Urban Symphony was an Estonian music group. It represented

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2009 The Eurovision Song Contest 2009 was the 54th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Moscow, Russia, following the country's victory at the with the song "Believe" by Dima Bilan. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (E ...

with the song "

Rändajad Estonia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 with the song "Rändajad" written by Sven Lõhmus. The song was performed by the group Urban Symphony. The Estonian broadcaster Eesti Rahvusringhääling (ERR) organised the national final ...

", finishing in 6th place with 129 points. In doing this, they achieved Estonia's best placement since 2002.

History

In autumn 2007,

Sandra Nurmsalu Sandra Nurmsalu (born 6 December 1988) is an Estonian singer, songwriter, and violinist. Recognized within Estonia for her genre-bending style, Nurmsalu has garnered success as both the lead singer of Urban Symphony and as a solo artist. Nurmsal ...

took part in the singing

talent show A talent show is an event in which participants perform the arts of singing, dancing, lip-syncing, acting, martial arts, playing an instrument, poetry, comedy or other activities to showcase skills. Many talent shows are performances rather ...

called ''2 takti ette'', biennially held by the

Eesti Televisioon Eesti Televisioon (ETV) ( en, Estonian Television) is an Estonian free-to-air television channel owned and operated by Estonian Public Broadcasting. It made its first broadcast on 19 July 1955. History Eesti Televisioon (''Estonian Televis ...

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 The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

for two years in the

Georg Ots Georg Ots (21 March 1920 – 5 September 1975) was an Estonian singer, actor and People's Artist of the USSR (1960). Biography Before studying singing with the Estonian baritone Aleksander Rahnel in Yaroslavl in the rear of the Eastern Fron ...

Music School and had previously arranged the song "

Nothing Else Matters "Nothing Else Matters" is a song by American heavy metal band Metallica. It was released in 1992 as the third single from their self-titled fifth studio album, '' Metallica''. The song peaked at number 11 on the '' Billboard'' Mainstream Rock ...

" 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 ; german: Bratsche , alt=Viola shown from the front and the side , image=Bratsche.jpg , caption= , background=string , hornbostel_sachs=321.322-71 , hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded by a bow , range= , related= *Violin family ...

, Johanna Mängel playing the

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G ...

, a female contrabass player and a male

keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical inst ...

. The band re-scored the song " Hungry" by

Kosheen Kosheen are a British electronic music group based in Bristol, United Kingdom. The group consist of singer-songwriter Sian Evans, songwriter-producer Markee Ledge and producer-songwriter Darren Decoder. The name Kosheen derives from the name ...

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 Sven Lõhmus (born 13 July 1972) is an Estonian pop-composer and lyricist. He is a producer at Moonwalk Studios, a music company featuring Estonian artists. He has worked with leading artists of Estonia, including Vanilla Ninja (of which he w ...

, a

music producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure. Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

invited the group to work with him. The first track the team completed was "

" for the contest of '' Eesti Laul'', the Estonian selection for the

. The song went on to gain 6th place in the Eurovision final. For this project, Marilin Kongo and Mirjam Mesak joined the group to sing backing vocals. They also sing in Päikese poole, Skorpion and

Crying in the Rain "Crying in the Rain" is a song composed by Carole King with lyrics by Howard Greenfield, originally recorded by American duo the Everly Brothers. The single peaked at number six on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in 1962. The song was the only ...

. In 2010, Urban Symphony announced that they would be disbanding. The announcement was due to Nurmsalu wishing to prioritise motherhood, while the group's other members wished to continue their studies and pursue other interests.

Members

*Johanna Mängel *Mari Möldre *Mann Helstein The producer

had previous Eurovision experience by writing the unsuccessful Estonian entry of " Let's Get Loud" for the

Eurovision Song Contest 2005 The Eurovision Song Contest 2005 was the 50th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Kyiv, Ukraine, following the country's victory at the with the song "Wild Dances" by Ruslana. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (E ...

, held in

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Kyi ...

that year. Marilin Kongo was 8th with her entry "Be 1st" in

Eurolaul Estonia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 27 times since making its debut in 1994. Its first appearance would have taken place in 1993 but a qualification round was installed for seven former Eastern Bloc countries hoping to make ...

2006, the Estonian selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2006. The backing singer Mirjam Mesak supported

Gerli Padar Gerli Padar (born 6 November 1979) is an Estonian singer and actress. She represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007. She is the sister of Tanel Padar, who won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2001 for Estonia. Career Padar has perfo ...

with backing vocals on stage of

Eurovision Song Contest 2007 The Eurovision Song Contest 2007 was the 52nd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Helsinki, Finland, following the country's victory at the with the song "Hard Rock Hallelujah" by Lordi. Organised by the European Broadcasti ...

Discography

Singles

References

{{Authority control Estonian pop music groups Estonian classical music groups Eurovision Song Contest entrants for Estonia Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 2009 Musical groups established in 2007 Estonian violinists Estonian girl groups Eesti Laul winners