News - Rolf Junior speaks to esctoday.com | Eurovision Song Contest News - Azerbaijan 2012 

Tomorrow, on March 12th, Estonia will choose their representative at this year's Eurovision Song Contest. One of the ten acts participating for the Estonian ticket to Oslo will be Rolf Junior & Violina. Find out more about the them and Maagiline päev -their bid for the Eurovision Song Contest- in the interview Rolf has kindly given to esctoday.com, below.

First of all, congratulations on qualifying to the Estonian national pre-selection for the Eurovision Song Contest for the third time, after 2008 with One on one and 2009 with Freedom. For those who are not acquainted with your music yet, please tell us a little bit about yourself, your main interests and your musical career so far.

Thank you very much! I remember myself started to sing when I was 4 years old. My first bigger stage experience was the main part in the musical Oliver!. I was 11 years old then. After high school I went to study classical singing, but then I realized that it’s not for me, so I moved to Tallinn and went to the “Miss Saigon” audition and started taking part in different singing competitions in Estonia.

How did your participation at this year’s Eesti laul and consequently also the collaboration with Violina come about? Is it a one-time-thing or do you plan on working together on other songs as well?

Violina is an instrumental band and their manager called me if I’d be interested in working with them. So they wrote Maagiline päev and it wasn’t meant to ESC competition first. They have done collaborations with other singers too.

Let’s talk about your bid for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, Maagiline päev. For those who are not able to understand the Estonian language, please tell us what your song means and what message it conveys. Moreover, how would you describe Maagiline päev in terms of style?

Maagiline päev means Magical Day. That’s a positive and encouraging song about two people who are getting back together again on this magical day after being separated for one year. So it means that everything is possible- don’t lose your hope!

An ostensible fact about the line-up of this year’s Estonian national final is the diversity of the songs. Many of the ten competing songs have an alternative touch, hardly ever to be found in the national finals of the other countries. Your song probably could be considered as the only mainstream song, or the most commercial one, very danceable, with an instantly catchy tune having a lot of hit potential. As you probably know the taste of Estonian voters a little better, do you think that this fact will help you in getting a good placing or turn out to be more of a disadvantage?

Thank you. Well in Estonia we really have many different kind of styles in our national final. I don’t know if it’s good or bad. All I know is that we’re in it and we’re happy about it. It’s hard to say about the voting because the first round is gonna be 50% public and 50% jury. It depends lots of things, starting with the  mood :)

How far do you think you can go with Maagiline päev? Is it a contender for victory in Eesti laul? In your opinion, who are the acts to beat, the favourites prior to the competition?

I’ve heard thatthe  public likes Rapunzel. I think the last decision will come after everybody has seen every contender on stage  live. So we’ll see on Friday. But we’re gonna give 150% and we’re definitely gonna look different than the others also not only because of our song's style, but because of our costumes.

What would it mean to you to represent Estonia at the Eurovision Song Contest? Would you call yourself a fan of Eurovision? Will you keep on trying until you win Eesti laul or do you primarily see the national final as a great opportunity to promote your music?

That would be my first time in Norway. I’m not a fan of ESC, but I like to watch it mostly because of the great singers. I haven’t made any plans for the next years, but it’s  a very good opportunity for our singers to show themselves to the world.

How are the preparations for Eesti laul going? What can we expect from your performance on Friday? How will you “visualize” the message of your song?

Just came from the rehearsal actually. Tomorrow is our first stage rehearsal. We’re gonna use lots of black, white, gold and metal. The most important thing is that we like how we are gonna look there :)

Many people appreciate the rather big amount of songs in Estonian language at this year’s national final. If you win Eesti laul, will you keep your song in Estonian for Eurovision, or would prefer singing in English? Will you be releasing other versions of Maagiline päev for promotional reasons?

I’d prefer to keep it as it was born. The Estonian language sounds a bit mystic and suits with that song very well.

Can you tell us something about your future musical projects?

I’m open to all of them ;)

To conclude this interview, would you like to send a message to the readers of esctoday.com?

If you can dream it, you can do it!
If anybody is interested more about my music then you are welcome to visist  www.myspace.com/rolfjunior.

Esctoday.com would like to thank Rolf Junior for taking the time to do this interview and wish him and Violina the best of luck for the Estonian national final on Friday.

Maagiline päev, Eurovision version:

Maagiline päev, original version: