Today is Their Birthday-Musicians: December 6: Estonian singer and violinist Sandra Nurmsalu is 25-years-old today.

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Estonian singer and violinist Sandra Nurmsalu is the lead singer of the band Urban Symphony. Sandra grew up in Alavere village, Harju County. As of January 1, 2010, It had a population of 382. She is still a resident of the village.

Nurmsalu has two passions – singing and violin playing and Urban Symphony has given her the chance to combine these. Ten years of violin studies in classic music part of that time at the Kose music school,have also taken her to the roots of Estonian folk music; for seven years, she played and sang in the folk group Pillipiigad for seven years giving concerts and performing at festivals all over Estonia and in Europe. For three years she has also been part of folk band Virre.

In autumn 2007, Sandra Nurmsalu took part in the singing talent show called 2 takti ette, held biennially by the Eesti Televisioon and broadcast nationwide.

In the week of the contest, the contestants were instructed to form bands on their own and to produce a performance. Nurmsalu had studied the violin for two years in the Georg Ots Music School and had previously arranged the song "Nothing Else Matters" by Metallica for a string set of the school. That is the song she chose to play. she finished in 4th place.

Urban Symphony represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest on May 16 2009. Nurmsalu turned to her former school, where she recruited Mann Helstein who plays the viola, Johanna Mängel the cello, a female contrabass player and a male keyboardist.

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Recommended (Press album covers for direct links to Amazon):

Eurovision Song Contest 2009 (3 DVD Set) (PAL/Region 0)

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The band re-scored the song "Hungry" by Kosheen and were pleased with the resulting televised and video recorded live performance they sent in for their audition.

At the end of the series, Nurmsalu, Helstein and Mängel agreed to continue their collaboration. Mängel brought the new cello player Mari Möldre to the band. Sven Lõhmus, a music producer, invited the group to work with him.

Nurmsalu sang the lead for the Eurovision entry song "Rändajad," contest of Eesti Laul, the Estonian selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2009. The song went on to qualify for the second semi-final and won 6th place in the Eurovision final. For this project, Marilin Kongo and Mirjam Mesak joined the group to sing backing vocals.