Urban Symphony

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Urban Symphony
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Urban Symphony (2009)
Background information
Origin Tallinn, Estonia
Genres Classical crossover,[1] electronic,[2] pop
Years active 2007–2010
Members Sandra Nurmsalu
Mann Helstein
Johanna Mängel
Mari Möldre

Urban Symphony is an Estonian music group. It represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009[3] with the song "Rändajad", finishing in 6th place with 129 points. This is the best place for Estonia in the contest since 2003.[4]

History

In autumn 2007, Sandra Nurmsalu took part in the singing talent show called 2 takti ette, biennially held by the Eesti Televisioon and broadcast nationwide. In a week of the contest, the contestants were tasked to form bands each on their own and each to produce a performance with it. Nurmsalu had studied the violin for two years in the Georg Ots Music School and had previously arranged the song "Nothing Else Matters" by Metallica for a string set of the school. Therefore, she decided to use one again. Nurmsalu turned to her former school, where she was introduced to Mann Helstein playing the viola, Johanna Mängel playing the cello, a female contrabass player and a male keyboardist. The band re-scored the song "Hungry" by Kosheen[5] and were pleased with the resulting televised and video recorded live performance. At the end of the series, Nurmsalu, Helstein and Mängel agreed to continue their collaboration. Mängel brought the new cello player Mari Möldre to the band. In the same while, Sven Lõhmus, a music producer invited the group to work with him. The first track the team completed was "Rändajad" for the contest of Eesti Laul, the Estonian selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2009.[6][7] The song went on to gain 6th place in the Eurovision final.[8] For this project, Marilin Kongo and Mirjam Mesak joined the group to sing backing vocals. They sing Päikese poole, Skorpion and Crying in the Rain too.

Members

The producer Sven Lõhmus had previous Eurovision experience by writing the unsuccessful Estonian entry of "Let's Get Loud" for the Eurovision Song Contest 2005, held in Kiev that year. Marilin Kongo was 8th with her entry "Be 1st" in Eurolaul 2006, the Estonian selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2006. The backing singer Mirjam Mesak supported Gerli Padar with backing vocals on stage of Eurovision Song Contest 2007.

Discography

Singles

Year Single Peak positions Album
EST
[9]
SWE
[10]
FIN
[11]
BEL (Vl)
[12]
SUI
[13]
GRE
[14]
UK
[15]
2009 "Rändajad" 3 14 10 68 86 8 117 TBA
"Päikese poole" 12 [16]
2010 "Skorpion" 11 [17]
"—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released.

References

  1. MySpace profile
  2. About Urban Symphony
  3. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. 03.08.2009 00:00 - Kaks takti ette (Video of the episode) Estonian Television
  6. Alaverest pärit Sandra Nurmsalu võitleb pääsu eest Eurovisiooni poolfinaali (Sandra Nurmsalu from Alavere Village to fight for qualification to Eurovision semifinal. In Estonian). Kristina Amor, Harju Elu 27 February 2009
  7. Urban Symphony: ilus muusika võib ka hirmuäratav olla (Urban Symphony: Beautiful music can also be terrifying. In Estonian). Melu.ee
  8. Results of the finals of Eurovision 2009, Interfax-Ukraine (May 17, 2009)
  9. Estonian Airplay Chart
  10. Swedish Singles Chart
  11. Finnish Singles Chart
  12. Belgium Flanders Singles Chart
  13. Switzerland Singles Chart
  14. Greek Singles Chart
  15. UK Singles Chart
  16. http://www.uuno.ee/index.php?pid=193&lang=1&page=205
  17. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Awards and achievements
Preceded by Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest
2009
Succeeded by
Malcolm Lincoln and
Manpower 4
with "Siren"