Evelin Samuel

Evelin Samuel is an Estonian singer and actress.

Born on May 13, 1975 her career started at an early age. In the late 1980s she joined the children's musical theatre Colombina, where she had several lead roles, as well as a performance at the Roskilde Rock Festival in Denmark in the early 1990s.

In 1993, Evelin Samuel ended up 4th at Kaks Takti Ette, a contest for young singers, organized by Estonian Television. In the same year, she won the Baltic song contest Via Baltica with the song To You.

Less than 2 years later, she won another song contest Uus Laul 1994, with Vari ja roos, and also sang on ferries on the Baltic Sea.

In 1997 Evelin took part in the Eurovision Song Contest as a backing vocalist for the Estonian entry, Keelatud maa, performed by Maarja-Liis Ilus, which ended up 8th. A year later, she performed a ballad called Unistus igavesest päevast in Eurolaul but lost her chance to represent Estonia in Eurovision 1998 at the very end of the voting.

In 1999 she finally won Eurolaul with a new age ballad called Diamond of Night, getting a respectable 6th place at Eurovision, held in Jerusalem. The lyrics for the song were by Maian-Anna Kärmas who has written many other songs for Evelin Samuel. Maian has also worked as a backing vocalist for her.

Evelin has tried to enter Eurovision since, but has yet to win Eurolaul again. However in 2000 and 2006 Evelin was the spokesperson for the Estonian televote results at Eurovision.

2002 saw the release her debut album Over The Water Blue, including Diamond of Night.

In 2001, Evelin Samuel was cast to play the role of Fantine in the musical Les Miserables in Tallinn but had to cancel her participation for to personal reasons in the middle of the rehearsals. Still, a couple of years later she gained good reviews for her portrayal of Nancy in Lionel Bart`s Oliver! in Tallinn and went on to play in the musical Miss Saigon in Helsinki for one and a half years.

Late in 2006, Evelin Samuel gave birth to her first son and lives a somewhat quiet life with her husband in Tallinn.