It was supposed to be a night of celebration. But instead, Uku Suviste‘s victory at Eesti Laul 2020 has been marred with controversy. That’s because many fans have questioned his margin of his victory in the superfinal. The “What Love Is” singer received over 33,500 televotes. That put him well ahead of the other superfinalists — Jaagup Tuisk (7,944 votes) and Anett x Fredi (7,690 votes).
Suviste also led televoting in the first round by a similarly large margin. In that round, he received over 16,000 televotes, versus 5,259 for fellow superfinalist Jaagup Tuisk.
Eesti Laul 2020: Full results (Jury and Televote)
Speculation over the validity of these results came thick and fast.
One fan tweeted: “Sorry, but IMO very fishy that Uku got 33k votes. You really want to say there were that many votes for Uku for a call at €1.60. Not butthurt, just very confused.”
Sorri, aga imo VÄGA fishy, et Uku 33k häält sai. Te tahate päriselt öelda, et nii mitu korda hääletati Uku poolt kui ühe kõne hind on 1,60e ??¿?
Not butthurt, lslt väga confused— Sidni ? (@sidniihh) March 1, 2020
The issue of mass SIM card voting has also been raised. In our coverage of Eesti Laul results, one wiwibloggs reader wrote, “You can buy votes, use SIM cards, etc and keep it realistic.”
However, there is not actually any evidence to prove that this took place.
As we’ve seen in other national selections — such as Germany’s 2019 show — the fan favourite isn’t always the televote winner. The taste of Eurofans can frequently diverge from that of the audience who watches and votes in a show, especially when the demographics of a particular channel diverge from that of the typical Eurovision fan.
There are other potential explanations for Uku’s win. Some speculate that Russian-speaking voters may have turned out to support Suviste. He took part in The Voice of Russia 2018, where he was mentored by Eurovision 2008 act Ani Lorak. And, of course, voters simply could have liked his song the most.
Eesti Laul boss responds to voting allegations
Now Eesti Laul’s boss Tomi Rahula has been forced to respond. Speaking to Estonian outlet, Elu24, Rahula denies any anomalies in the televote. He said: “If there were 500,000 voters, there would have been doubts.”
Rahula adds that, “voting was only possible from Estonian numbers and as much as the voter’s wallet allows.”
An unprecedented margin of victory?
Uku garnered 68% of all votes cast in the superfinal. But large margins of victory are not unusual at Eesti Laul.
Last year’s winner Victor Crone won the superfinal with 46% of the vote. And Elina Nechayeva – who won the competition in 2018 – won by an even wider margin than Uku. Her operatic entry “La forza” notched up 70% the vote. In total, she received over 43,000 votes. That haul was four times her nearest competition Stig Rästa. In 2017, Koit Toome & Laura won with 44,000 votes.
Looking at other domestic indicators, it would seem that Uku’s song has struck a chord with Estonians. It is currently #1 on Spotify’s Viral Chart and #4 on the overall chart. The performance clip is also the #1 trending video on YouTube in Estonia.
What do you make of the voting? Let us know in the comments below!
I actually really like this song, apart from Iceland’s entry I think it’s the best that’s been chosen so far. I can’t really understand why people are questioning why it won, it was simply the best of the three and has a very catchy chorus. I think it’s very underrated.
Finally someone who is not so negative and bitter
Anyone who kept an eye on the local polls and comments had a pretty good idea Uku was the most popular among our voters. From the outside, Jaagup might have looked like the obvious winner & leader, but not so for us locals. I suspected Uku would win our televote weeks ago and that’s exactly what happened. Our voters have rarely appreciated non-catchy songs.. Jaagup was way too artsy & complicated to appeal to older voters here. His only real chance was the jury. So, as a local.. I don’t believe any corruption took place. Just our televoters and their… Read more »
Jaagup remains my winner 🙂
so something is wrong. do the estonians suddenly have such a bad taste in music? or why suddenly do so many callers find this really very boring song so good?
since no other song is on spotify charts or YouTube it is obvious that people just liked this song. It is a nice ballad. Why not?
Lets not fool ourselves. Everyone knows how corrupt rich Russians are. Kirkorov most likely funds massive televote schemes to help his acts. Just look at Moldova 2018 and 2020. Also won by massive margins. I’m pretty sure he has also bought votes for Sergey and Farid.
What a stupid comment. So is Kirkorov listening all day the song on spotify in Estonia and watches is on youtube? Why didn’t Kirkorov pay 100.000€ last year to win the selection and he decided to pay them this year?
Last year kirkorov didn’t have a song in eestin laul
He was behind the song of Uku again.
How were votes in semi1 AND 2?
So if there was no superfinal Jaagup would have won? Oof
Exactly. With televoting support below 20 %…
Well if Estonia used a normal system they would have chose Jaagup, but the public voted based off of the artists name and not the song
I just saw every result from the last 7 competitions… For me the impressive fact is not why 33.582 people voted for Uku but why only 7944 people voted for the beatiful lie… There is no song in the Esti-Laul history that won with less than 10000 votes and Beautiful Lie couldn’t be the winner with just 7944 votes… Maybe you have to accept that the eurofans are a total different audience that the ones that actually voting in the competition. Ok I can accept that Kirkorov bought these SIMS cards etc, but that doesn’t explain why the votes of… Read more »
Lol just watch this song plummet in the Semi final and fail to qualify, if there was anything illegal going on behind the scenes then they’ll get what they deserve, as it will have been for nothing.
