Evergreen estopop

Now I know what I want to ask for from Santa. On November 26 Estonian World Review (eesti.ca) posted an announcement that by month's end a CD of evergreen Estonian pop songs would be released. "Muinaslugu Sinilinnust" (A Fairy Tale about a Bluebird) is a direct reference to two great Raimond Valgre songs, "Muinaslugu muusikast" and "Sinilind." While the slender one is not a huge fan of pop as it often borders on elevator music, what with the saccharine lyrics and often insipid melodies, a listen to the demo at estonianevergreens.com led to an email to jolly old Nick. Failing his largesse (pun intended) the CD is available at Apollo, Estonia's biggest music store. The Solaris shopping mall location in Tallinn was where the disc was launched on November 30th. Soviet era pop in Estonia was marked by blatant rip-offs from the West. Music by American and British tunesmiths with Estonian lyrics. Jashka (as Jaak Joala was known for an alleged preference for touring in the SSRs as opposed to Estonia, it was about the rubles), Uno Loop, Marju Kuut and Silvi Vrait (originally Wright) were pop singers who made it big in the Soviet era "empire" singing such covers. Just think of "Lady Madonna" sung in Estonian or Russian, with violins in the background. Ugh. However, the eminent jazz magazine Down Beat named Kuut the top jazz singer of 1965 in the Soviet Union. To these ears Kuut sang pop, not jazz, but hey, I say potato, you say tomato.