Digital Culture news: 5 recommendations for getting to know Estonian music

Estonian news

27.04.2020

As all of the live concerts have moved to the virtual world due to the COVID-19 situation, we feel that it is appropriate to recommend some virtual live concerts that are a convenient way of getting to know some contemporary Estonian popular music while you’re on lockdown.

Firstly, get acquainted with Mari Jürjens. She is a singer, songwriter and an actress who is very much loved in Estonia. She mostly sings in Estonian about love, friendship, and the human experience in general. She has been compared to The Icelandic singer-songwriter Emiliana Torrini on quite a few occasions. Recently, more than 60 000 people listened to Jürjens’ online live concert (coincidentally a bigger audience than The Rolling Stones had when they performed in Estonia!)

Listen to her concert here via Delfi media house:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=2761402397242035&ref=watch_permalink

Another very popular musician, who represents a slightly different genre is Tanel Padar, who played a concert from home and broadcast it through YouTube. He also had a good turnout with 47,051 listeners so far. He will be forever famous (in Estonia) for winning the Eurovision Song Contest together with Dave Benton in 2001.

View the concert here via Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm7bFrq3g30&t=228s

We also recommend that you watch this incredible live performance by Estonian musician Jaan Pehk, whose stage name is ´Orelipoiss´. This could be translated as ´The Organ Boy´, referring to the musical instrument not the body part! Orelipoiss was one of the first Estonian musicians to do such a performance online during the lockdown and has had over 9,000 listeners so far. He also sings in Estonian about quirky themes. You might compare him to R. Stevie Moore, who is one of the most famous „bedroom composers“ of our time.

Check out Orelipoiss’s concert via Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/orelipoiss/videos/1061535647572656/

If you enjoyed those three examples, then you might also be interested to know that there are live concerts from Estonian musicians happening every week on this platform https://eestimuusika.elu24.ee/.

And if you still haven’t had enough Estonian music, you can listen to all kinds of it for free from here: http://netiraadio.ee/.