Ott Lepland as a Jesse McCartney clone, what is this all about I hear you cry? Well, remember that uncomfortable phase you had when you were 13? Some seriously cringeworthy fashion choices? Maybe you rocked a hairstyle that was in at the time, but is now very much out? Or perhaps you had a really cool hobby which now makes you crimson with shame (coin collecting anyone?). Welcome to a super fun new Wiwi segment: Before They Did Eurovision, where we seek to find video evidence of interesting (mostly embarrassing) things that our favorite Eurovision singers have done, before they took to the stage to represent their country. There’s nothing that we can’t uncover…Eurovision stars beware! This week we stumbled across a gem: Ott Lepland looking fresh faced and cute as a button with a Jesse McCartney haircut, gently serenading a room of swaying fans with his cover of Charles Aznavour’s soft-jazz tune She. Kuula to this!
Ott has proven himself to be quite the interesting individual, from singing heart-wrenching ballads to imitating Celine Dion, to frequenting yard sales half-naked, and this shows yet another side to him. The boy is multi-talented y’all! The performance is sweet, his voice is full of the emotion that propelled him to sixth place in Baku and the audience seem to be enjoying themselves, but we have to admit that we prefer Ott without the Jesse McCartney hairdo. Just look at him smoulder in the GIF below, it’s one transformation that we are definitely most thankful for! Hotness aside, we have to admit that it’s nice to see the humble beginnings of one of our favorite Eurovision singers.
What do you think of pre-Eurovision Ott Lepland? Are you excited to see what we’ll show you next? Let us know in the comments below!
Also, this cover is really nice.
Loved Ott’s studio version. Didn’t like the musicality of his live performance at ESC though – he threw the subtlety of the original song’s buildup out the window with the loud improv notes at the ends of phrases. Got a great voice though.
Jesse is probably living the good life, milking that paycheck he’s still earning every time “Bleeding Love” gets played on the radio.
nice but bland
He did release an album this year, as I ended up checking out, called “In Technicolor” but only managed to peak outside the top 30 of the Billboard charts so …
He kinda has this hairdo (though not so big) during the Estonian version of “High School Musical” where he played the role that Zach Efron made famous worldwide with the original American version. But in overall I’m glad there is such a positive perception of him both as a person, singer and also a bit of honest love for “Kuula”. Many other singers in Eurovision deserve more of this kind of feedback … and hopefully his performance based solely on his vocals shall remain as a true proof that sometimes in ESC less is just enough … By the way,… Read more »