Uku Suviste

Uku Suviste is an Estonian singer, pianist, songwriter and music producer. He was born in Võru. He has sung in the Tallinn Boys ‘Choir and the Lydia Rahula School Boys’ Choir. When Uku joined the Tallinn Music School, he followed solfeggio lessons and piano. He graduated from the music school in 1997. He studied pop-jazz singing at the Georg Ots Tallinn Music School in 2002.

Uku participated in the Uno Naissoo Young Composers’ Contest more than once. In 2004, his song “Never Have To” was awarded the Uno Naissoo Special Prize. A year later, he took part in the same competition with the six-voice a cappella vocal ensemble Sõbrad, They became second. Also in 2005, Uku took part in the show Kaks takti ette, where he became 3rd. After this, he worked as a producer at the Elmar Liitmaa Rockhouse Music Studio. By the end of the year, his first single “It’s christmas time” was released.  

In 2006, he has completed a year and a half in singing and music production at Berklee College of Music in the United States. Uku was the second vocal soloist and keyboard player in the band Lament, which deals with R&B and disco music of the 1980s.

In 2008, he returned to the Naissoo Young Composers’ Contest and won it with the song “Refreshing”. In November 2008, the album “Beautiful Tim”e was released in collaboration with Birgit Õigemeel. Uku’s main activity was arranging songs, and the album featured several duets between Birgit and Uku. 

In 2010, Uku Suviste participated in the international song contest “New Wave” in Jūrmala. Uku, who represented Estonia, reached the 3rd place. In 2011, he was supposed to participate in Eesti Laul, the national final for the Eurovision Song Contest. However, he was disqualified because the song “Jagatud öö” was already used for other purposes in 2004. In 2012, he co-wrote the music video “Invincible” with Estonian Defense Forces and UNICEF for Estonian and foreign soldiers participating in missions and their families. 

Uku has performed in musicals such as “Oliver Twist”, “Chicago” and  “West Side Story”. In 2017, he took part in Eesti Laul but did not reach the final. He had more luck in 2019 with the song “Pretty little liar”, which was the runner up. In 2020, he was chosen to represent Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “What love is”. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen due to the corona crisis. However, in 2021 he won Eesti Laul again, this time with the song “The lucky one”. He went on to represent Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam.