Thousands of voices unite in song at traditional choir festival celebrating Estonia's culture

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — The voices of tens of thousands of choir singers rang out in the rain in Estonia this weekend, and a huge crowd of spectators erupted in applause, unfazed by the gloomy weather.

The Song Festival Grounds, a massive outdoor venue in the Estonian capital Tallinn, was filled with spectators Saturday evening despite the downpour, and absolutely packed on Sunday, with even more people attending. The traditional Song and Dance Celebration, which decades ago inspired resistance to Soviet control and was later recognized by the U.N.'s cultural agency, attracted tens of thousands of performers and spectators alike, many in national costume.

The four-day choir-singing and dancing event centers around Estonian folk songs and patriotic anthems and is held roughly every five years. The tradition dates back to the 19th century. In the late 1980s, it inspired the defiant Singing Revolution, helping Estonia and other Baltic nations break free from the Soviet occupation.

To this day, it remains a major point of national pride for a country of about 1.3 million.

This year, tickets to the main event -– a seven-hour concert on Sunday featuring choirs of all ages -– sold out weeks in advance.

Rasmus Puur, a conductor at the song festival and assistant to the artistic director, ascribes the spike in popularity to Estonians longing for a sense of unity in the wake of the global turmoil, especially Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“We want to feel as one today more than six years ago (when the celebration was last held), and we want to feel that we are part of Estonia,” Puur told The Associated Press on Friday.

The theme of the song festival this year is dialects and regional languages, and the repertoire is a mix of folk songs, well-known patriotic anthems that are traditionally sung at these celebrations and new pieces written specifically for the occasion.

The festival’s artistic director, Heli Jürgenson, said ahead of the song festival that although the audience wouldn’t know all the songs -– especially those sung in dialects -– there would be many opportunities to sing along.

The main concert on Sunday night culminated with a song called “My Fatherland is My Love” –- a patriotic song Estonians spontaneously sang at the 1960 festival in protest against the Soviet regime. This anthem was the closing song of song celebrations since 1965, and many described it as the highest emotional point of the event.

This year, a choir of over 19,000 singers performed it, with the spectators singing along and waving Estonian flags. A few other songs followed, with patriotic chants in between, and after the concert was over, the audience spontaneously erupted in more singing.

Jürgenson believes that what drove the tradition more than 150 years ago still drives it today.

“There have been different turning points, there have been a lot of historical twists, but the need for singing, songs and people have remained the same,” she said. “There are certain songs that we always sing, that we want to sing. This is what keeps this tradition going for over 150 years.”

The tradition to hold massive first song-only, then song and dance festivals dates back to the time when Estonia was part of the Russian Empire.

The first song celebration was held in 1869 in the southern city of Tartu. It heralded a period of national awakening for Estonians, when Estonian-language press, theater and other things emerged, says Elo-Hanna Seljamaa, associate professor at the University of Tartu.

The festivals continued throughout a period of Estonia’s independence between the two world wars and then during the nearly 50 years of Soviet occupation.

The Soviet rulers were into “mass spectacles of all kinds, so in a way it was very logical for the Soviet regime to tap into this tradition and to try to co-opt it,” Seljamaa said in an interview.

Estonians had to sing Soviet propaganda songs in Russian during that time, but they were also able to sing their own songs in their own language, which was both an act of defiance and an act of therapy for them, she said.

At the same time, the complicated logistics of putting together a mass event like that taught Estonians to organize, Seljamaa said, so when the political climate changed in the 1980s, the protest against the Soviet rule naturally came in the form of coming together and singing.

The unity extended beyond Estonia’s borders. During the Singing Revolution, 2 million people in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined hands to form a 600-kilometer (370-mile) human chain that protested Soviet occupation of the Baltics with a song.

In 2003, the United Nations’ cultural body, UNESCO, recognized Estonia’s folk song festival and similar events in Latvia and Lithuania for showcasing the “intangible cultural heritage of humanity.”

