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Witness History: Estonia's singing revolution

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Estonia's Singing Revolution

15/01/2021 GMT

Estonia's singing revolution

BBC World Service - Witness History, Estonia's singing revolution

Rock star Tõnis Mägi describes how Estonia sang its way out of the Soviet Union.

In 1991 Estonians regained their independence after decades of Soviet occupation – not with guns or tanks but with songs. Tõnis Mägi became the voice of the ‘Singing Revolution’.

The Estonian rock musician Tõnis Mägi once attracted huge crowds across the USSR with a string of disco hits and a song glorifying the 1980 Olympic Games.  He was a poster boy for clean cut Soviet youth with his blond hair and cheeky smile.  

But in 1987 Tõnis returned to his native Estonia to write his own songs, in his own language. Times were changing. Mikhail Gorbachev’s  glasnost or openness policy allowed Estonians to talk about things which had been taboo for decades.  Tõnis tells  Lucy Ash that he could smell freedom in the air.

Like its Baltic neighbours, Lativa and Lithuania, Estonia was independent between the world wars  but suffered devastating losses when it was invaded by Stalin  then by Hitler's troops and then reconquered by the Red Army.   

In the tiny country of 1.3 million, many resented the Russians and longed to escape from Communist rule. People worried that their language and culture were disappearing and they wanted to promote Estonian nationhood, particularly through music. With his rock anthem Koit (Dawn)  and other songs, Tõnis became the voice of a generation of Estonians, the voice of the Singing Revolution.

Producer: Lucy Ash
Translator: Tiina Wilder

Photo: Tõnis Mägi in 1987

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