Hope has a voice

I'm writing this post with tears in my eyes. But those are tears of pride and happiness.

Thousands of Estonians came together to Tallinn today and at those late evening hours they're singing on Tallinn Song Festival Grounds. Did I say thousands? I think there are tens of thousands Estonians. Even more than a hundred thousand. I'm sad you can't see the picture from my TV at this moment.

I've never felt more Estonian than today and I'm sad I can't be there and sing with other people. But workday tomorrow, can't help it.
But it is amazing feeling. When things are getting hard, we sing. Together, like one man. Here's a little trailer of Estonian movie "Singing revolution", maybe you will understand a bit what's going on now.



About the history of "Singing revolution":
On 11 September 1988, a massive song festival, called "Song of Estonia", was held at the Tallinn Song Festival Arena. This time nearly 300,000 people came together, more than a quarter of all Estonians. On that day political leaders were participating actively, and were for the first time insisting on the restoration of independence.

From 1987, a cycle of mass demonstrations featuring spontaneous singing eventually collected 300,000 Estonians in Tallinn to sing national songs and hymns that were strictly forbidden during the years of the Soviet occupation, as Estonian rock musicians played.

And today the history recurs again. With today's "Night Song Festival" we remind the hard times when we were fighting for our independence and when we sang us to be free.

One more video. 20 000 singers, 100 000 listeners