our way, gives us wings, takes us to the sky and gives us real power so that we can move even mountains” (Eurovision, 2021, para. 12). She believes that this type of universal love is needed in our society to help us connect to one another (Eurovision, 2021, para.12).

In analyzing Nechayeva’s performance, the use of visual devices and staging made this performance extraordinary. Throughout the song, Nechayeva was seen wearing an enormous, fifty-two square meter (Ling, 2021, para. 1) white gown. The gown was made from projection material like that of a movie screen, however, it had to be less stiff and very light so that it could be quickly stretched across the stage in the scant 35 seconds allowed between songs. The vibrant images projected onto the dress were designed to match the story in Nechayeva’s song. The images start off with cooler colors representing ice and progress to warmer colors like pink flowers representing warmth. According to Alyono Movko, one of the creators of the projections, “They tell a story of a stubborn girl who gets the touch of love that melts inside her. In the end, the emotions begin to flow and they are born of abstract natural motifs (Eurovision, 2018, para. 22). The visual device of light projection onto the dress was an expression of the emotions flowing from Nechayeva as she finds love. The staging of this performance made it very memorable.  Nechayeva was the only performer, leaving the opportunity for the dress to take up the entire stage and draw all attention to both the singer and the projected patterns. “She looks absolutely stunning and the act with the projections on the dress, although not new, is very well executed and all she needs to support her voice and song” (Vos, 2018, para. 2).

The genre selection for “La Forza'' also made this performance stand out on the Eurovision stage. The opera genre is not popular within the Eurovision contest and could be a risky choice for some countries.Nechayeva was able to deliver a stunning performance because of her magnificent voice, the remarkable visuals, and the pop-opera twist the song has. “Elina Nechayeva performs a smart combination of proper opera vocals and a pop song construction” (Michielvmusic, 2018, para. 2). As seen in many other Eurovision performances, countries will usually go the safe route, and choose a more popular genre in hopes of being more relatable and appealing to a broader audience. Nechayeva undoubtedly took a risk with “La Forza'' as the song choice, but the performance clearly ended up blowing many people away. “Although opera is not for everyone, this song has enough mainstream appeal to convince the masses'' (Michielvmusic, 2018, para. 2). Nechayeva was able to mix the two genres in a way that was even appealing to some who may not care for opera. The music was composed by Mihkel Mattisen, who is a classically trained pianist, pop singer, and composer. Along with the help of another Ksenia Kuchukova, another soprano, Nechayeva wrote the lyrics which they formatted in a pop style.

The performance of “La Forza” used symbolism and imagery to represent the country’s commitment to being a technological leader. “The tiny former Soviet republic, with a population of 1.3 million, located to the north of Latvia and across the Baltic Sea from Finland, is arguably the most advanced digital society in the world” (Pickup, 2018, para. 1). The technology required for the performance in Lisbon required the use of a bigger and more powerful projector than the one used in the Eesti Laul performance. Nechayeva’s team was hard-pressed to find funding to get the whole act to the Eurovision stage. “This new performance would cost 65,000 euros” (Stella, 2018, para. 2).  This is the equivalent of about 80,000 U.S. dollars. Additional devices that were also used in the performance but were not as prominent or notable include metaphors, language choice, the lyrics, the identity of the performer, and the storytelling. When first viewing the performance, I questioned why Estonia would sing a song in Italian. Although Italian is not one of Estonia’s main languages, it is the main language in opera music. Nechayeva is a well-known opera singer from Estonia and she was able to deliver “La Forza”, which is a song about love being the greatest power of all (Eurovision, 2021, para. 14). 

When looking back on my first blog post, in combination with some additional research, it has become more clear that Estonia’s national identity is primarily based on unification through singing and music. While other countries may base their national identity on things like religion and language, Estonia is less defined by these ideas and relies more on solidarity through the culture art form that they relied upon to gain their independence. Estonia had been ruled at various times by Denmark, the German knights of Livonian Order, and Sweden (Estonia country, 2021, para. 2). In the 1860’s Estonia had a “Great Awakening” to revive language, literature, art, and music (The History, 2021, para. 4). However, in 1939 the Soviet Union invaded Estonia and established Soviet Occupation for fifty years. From 1987 to 1991, Estonians fought peacefully for independence in what was known as The Singing Revolution where the people (The History, 2021, para. 19) used their music and singing as a sort of weapon. Through singing, the country was able to overthrow a very violent occupation and gain independence in 1991. “But singing had always been a major unifying force for Estonians while they endured fifty years of Soviet rule” (The History, 2021, para. 19).

    Some argue that “the event is significant in terms of nation branding and image building, particularly in the context of the return to Europe of post-communist countries. The Eurovision Song Contest is often an event which is dismissed as musically and culturally inferior”  (Jordan, 2011, p. 4). Nechayeva’s Eurovision performance aligns with Estonia’s national identity through representation and novelty. The quality of her voice represents how important singing is to Estonia, as she hit all of her notes perfectly and seemingly without effort. Nechayeva’s performance was novel as a result of her combining unusual components such as pop, opera, and technology. Estonia’s way of using singing as a weapon during The Singing Revolution, represents the same idea of novelty connecting it to the 2018 Eurovision performance.

There is also a bit of misalignment seen between this Eurovision performance and Estonia’s national identity. There is no political messaging in the lyrics. The song is not about Estonia’s identity or solidarity, and overall, the country seems to be moving towards more modernized music styles influenced by other parts of the world. “But lately, Estonia opened up to the world, the world has been opening up the country’s music scene to diverse influences.” (Schwab, 2015, para. 1 ). The idea of cosmopolitanism also appears to play a role in this misalignment. The style of singing is not representative of Estonian style. Nechayeva sang opera in Italian, neither of which originate from Estonia. During The Singing Revolution, Estonian song festivals offered “an opportunity to celebrate their language and traditions” (Schwab 2015, para. 2). For this particular Eurovision performance Estonia took more themes and ideas from other countries instead of aligning with their own country’s history.

It is clear that Estonia’s 2018 Eurovision performance, “La Forza”, was not only memorable, but brilliant for the ways in which different aspects were combined to create a work of art. Estonia used their advanced technology to create a high quality and shocking visual performance with vivid projections. Nechayeva’s clear and near perfect voice also played a big role in how breathtaking the performance was.  Nechayeva’s ability to successfully mix both pop and opera genres together to create a performance that was appealing to a broader audience was key as well. The Eurovision performance featured different ideas, some of which aligned with Estonia’s national identity, while others did not. The performance aligned through representation and novelty. Nechayeva has a strong voice that represents the importance of singing in Estonia, while the performance was novel as a result of her strong voice, visual performance, and pop opera mix. Misalignment is seen in the fact that Estonia chose to do an Italian opera song about a love story, instead of representing the country’s history, political state, or identity. Although the performance is extremely easy to watch and admire from the audience’s point of view, you can look closer and see the time, effort, money, thought, and traces of national identity and representation that was secretly formulated behind the scenes.

Word Count: 1618

References

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