Singing a Nation: Estonia’s 2025 Song and Dance Celebration Unites Generations in Harmony

Khoshnaw Rahmani, Jadetimes Staff

K. Rahmani is a Jadetimes news reporter covering culture.

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Image Source: Aivar Pihelgas

Where Culture Meets Chorus

In a world of fleeting trends and digital noise, Estonia’s 2025 Song and Dance Celebration stood as a powerful reminder of something deeper: the timeless unity of shared voice. Held in Tallinn every five years, this year’s event brought together over 130,000 attendees and nearly 33,000 performers in a spellbinding display of cultural pride, collective memory, and artistic mastery. Few traditions so powerfully embody a nation’s soul—here, music doesn’t just entertain. It remembers. It resists. And it renews.

What Is the Estonian Song Celebration?

Known as Laulupidu, Estonia’s Song and Dance Celebration is one of the largest choral festivals in the world and a treasured UNESCO-recognized cultural practice. It began in 1869 in Tartu as part of Estonia’s national awakening under Tsarist Russian rule. Since then, the event has grown from a local concert to a national rite of passage, surviving occupations, censorship, and war—while nurturing the Estonian language, identity, and artistic spirit. Key elements today include:

• Massive choirs of up to 30,000 singers

• A three-day folk dance festival featuring over 11,000 dancers

• Live folk music stages with instruments like the kannel, torupill, and viiul

• A symbolic torch relay uniting communities before the main event

The 2025 Theme: Iseoma — “Authentically Ours”

Each celebration embraces a guiding theme. In 2025, Iseoma focused on regional dialects, village folklore, and personal expression. The word Iseoma means “uniquely one’s own”—an invitation for Estonians to celebrate the flavor of their hometowns, ancestors, and stories sung from hearth to choir stand. Highlights of the theme:

• Traditional classics like “Mu isamaa on minu arm” once banned under Soviet rule

• Newly commissioned works in Võro, Seto, and other regional dialects

• Folk songs reflecting local legends, seasonal customs, and communal values

“In a global world, we’re reclaiming what’s homegrown, handmade, and passed down—not downloaded.” — Heli Jürgenson, 2025 Artistic Director

2025 Highlights

The Grand Procession Over 45,000 singers, dancers, and musicians paraded five kilometers through Tallinn in hand-sewn folk costumes, singing and waving flags as crowds lined Freedom Square to the Song Festival Grounds.

The Main Concert Beneath the iconic Song Festival Arch, 31,617 performers from 990 choirs delivered a seven-hour program featuring:

• 40 musical works by Arvo Pärt, Miina Härma, Gustav Ernesaks, and new composers

• A 19,000-voice rendition of “Mu isamaa on minu arm”

• Guest choirs from the Estonian diaspora in Canada, Australia, and Finland

The Dance Celebration At Kalev Stadium, over 11,000 dancers performed eight suites inspired by Estonia’s cultural regions—Saaremaa, Setomaa, Mulgimaa, and others—blending tradition with contemporary choreography.

Folk Music Renaissance Folk stages showcased more than 750 musicians on kannel, bagpipes, and fiddles, with younger artists fusing ancestral tunes and modern genres like jazz and electronica.

Singing Through History: Protest, Unity, and Independence

Estonia’s singing tradition isn’t just beautiful—it’s revolutionary. During Soviet rule, Estonians defied censorship by embedding subversive lyrics in official programs. In 1988, as the Iron Curtain loosened, hundreds of thousands gathered at the Song Festival Grounds to sing banned anthems in what became the Singing Revolution.

“We didn’t throw stones. We sang,” says Marina Nurming, who participated in both 1988 and 2025. “It was our loudest form of silence.” Three years later, Estonia regained independence without firing a shot. Every Laulupidu since has reminded citizens—old and new—that freedom, like harmony, takes care and collective effort.

Timeline of Key Moments

• 1869: First Song Celebration in Tartu with 878 male singers

• 1923: Transition to a five-year cycle in independent Estonia

• 1947: Post-war Song Celebration under Soviet control

• 1988: Singing Revolution gatherings begin at the festival site

• 1991: Estonia regains independence

• 2003: UNESCO recognizes Laulupidu as Intangible Cultural Heritage

• 2025: XXVIII Song and XXI Dance Celebration features record international participation

Global Resonance

This year’s festival included 1,500 diaspora performers from 45 countries, some rehearsing for over a year to return “home” and sing in their ancestral tongue. Estonia livestreamed the celebrations worldwide with subtitles for lyrics and educational archives—demonstrating that the language of song needs no translation.

The Meaning of Modern Tradition

What keeps Laulupidu alive is its balance: ancient verses sung by teenagers, sacred texts beside lullabies, choirs reading from tablets dressed in 19th-century wool. It’s this fusion of past and present that gives the celebration its emotional power. In 2025, amid global tensions and cultural homogenization, Estonia offered a message: Harmony isn’t perfect. It’s practiced. When 30,000 voices find the same note, the world hears memory, identity, and hope.

Singing Toward the Future

As the final chords of “My Fatherland is My Love” echoed across the rain-soaked grounds, audience and choir became one—singing, weeping, remembering. Children waved small flags, elders clasped hands, and across generations, a single phrase rang out: meie laul — meie lugu Our song — our story.