"What Love Is" is a song by

Uku Suviste Uku Suviste (born 6 June 1982) is an Estonian singer-songwriter, pianist and music producer. He was scheduled to represent Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 in Rotterdam, Netherlands, before cancellation of the competition that year. ...

that was to represent Estonia in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2020 The Eurovision Song Contest 2020 was planned to be the 65th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It would have taken place in Rotterdam, Netherlands, following the country's victory at the with the song "Arcade" by Duncan Laurence. The con ...

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

, The Netherlands, before the cancellation of the event due to the Coronavirus Pandemic. It was written by Suviste and Sharon Vaughn. During the live performance at Eesti Laul, Uku was accompanied by five backing singers off-stage,

Kaire Vilgats Kaire Vilgats (born 11 January 1976
Kaire Vilgats: mulle ...

Dagmar Oja Dagmar Oja (born 8 July 1981) is an Estonian singer. Life Oja was born in Avinurme, Jõgeva County. She graduated from the Georg Ots Music School of Tallinn, and become known as a backing singer for different pop acts of Estonia, such as Anne ...

, Kaarel Orumägi, Raimondo Laikre and Scott Murro.

Critical reception

The song received mixed reviews from critics. Whilst the fan website

Wiwibloggs Wiwibloggs is a fansite and YouTube channel focusing on the Eurovision Song Contest, launched in 2009. It has a seasonal audience, peaking at 250,000 page views per day during the week of Eurovision in May 2016, based on Google Analytics data. ...

had the song as their least favorite entry out of the 41, it was with an average of 4.1 out of 10 from the 22 reviewers. Panel member Deban Aderimi said of the song: "Uku builds a story on stage, whilst managing to keep the viewer transfixed. This isn’t an easy thing to do. Yes, elements of this are dated, and the song in general is somewhat needlessly theatrical. However, let’s not lose sight of his compelling vocals and the undeniable hook here. “What Love Is” has a charging melody that will leave you yearning for another reprise.", giving it 6/10, but other members of the channel derided it as "clichéd" and "clunky", and it received reviews ranging from 1 to 7. On the website ESCXtra, the song was rated 34th of the 41 entries, with 93 points from the 19 reviewers, including three of them giving it the minimum 1 and one giving it the maximum 12. Praises and criticisms leveled at the song were similar to those from the critics of Wiwibloggs. Some of the broadcasters scheduled to take part in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 have organised alternative competitions. Austria's

ORF ORF or Orf may refer to: * Norfolk International Airport, IATA airport code ORF * Observer Research Foundation, an Indian research institute * One Race Films, a film production company founded by Vin Diesel * Open reading frame, a portion of the ...

aired ''

Der kleine Song Contest () was a one-off music competition in the Eurovision format, organised and broadcast by the Austrian broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF). It served as an alternative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020, which was planned to be held i ...

'' in April 2020, which saw every entry being assigned to one of three semi-finals. A jury consisting of ten singers that had represented Austria at Eurovision before was hired to rank each song; the best-placed in each semi-final advanced to the final round. In the third semi-final on 18 April, "What Love Is" placed ninth in a field of 13 participants, achieving 48 points. The song is also partook in

Sveriges Television Sveriges Television AB ("Sweden's Television Stock Company"), shortened to SVT (), is the Sweden, Swedish national public broadcasting, public television broadcaster, funded by a public service tax on personal income set by the Riksdag (national ...

's '' Sveriges 12:a'' in May, but it was one of 11 entries in the show to not place in either the jury or televote top 10 after being put through the first round.

Eurovision Song Contest

The song was scheduled to represent

Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 Estonia originally planned to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 with the song " What Love Is" written by Uku Suviste and Sharon Vaughn. The song was performed by Uku Suviste. The Estonian broadcaster (ERR) organised the national f ...

, after

was selected through ''Eesti Laul 2020'', the music competition that selects Estonia's entries for the Eurovision Song Contest. Estonia was scheduled to perform in the first half of the second semi-final at Eurovision, to be held on 14 May 2020, before the contest was canceled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Suviste has confirmed he intends to compete in Eesti Laul 2021 and has been given a pass to the semi-finals, but will have to compete with a new song. In the Eurovision Song Celebration YouTube broadcast in the place of Semi Final 2, it was revealed he would have performed second, after Greece's entry, which Vaughn was also part of the writing team of, and before Austria's.

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 2020 Eurovision songs of Estonia Eurovision songs of 2020 Songs written by Sharon Vaughn Uku Suviste songs