She’s the Estonia diva who made an impact with her giant projection dress at Eurovision 2018. But now Elina Nechayeva had enjoyed success wearing a different type of costume. Elina was recent revealed to be the Phoenix and was crowned the runner-up on The Masked Singer Estonia.
Elina was one of ten local celebrities competing on Maskis Laulja, the Estonian edition of the popular masking singing contest.
She performed as Fööniks — the Phoenix — and wore an extravagant costume representing the mythical bird known for burning then rising again out of the ashes. The phoenix was famously the subject of Conchita Wurst Eurovision 2014 winning song.
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Over the past two months, Elina proved herself to be a stand-out contestant. Her song performances included Édith Piaf’s “Non, je ne regrette rien”, the classics “Mambo Italiano” and “Why Don’t You Do Right”, Adele’s “Someone Like You” and Liis Lemsalu’s pop hit “Keha keel”
The performances spanned a wide range of genres and let Elina show off the versatility of her voice. Speaking afterwards, Elina said that “playing with different styles gave a lot of pleasure, joy and excitement.”
Elina also performer “Never Enough”, the uplifting ballad from the recent musical film The Last Showman. But while she delivered yet another strong performance, it wasn’t quite enough to win the series.
Other Eurovision connections on The Masked Singer Estonia
The top prize went to the actor and singer Mikk Saar. He performed as Polaarhunt — the Arctic Wolf. Mikk is also known as the husband of Estonia’s Eurovision 2014 star (and Eesti Laul 2021 competitor) Tanja. He was also voted “Estonia’s Sexiest Man” in 2006.
And that’s not the only Eurovision connection. Or even the only Elina.
Last month, Elina Born was unmasked as the Lynx. The Eurovision 2015 singer gave an impressive performance of Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” — but it wasn’t enough to keep her in the competition.
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Eesti Laul producer Tomi Rahula was also unmasked as Sebra — the Zebra. He performed songs from a wide range of genres, including The Clash’s punk classic “Should I Stay Or Should I Go”, the Brazilian song “Ai Se Eu Te Pego”, the Estonian rap song “(ei ole) aluspükse”, German industrial metal legends Rammstein’s “Du hast” and the Neopolitan classic “O sole mio”.
Elina Nechayeva joins a growing list of Eurovision stars who have achieved grand final results this year in local versions of The Masked Singer.
Jan Dulles (Eurovision 2011) won The Masked Singer Netherlands, Sandra Kim (1986) won The Masked Singer Belgium and Nadine Beiler (2011) won The Masked Singer Austria. Kate Miller-Heidke (2019) was the runner-up on The Masked Singer Australia, and Aminata Savadogo also finished second on The Masked Singer Latvia.
What do you think? Should Elina return to Eurovision? Are there any other Masked Singer stars you would like to see at Eurovision? Tell us what you think below!
Alright, so (as far as we know) here’s all the Eurovision acts that have been on The Masked Singer at some point: Australia – Isaiah (2017), Kate Miller-Heidke (2019) Austria – Simone (1990), Nadine Beiler (2011) Belgium – Sandra Kim (1986) Bulgaria – Poli Genova (2011/2016), Zhana Bergendorff (2018) Estonia – Elina Born (2015), Elina Nechayeva (2018) France – Natasha St-Pier (2001) Germany – Vicky Leandros (Luxembourg 1967/1972), Max (2004) Israel – Izhar Cohen (1978/1985), Orna Datz (1991) Italy – Al Bano (1976/1985), Fausto Leali (1989) Latvia – Aminata (2015), Justs (2016) The Netherlands – Jan Dulles (2011) Portugal –… Read more »
And why exactly is this list important?
i think in the masked singer, the most popular always win, the article wrote that the winner was the sexiest man in estonia, and is a popular celebrity, obviously he won because the masses he can move, because i cannot explain how elina can loose this “singing” competition, same as kate miller in australia.
elina is actually way more popular than the man who won but the reality is that most of the voters were women and ofcourse they’ll vote for the man (obviously not all of them but a good majority)
Obviously, the best singer didn’t win the singing competition. 😉
the best singer almost never wins
In the masked singer, some fans may want to deliberately unmask a quality name earlier if it is someone famous, like why Dragon was the first eliminated in the current US series, when it was rap legend Busta Rhymes. But do fans want to unmask acts sooner or wait?
Does anyone agree with that hypothesis?
Haha. Don’t even start me on the US one. I’m still not over Tori Kelly losing out to (what is probably) Nick Carter last week!
But is Masked Singer really a singing competition? Half of the participants are not even artists. It’s more of a guessing game than a competition.
Elina is SO underrated! What a voice!
she deserved to WIN
She’s an absolute queen