#Ketlin Hoel

[eurovision-revisited]

Eurovision 2005 - Number 48 - Glow - "Dream"

Estonia's best-selling pop queens, Vanilla Ninja, had defected to another country for 2005. What could ETV do? Why not get their support band on Eurolaul? And as they've got them booked, why not have them enter two songs?!

Glow are that support band. They are Marta Piigli and Ketlin Hoel and they've been singing as a duo since 2004. They had a couple of hits since then, with appearances on several Estonian summer song compilations. The sound is pop-rock, with Marta and Ketlin's voice singing rock harmonies in front a slightly anonymous band of blokes.

Dream is a chugging rock song that harkens back to the 1970s. Not metal, but from an era when double denim was the epitome of rock styling. Marta and Ketlin have surprisingly powerful and deep voices, that work exceptionally well together. Strong and easily able to keep up with a standard rock band drum, bass and guitar instrumental. There's keen a touch of a growl and gravel in there. It feels as if this is barely a work out for them.

The song was written by Asko-Rome Altsoo and Raul Veemer who did work together on a previous Eurolaul song in 2003. Asko-Rome's day job is a studio engineer. Neither are noted performers or song-writers, so this feels like a happy marriage formed in a studio.

Despite the band's inexperience, this wasn't their only song in Eurolaul this year. Their other song was written by the band themselves, but could only finish eighth of the nine songs. Dreams was preferred, but even then it only managed seventh in the televoting, a long way short of sixth place.

Even though there's an element of Glow filling in for the absence of Vanilla Ninja - their relative lack of stage presence struggles to fill that void. This miss didn't put them off, as they returned to Eurolaul in 2006 with something more polished.

2006 was pretty much the end for the band. They split that year. Marta went on to a career in business and coffee-shop ownership while (possibly) briefly playing for Saku Sporting in the Estonian women's football league, although that's possibly another Marta Piigli of a similar age. Ketlin stayed in music for a little longer. She joined a all-female four piece called Star Sisters for a few more years of very similar songs and performances. There some solo releases later in 2014.

[eurovision-revisited]

Eurovision 2006 - Number 36 - Glow - "Higher"

Glow are back and are even more Vanilla Ninja-y than the last time. This time they have a song written no only by Peter Kaljuste and band-member Marta Piigli, but also Elmar Liitmaa.

He's the lead guitarist in the Estonian rock band Terminaator, who are kind of a big deal. They started out at school and grew to become one of Estonia's most popular rock acts. By 2006, they've released seven albums and had two of their songs voted as the year's most popular by one of Estonia's main rock radio stations. Now he's at Eurolaul writing (and I think performing) for Glow, upping their rock pedigree by several notches.

Higher is a song that takes its time to build to its rock-chorus crescendo. The verses are more reflective and involve violins and strings, with only the barest hint of electric guitar posturing. The second-verse does end with Elmar having a little pre-solo, solo. Then of course there's the full-on guitar solo bridge into the piano breakdown. It's a rock-operatic template combining classical orchestral instruments with the rock guitar.

Lyrically, certainly compared to the Ninjas, it's tame. This is a love song of growing devotion and besottedness. There are dreams that are expanding, power that's growing and ever-increasing altitude begging the question, if you're hanging onto the balloon of love and adoration, when is it too late to let go? Best hang-on and go with it.

It did quite a bit better than Glow's previous two efforts by finishing third. Oddly, this was a Eurolaul that had gone back to having no televote and instead an international jury decided 100% of the vote. The previous two years had not delivered in the way that Estonia had hoped and their entries had been marooned in the Eurovision semi-final. The hope was this would be different. The jury certainly seemed to like Glow more than the televote did.

This entire appearance looks as if Glow are front and centre, but Elmar is the main novelty, getting to show himself off outside of Terminaator. Ultimately he would leave the band a couple of years after this to go solo and set up his own projects. Glow separated shortly after this performance to go their own separate ways.

Looking back on this period of Eurovision and national final history, it feels like they departed at the right time. At their own high point and also at the high point of the rocky girl-band. Things were changing (again) both inside Estonia and at Eurovision more generally.