Estonia

Estonia has become the Eurovision powerhouse since it first joined the Contest in 1994.  Though the country's first entry finished second to last, its second entry placed in the Top 5 in 1995.  Of its next four entries, three finished in the Top Ten, but it was Estonia's 2001 entry that brought home the gold.  The country was heavily favored in the 2002 Contest on home turf in Talinn (and was hoping to become the third country to pull-off the win-at-home), but ultimately placed third,  solidifying the small Baltic nation as the most successful former Soviet republic in the Contest early on. The next seven years were deemed Estonia's fall from grace, with a 21st place finish in 2003 followed by five consecutive years of not getting passed the semifinal stages.  That all changed in Moscow in 2009, with the all-girl band Urban Symphony, who presented an experimental classical, folk, pop mixture of a song of Randajad.  This song has remained on my Top Ten Eurovision songs (& in constant rotation on my Spotify and iTunes lists).  Here's a taste:

Estonia tends to swing between songs in their native tongue and English, and for the most part the entries in Estonian have done better at the Contest than those sung in English (with the exception of the 2001 entry that ended up winning).  Last year, the Estonian entry was a young Ott Lepland, who had won the third season of the Estonian version of the Idol franchise (incidentally by singing Randajad in a duet with the lead singer of Urban Symphony during his semi-final presentation).  Last year's song Kuula, sung again in Estonian, placed sixth in Baku.  Kuula is another one of those songs that should've done better at the Contest...see for yourself:

This year, Estonia has chosen Birgit Oigemeel's Et uus saaaks alguse (which roughly translates to "So there can be a new beginning"), after a rigorous national selection process.  With its geographic and cultural positioning between Scandinavia and many former-Soviet republics (and a large fan base in Western Europe, particularly in the UK), and given the quality of this year's entry, Estonia will likely end up in the Top Ten once again.  Without further ado, here is the country's ballad (and fantastic singer) for Malmo: