The Xtra Files: We Review Estonia’s ‘Verona’ by Koit Toome & Laura!

Welcome to The Xtra Files, our new series which will give you an insight into what the team at escXtra think of your favourite entries into this year’s contest! Today, we review Estonia.

Now that all the songs have been released, we are able to review each and every one of them. Our honest and brutal reviews will keep you entertained until the rehearsals start in May! We will also each give a score out of 10 for every entry, and create an escXtra leaderboard of the entries! You can see our preview reviews here.
Today, it is the turn of the Estonian entry, ‘Verona’ by Koit Toome & Laura, to be reviewed by Katarina, Matteo, Nathan, Nick, Wivian, and Yassia. Let’s get started!

The Reviews

Katarina

I have mixed feelings about this song. While I love the music itself, the lyrics make no sense, and the constant revamps make ‘Verona’ sound cheap. It doesn’t help that Laura’s live vocals don’t seem to work well, and I am starting to think that I would love this entry much more if it was just Koit Toome singing it.

Matteo

Like it. They just need to be warmer on stage, but I like the fact that this sounds more radiophonic that many other uptempo attempts. Only thing: how on Earth would you get lost in Verona? It is bloody small as a city!

Nathan

Eesti Laul had yet another competitive final but it must be said that this was not my favourite. It’s not the worst three minutes we will endure in May, but they had plenty better options in order to secure qualification easily in Kyiv.

Nick

Estonia had a great national final with a great outcome. This song is practically flawless. The only flaw might be Laura’s vocals, but the backing vocals will compensate for that. A timeless 80s classic would be a way to describe this. It’s very Modern Talking, but then better. Eurovision by numbers, so I love it.

Wivian

This ticks quite a few boxes for me…on the list of things I’d rather not hear at Eurovision…or anywhere else. The first 40 seconds are fine, and then I just can’t take it anymore. I’ve listened to it twice, and that’s about all I can take. Sorry! I really like Koit’s voice, and Laura’s is okay too, but this song; it’s just not very good.

Yassia

I love this duet and the song! I find it catchy, professionally performed and very Eurovision. Estonia takes its national selection really seriously, so the level of the participants is high. I think it was the best choice they’ve made.

Scores

When we remove the top score of 10 and the lowest score of 2, the average score for Estonia is 7.07.
(Removing the top score and the lowest score helps to make the average score more reliable and less affected by outliers.)

Leaderboard

Estonia reaches 5th place in our leaderboard with a score of 7.07.

1. Sweden – 7.77
2. Belarus – 7.75
3. Australia – 7.25
4. Serbia – 7.08
5. Estonia – 7.07
6. Switzerland – 6.96
7. Denmark – 6.83
8. Armenia – 6.80
9. Hungary – 6.79
10. Austria – 6.58
11. Moldova – 6.58
12. Norway – 6.33
13. Latvia – 6.25
14. United Kingdom – 6.00
15. The Netherlands – 5.33
16. Albania – 5.21
17. Ukraine – 5.13
18. San Marino – 3.92

Tomorrow, we will review Greece.
Do you agree with our reviews of Estonia? What are your thoughts on Koit Toome & Laura’s ‘Verona’? Let us know in the comments!