On Saturday February 17th 2024, 5MIINUST and Puuluup won Eesti Laul 2024, and will now go on to represent Estonia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 with ‘(Nendest) narkootikumidest ei tea me (küll) midagi’.
Read on to find out more about their entry…
5MIINUST & Their Career So Far…
Formed in Võsu in 2015 by members known as Estoni Kohver, Päevakoer, Põhja-Korea and Lancelot, 5MIINUST became known to the public in 2018 when their two albums, 2016’s ‘Aasta plaat’ & 2017’s ‘Rämmar’ became Estonia’s best selling albums of the year. A year later, they recorded ‘Aluspükse’ with Nublu (who we saw alongside Mikael Gabriel in this year’s UMK), charting at #1 in Estonia and becoming the third best-selling song of 2019. They also achieved another three Number #1 singles that year.
Puuluup & Their Career So Far…
Nu-folk duo Puuluup (Ramo Teder and Marko Veisson) formed in 2014, and state on their website that their music is “a pinch of surrealism, modern folklore and talharpa revival”. Their music takes influences from all kinds of things, including world musical traditions, Estonian punk and, as stated by Puuluup, even Polish TV Shows! Their most recent album is titled ‘Vlimane Suusataja’, which was released in 2021. In 2023, they won the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ ‘Cultural Award’, recognising their contribution to promoting Estonian culture across the world.
Eesti Laul 2024
In 2023, 5MIINUST & Puuluup’s collaboration was announced when they were revealed as one of the semi-finalists in Eesti Laul 2024. Their song, ‘(Nendest) narkootikumidest ei tea me (küll) midagi’ (’We (do) know nothing about (these) drugs’) was released on December 8th, and quickly became a favourite with fans and the general Estonian public. Before the semi-final, the song had already gone viral, being the highest-placing Eesti Laul 2024 entry in both the Estonia Viral 50 and Estonia Top 50 Spotify playlists. They sailed through the Semi-Final on January 20th 2024 and were the clear-cut ones to watch, with the song having over 760k streams on Spotify and 860k views on YouTube going into the Final.
Drawn to perform between Peter Põder and Nele-Liis Vaiksoo, ‘(Nendest) narkootikumidest ei tea me (küll) midagi’ received the best crowd response of the evening, with the audience singing along to every word. Despite only coming 3rd with the jury, they still made it to the super-final, beating both Nele-Liis and Ollie to first place.
Eurovision 2024
Estonia will perform in the second half of Semi-Final 2 on May 9th 2024, with their position to be determined in late March/early April.
‘(Nendest) narkootikumidest ei tea me (küll) midagi’ is the first time Estonia has sent a song in their native language since 2013, and now holds the record for the longest song title ever in Eurovision history! Whilst Eurovision this year is shaping up to be one for televote friendly songs, Estonia only has Norway and Denmark as frequent voting “partners” competing in the same semi-final, meaning they’ll have to really impress other viewers at home if they want to make it to the final. However, last year, Alika only qualified in 10th place with ‘Bridges‘, but ended up 9th in the final – meaning anything can happen…
We wish Estonia, 5MIINUST and Puuluup the best of luck in the contest!
You can follow 5MIINUST & Puuluup on Social Media!
Instagram – @5Miinust // @Puuluupband
TikTok – @5MIINUST // @PuuluupOfficial
Twitter – @5MIINUST
