The Estonian participant for the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) 2004, Neiokõsõ, who performed last night in the semifinal of the ESC but was not one of the 10 chosen finalist for the final, said that problems with the sound on the stage and on TV were remarkable. Head of Delegation, Juhan Paadam also added that another big problem is Estonia not being a part of the Balcan countries.

As quite a lot of people have already marked the problems with the sound of the semifinal of the ESC 2004 held yesterday then so did the Estonian participants, Neiokõsõ, saying the problems on stage with the audio were very noticeable. “The sound was way too loud in the monitors, so I had to change it on the air,” said Anu Taul, the main vocalist of the group. The group added they were quite surprised that some of the songs in which they did not see competition before got into the final. But all in all they were pleased with their own performance on the stage.

The Head of Delegation, also the Executive Producer of 2002 ESC and member of the Reference Group for the ESC at the EBU, Juhan Paadam, said that the neighbouring voting has been an issue in the Reference Group and he thinks the voting system has to be changed in the future. “It has been a subject of discuss for quite long but this time everybody saw what happened precisely. It has to pointed out that most of the North European countries have been left out.”

He did praise Neiokõsõ for their performance and the lighting on stage. But added: “I can't say much about the audio, the problems with it have been conciderable throughout the last days, not with the sound in the hall itself but on TV. It's a serious question, many delegations have complained about it.

The composer of the song Tii, Priit Pajusaar commented the chosen finalists as a “geopolitical result“. “There were many countries from the same neighbourhood and this is what decided the 10 last finalists.” Still he as an Estonian Eurovision guru (he composed the 1996 Estonian entry and was the co-composer of the one participating in 1999 for Estonia) will not stop participating at the contest itself. He is also concidering to continue the cooperation with Neiokõsõ.

The President of the Estonian branch of the Organisation Générale des Amateurs de l'Eurovision (OGAE), Ivar Laev, said that he as well as a lot of other people he had talked to after the show were rather disapointed of the “neighbours' games” which resulted “an unfair row of finalists“. He also refused to call this Eurovision but rather Jugovision. Many people say that there are no high quality songs at the ESC but there are certain standards you have to obey. But some of the 10 chosen songs were not even close to this. I'm still going to the final concert to wave the Estonian flag because I think the Estonian entry belongs there. I didn't go to the winners' press conference last night because I think that at the table over there were people who didn't deserve that place. He finished with a positive note, though, saying that the show held yesterday was great.

Estonia got the shared 11th place at the semifinal together with Israel. Due to this Estonia has take part in the semifinal next year.