Image Credit: Facebook – Alika Milova
It was a set to be a tense race for the number 1 spot in Eesti Laul 2023, but in the end it was the front runner from the beginning, Alika, who won the whole show with her song ‘Bridges’.
As she gears up for Liverpool this May, here’s all you need to know about her!
Who is Alika?
Alika Milova was born in Narva, Estonia on September 5th 2002 – which coincidentally happens to be the exact same day, month and year Norway’s artist, Alessandra was born! She comes from a talented family, with her sister Valeria Milova starring as a professional on the Turkish and Irish versions of Dancing With The Stars.
Since childhood, Alika has had the dream of becoming a singer, and started singing at age 4 when she was enrolled at the Magic Land Singing Studio in her home town. She’s also entered numerous competitions – most notably ‘New Wave Junior’ in Russia back in 2012, when she was just 10 years of age, and she won Baltic Voice at age 12.
Eesti Otsib Superstaari
In 2021, Alika entered Eesti Otsib Superstaari – which is Estonia’s version of Idol. During her time on the show, she did a cover of Duncan Laurence’s 2019 Eurovision winner ‘Arcade’, which then went on to see her be crowned the winner of the series.
Eesti Laul 2023
Alika was announced on November 1st 2022 as one of 20 participants in Eesti Laul 2023. An instant favourite to win, her song ‘Bridges’ became the most streamed of the entries up until the first semi final, overtaken by her closest competitor and fan favourite Ollie with ‘Venom’.
In her semi final, Alika came 2nd with jury and 1st with the televote, averaging her at 1st place overall and qualifying her to the final. In the final, she performed 8th between Andreas and Anett and Fredi, winning the jury vote with 85 points and the televote with 8,000 votes. She qualified to the super final alongside those in 2nd and 3rd (Ollie and Bedwetters), where the public solely chose who would represent them at Eurovision from the top 3 songs in the first voting round. Alika beat both her competitors in the super final, gaining 43.83% of the vote overall – making her Estonia’s representative at Eurovision 2023.
Eurovision 2023
At Eurovision, Alika will perform in the first half of Semi-Final 2 in 4th position, after Romania’s “D.G.T (Off & On)” by Theodor Andrei and before Belgium’s ‘Because Of You’ by Gustaph. As of now, we don’t know how well ‘Bridges’ will do, but she’s seemingly got a great staging concept and powerful vocal already, which may be hugely beneficial, especially as it’s one of the few big ballads we have in the 2023 contest. Semi Final 2 is being noted as the weakest of the two, and this may help Alika sail through into the grand final.
We wish Estonia & Alika the best of luck in Liverpool this May!
You can follow Alika on social media!
Instagram – @alika.milova
TikTok – @alika.milova
