"Leto svet" was Estonia

Estonia

Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...

's entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008

Eurovision Song Contest 2008

The Eurovision Song Contest 2008 was the 53rd edition of the Contest. It was hosted in Belgrade, Serbia after Marija Šerifović won the 2007 Contest in Helsinki, Finland. This year was the first contest to have two semi-finals which were held on 20 and 22 May, and the final held on 24 May 2008...

, performed in Serbian

Serbian language

Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....

, German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 and Finnish

Finnish language

Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...

 by Hannes Võrno

Hannes Võrno

Hannes Võrno is an Estonian comedian, politician and fashion designer.To the general public, Võrno is mainly known as a member of the comedy troupe Kreisiraadio, as well as the co-host of the TV show Kahvel and host of TV shows Kes tahab saada miljonäriks? and Tõehetk Hannes Võrno (born May 1,...

, Peeter Oja and Tarmo Leinatamm from the Estonian comedy group Kreisiraadio

Kreisiraadio

Kreisiraadio is an established Estonian comedy act, made up of Hannes Võrno, Peeter Oja and Tarmo Leinatamm.They have been around since 1993 with radio and TV sketch shows...

. It can be listened here (video and song from the Estonian Television homepage, officially published video).

Status as Eurolaul 2008

"Leto svet" won the national Eurovision Song Contest final in Estonia (Eurolaul

Eurolaul

Eurolaul was an annual televised competition to select a song to represent Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest made by the Estonian Public Television Service ETV. For many years the competition differed from the national selections of most other countries in that the outcome was solely...

) on 2 February 2008; for a list of all national finalists, see Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008

Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008

The Eurovision Song Contest 2008 was Estonia's 14th appearance in the competition.Estonia competed in the first semi-final on May 20, 2008. The song was not among the ten songs selected for the final, the fifth consecutive year in which Estonia did not feature in the final.The Estonian national...

. Though being landslide winner, it created some controversy amongst Estonian and especially amongst international Eurovision fans.

Reception in Serbia

This song also has received a lot of attention in the host country, Serbia

Serbia

Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...

. Most of the lyrics to "Leto svet" are performed in the Serbian language

Serbian language

Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....

, but without regard to grammar or sense.

Place at Semi-final

"Leto Svet" did not make it past the first semi final, being ranked 18th (out of 19 songs) with just 8 points (7 from Finland and 1 from Moldova).

Spoofed elements of pop songs

As most pop songs have simple melody and reliance of rhythm machine, Leto Svet is over simplistic and with a simple rhythm. As most pop songs use lyrics that don't have much meaning, and are just fitting in tune, Leto Svet's lyrics are made of random words from dictionary.

Spoofed elements of Eurovision

As culturally similar countries vote for each other, Leto Svet uses lyrics in one of former Serbian language. As Eurovision relies heavily on stage show, Leto Svet uses extremely simplistic and absurd dancing moves.

Spoofed elements of Estonian culture and Eurolaul

At one point Peeter Oja tries to pick up an accordion with exploding results. (Accordion is in fact a rather used instrument in Estonia.) Making love with piano is probably a spoof of Estonian artist Rein Rannap, who experiments with piano, and has competed in Eurolaul at least one time. Tarmo Leinatamm's afro is probably parody of song "Everybody", that featured non native Estonian singer Dave Benton.

Changed foreign lyrics

A short passage near the end of the song is presented in Finnish. The line "Mitäs nyt, kesävalot nyt?" ("What's this now, summer lights now?") is repeated four times. However, during the performance in the semi-final the last line was changed to "kesäpanot nyt" ("summerfucks now"), which can clearly be heard and seen as there is a close-up of one of the performers saying the line. A Finnish girl rock group Ilona had a hit called "Kesäpano" in 1987.