The 1998 Eurovision song contest was remarkable in three ways. It was the last contest with full orchestra and obligatory use of official language of the country. Both these factors gave the estonian entry appealing quality. Full orchestral backing made the song float effortlessly as a beautiful love song, to which the beautiful estonian language provided with the necessary tenderness.
The real asset was the young artist himself, who managed to sound vulnerable and innocent but at the same time convincing in his performance.
The third remarkable thing of the 1998 contest would eventually bring this song down. For the first time in 1998 the votes from most countries were based on televoting, not the juries. Maybe that was the reason that the estonian song didn't fare any better than it did. The juries, who were obliged to listen to the songs more than once, would probably have given more credit to the beautiful melody and the gimmickless performance than the televoters, most of whom heard the song for the first time.
In Finland this didn't matter. We have a special relationship with our southern neighbor and the estonian language sounds specially attractive to our ears, so it was no surprise that Finland gave the song its only 12 points in 1998.
My points 4/5.
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