Marina Nurming recalls attending the Singing Revolution gatherings in the 1980s as a teenager. This year she traveled to Tallinn from Luxembourg, where she currently lives, to take part in the Song and Dance Celebration as a choir singer –- her longtime hobby.

The Singing Revolution is a time “when we sang ourselves free,” she told AP.

Seljamaa says the song and dance celebration may have suffered a drop in popularity in the 1990s, a somewhat difficult time for Estonia as it was emerging as an independent country after the Soviet Union collapsed, but has since bounced back.

There is a tremendous interest in it among young people, she says, and always more performers willing to take part than the venue can fit in, and there are people who had left Estonia to live abroad, but travel back to take part.

Nurming is one example. She is part of the European Choir of Estonians – a singing group that unites Estonians from more than a dozen countries.

This year’s four-day celebration, which started on Thursday, included several stadium dancing performances by over 10,000 dancers from all around the country and a folk music instrument concert.

It culminated over the weekend with the song festival featuring some 32,000 choir singers. That was preceded by a large procession, in which all participants -– singers, dancers, musicians, clad in traditional costumes and waving Estonian flags –- marched from the city center to the Song Festival Grounds by the Baltic Sea.

Those taking part come from all corners of Estonia, and there are collectives from abroad, as well. It’s a mix of men, women and children, with participants aged from six to 93.

For most, singing and dancing is a hobby on top of their day jobs or studies. But to take part in the celebration, collectives had to go through a rigorous selection process, and months worth of rehearsals.

For Karl Kesküla, an electrical engineer from Estonia’s western island of Saaremaa, this is the first time taking part in the song celebration as a singer -– but he attended it before as a spectator.

“I got the feeling that what they did was really special and almost, like, every person you meet has gone to it or been a part of it at least once. So I just wanted that feeling too,” Kesküla, 30, told the AP at the procession on Saturday.

Participants described the celebrations as being an important part of their national identity.

“Estonians are always getting through the hard times through songs, through songs and dances. If it’s hard, we sing together and that brings everything back together and then we forget our troubles,” singer Piret Jakobson said.

“It’s really good with all Estonian people to do the same thing,” said engineer Taavi Pentma, who took part in the dance performances. “So we are, like, breathing in one and the heart is beating (as one).”

Choir singers attend the "Iseoma" Song and Dance Celebration at the Song Festival Grounds in Tallinn, Estonia, on Sunday, July 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Choir singers attend the "Iseoma" Song and Dance Celebration at the Song Festival Grounds in Tallinn, Estonia, on Sunday, July 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Spectators wave Estonian flags and bouquets of flowers during the song festival, part of the "Iseoma" Song and Dance Celebration, at the Song Festival Grounds in Tallinn, Estonia, Sunday, July 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

A spectator braves the rain as she watches the song festival, part of the "Iseoma" Song and Dance Celebration, at the Song Festival Grounds in Tallinn, Estonia, Sunday, July 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Choir singers attend the "Iseoma" Song and Dance Celebration at the Song Festival Grounds in Tallinn, Estonia, on Sunday, July 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

People enjoy the Estonian Song Festival, part of the "Iseoma" Song and Dance Celebration, at the Song Festival Grounds in Tallinn, Estonia, Saturday, July 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Participants perform during the Estonian Song and Dance Celebration "Iseoma" at the Kalev Stadium in Tallinn, Estonia, Friday, July 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Choir singers take part in the Estonian Song Festival, part of the "Iseoma" Song and Dance Celebration, at the Song Festival Grounds in Tallinn, Estonia, Saturday, July 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Participants perform during the Estonian Song and Dance Celebration "Iseoma" at the Kalev Stadium in Tallinn, Estonia, Friday, July 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Participants perform during the Estonia Song and Dance Festivals at the Kalev stadium in Tallinn, Estonia, Thursday, July 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Choir singers take part in the Estonian Song Festival, part of the "Iseoma" Song and Dance Celebration, at the Song Festival Grounds in Tallinn, Estonia, Saturday, July 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Artistic director of the Song Celebration Heli Jurgenson, seen on the screens, attending the Estonian Song Festival, part of the "Iseoma" Song and Dance Celebration, at the Song Festival Grounds in Tallinn, Estonia, Saturday, July 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Choir singers take part in the Estonian Song Festival, part of the "Iseoma" Song and Dance Celebration, at the Song Festival Grounds in Tallinn, Estonia, Saturday, July 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