Where were all these people last year when he competed with Pretty Little Liar?
That one was a great song and could have done a lot better than Storm
This song is just bland, boring, doesn’t highlight his vocal range and it won’t stand out
Pretty little liar was not sung by dreamteam
Well I watched all of Esti Laul live and I think Uku can across particularly well in his postcard which saw him playing a piano beautifully. I thought then he’d pick up some extra votes, though not to that degree. I thought Traffic were going to win, which shows how little I know.
People really oughta stop believing, here and elsewhere, that the sentiment among the eurofan bubble is the same as that of those who actually cast votes in those NFs (especially in countries where the voting demo is profoundly different from that of the bubble). I don’t really feel that the data we got are giving us any reason to support the “Uku won become of corruption” thesis. The combined score of this top3 was the lowest ever since Eesti Laul adopted the actual format (2015-20). Plus Uku is an established artist in Russia, whereas Jaagup was essentially a newcomer. Bottom… Read more »
Don’t know why my comment didn’t get past the filter (you guys should really work on that).
Simply put: Uku got 15,000 votes last year with a much worse song. He got more this year with a slightly better song. Have to accept, the guy simply has his fans and they voted. You guys all get so suspicious when your favourites don’t win!
Both of Uku’s songs were equally bland and uninteresting, neither should have won
Goodluck, Estonia. You’re gonna need lots of it in May LOL.
Please dont ever compare Elina’s masterpiece for this total hot mess of a song ever again
I watched the show, I was supporting Jaagup, I was sad he didn’t make it, but I accept and understand the results. Tastes are different, that’s the whole point in these kind of shows.
downvote me if you want Putin and Kirkorov slaves , Uku didn’t win fairly make them check how many cards were new and make conclusion, make it right Estonia! Jaagup deserves the Spotlight he was favorite all the time by people on Youtube, Estonia on polls and on bets and now surprisingly Uku gets almost quadruple of his votes? seems legit.
My favourite from the beginning was Uku keep crying for Jaagup but get over it …he lost
bye
Lol it’ll be you crying when Uku doesn’t get through to the final!
Hatari were right. This is a game of power and powerlessness.
That they happily took part in…not sure they’re exactly the political heroes you make them out to be
The sooner we realize we’re all being manipulated the better.
Probably?
I don’t like the song at all, but it’s what it is. I can perceive why he won – he’s popular, he participated last year and he’s handsome. The thing is: why Estonia has two rounds? It isn’t needed. You’re wasting the international juries’ opinion (I mean, you had Kimbra (!!!) voting for what?) for nothing. If Estonia wants just to hear the public vote, let them make a 100% televote final: because a 12 in the first phase will most probably win (look at ‘Storm’ last year. Got 2 from the juries and won it). It’s also shorter and… Read more »
Why are eurofans becoming such sore losers? We go through this every year. If the fan favourite doesn’t win it’s because of skullduggery (voting fraud, political allegiances) not because other people like the song. Grow up and accept diversity in musical taste.
Diversity of outdated song that no one I know in Estonia likes? Everyone I talked to said they don’t like it. And they got that much votes for a hated song ? Right. I wanna know how many of those voted cards were new ones that got voted from. 🙂
And how many people you asked hated it?
33K versus 9K for the others… Uh… Odd much?
Estonians seem so into this while everyone else watches from the sidelines and is just like, honey no
ok, we can have a bit of a rage moment in Georgia’s page but sis I am not here to argue to with you everywhere. I am not here to fight. I am here to talk about Eurovision, which is the purpose of this website. if u wanna fight then go ahead but u ain’t gonna get a response. 🙂
I’m from Estonia and I’m 100% sure that Uku didn’t win because of local Russians. I can confirm that Russians who live in Estonia (the majority of them) don’t care at all about Estonian shows, culture and overall anything that’s going on here. They only read Russian news, watch Russian shows, listen to Russian music and many of them don’t even understand a single word in Estonian.
And I’m not saying that Uku was my favourite. I liked Jaagup, Rasmus and Egert more. I just think it’s naive to think that Russians watch Eesti Laul or are interested in Estonian things… If you’ve been to Maardu, Lasnamäe, Kohtla-Järve, Sillamäe, Narva or other towns near Russian border you should understand what I mean.
And if it’s true that Uku won unfairly, I’m very disappointed because I’ve always been proud that Estonia is one of the least corrupted countries in the world.
But I also understand those who prefer Uku’s song to “Beautiful Lie”, this song isn’t for everybody.
A friend of Kirkorov ?
Disgusting how obvious this corrupt is for a garbage of a song, hope it stays in semis one of the lasts where it belongs. Feel so bad for Jaagup.. they would of nailed it on big stage.
There is nothing suspicious about it. Last year, Uku got a huge amount of televotes with a dreadful song and got more votes this year (in a weaker superfinal) with a better song. Uku just happens to be too popular for Estonia’s own good.
I’d understand the ‘intention’ of corruption for something worthy. But, this? All the money for nothing…