People take part in the "Iseoma" Song and Dance Celebration, in Tallinn, Estonia, Saturday, July 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

A participant rides a scooter ahead of the Estonian Song and Dance Celebration "Iseoma" at the Kalev Stadium in Tallinn, Estonia, Friday, July 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

People pose as they attend the "Iseoma" Song and Dance Celebration, in Tallinn, Estonia, Saturday, July 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

CONCORD, N.C. (AP) — Kyle Busch died after severe pneumonia progressed into sepsis, resulting in rapid and overwhelming associated complications, according to a statement released by his family.

Dakota Hunter, vice president of Kyle Busch Companies, said in a news release the family received the medical evaluation on Saturday.

Busch, a two-time NASCAR champion, died at 41 on Thursday, a day after passing out in a Chevrolet simulator.

Sepsis is considered a life-threatening medical emergency that occurs when the body has an extreme, overactive response to an infection, causing the immune system to damage its own tissues and organs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Typically the immune system releases chemicals to fight off pathogens like bacteria, viruses or fungi, but with sepsis the response goes into overdrive. The results can cause widespread inflammation, form microscopic blood clots and make blood vessels leak.

Busch was thought to have had a sinus cold while racing at Watkins Glen on May 10 and radioed in to his team saying that he needed a “shot” from a doctor after the race.

However, he bounced back to win the Trucks Series race at Dover last weekend, and then he finished 17th in the All-Star race on Sunday.

Busch, who was preparing to race Sunday at the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, was testing in the Chevrolet racing simulator in Concord on Wednesday when he became unresponsive and was transported to a hospital in Charlotte, several people familiar with the situation told The Associated Press.

During the emergency call placed late that afternoon, an unidentified caller calmly told the dispatch: “I’ve got an individual that’s (got) shortness of breath, very hot, thinks he’s going to pass out, and is producing a little bit of blood, coughing up some blood.”

The caller said Busch was lying on the bathroom floor inside the complex and told dispatch “he is awake,” according to audio provided by the Cabarrus County Sheriff’s Office. The man then gave directions on where emergency responders should go and asked that they turn off any sirens upon arrival.

NASCAR driver Brad Keselowski said he knew Busch wasn’t feeling well recently.

“Yes, but I won’t go into any specifics," Keselowski said. “But then when he ran the Truck race last week, those (thoughts) were honestly kind of erased in my mind.”

Keselowski said running multiple races on the same weekend can be difficult on a driver's health — but most don't want to miss a race for fear of being replaced.

“There’s no shortage of drivers that would love to take my seat or anybody else’s seat if we weren’t feeling well, and I think every driver feels that pressure,” Keselowski said. “All athletes do. It’s not unique to NASCAR in that sense. We’re all thinking to ourselves, ‘I don’t wanna be replaced.’ ... So you try to power through it the best you can."

Busch won 234 races across NASCAR’s top three series over his two-decade career, more than any driver in history.

All 39 drivers in the field for Sunday’s race will race with a black No. 8 decal on their car to honor Busch.

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

FILE - Kyle Busch is introduced during the NASCAR All-Star auto race at Dover Motor Speedway, Sunday, May 17, 2026, in Dover, Del. (AP Photo/Derik Hamilton, File, File)

An in memoriam photo of former driver Kyle Busch is displayed on the video board of the backstretch at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Friday, May 22, 2026, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley)

FILE - Kyle Busch waits for the start of a NASCAR Xfinity Series auto race Saturday, June 19, 2021, in Lebanon, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)