Kertu Mägar
Kertu Mägar is running an independent publishing company FAAR Music, which represents Baltic and Nordic songwriters/producers, helping them with all the aspects of their projects.
FAAR Music works globally and their roster includes many established and well-known Estonian pop music makers as well as new upcoming talent. At FAAR, Kertu takes care of international relations and partnerships, contracts & administration, and manages the creative department.
Prior to her role in FAAR Music, Kertu worked in the music industry in various roles, incl. PR & Marketing Manager for Dutch electronic label Future House Music, artist manager for electronic artists signed to her own management company and event producer of Estonia’s biggest young artists competition.
Kertu has a Bachelor’s Degree in Music & Choir Conducting and a Master’s Degree in Art Management.
Vallo Kikas
Vallo Kikas has produced, mixed and mastered over the years for a variety of award-winning Estonian artists such as Karl-Erik Taukar, Liis Lemsalu, Elina Born and nublu. This year, he was nominated in the mixing/mastering/recording category at the Estonian Music Industry Awards.
Vallo is part of electronic music duo ‘Kisma’, whose most popular song ‘Fingertips’ has over 11 million streams on Spotify and over 21 million views on Youtube. In 2019, Vallo co-wrote the topline for Syn Cole’s track ‘Discovery’, which was released by Martin Garrix’s record label STMPD RCRDS. In Spring 2021 he co-wrote and produced ‘Doomino’ by Liis Lemsalu and Stefan, which became number one played on Estonian radios for the whole summer.
Stig Rästa
Stig Rästa has been in the music industry for over 20 years, establishing him as one of the top songwriters in Estonia. He has his own solo project and is also a part of electronic music duo ‘Kisma.’ Their first single ‘We Are’ was released in 2017 by No Copyright Sounds and has been played over 7 million times on Spotify and Youtube.
In 2015, he represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest with his song ‘Goodbye to Yesterday’, which placed 7th in the final. The song has over 12 million streams on Spotify and won ‘Song of the Year’ award at Estonian Music Awards in 2016. Stig has written for many award-winning artists such as Victor Crone, Joakim Lundell, Elina Born, Traffic and Karl-Erik Taukar.
Stig co-wrote ‘Storm’ by Victor Crone, which represented Estonia in Eurovision in 2019 and kick-started Victor’s further career.The song was played over 15,000 times on Swedish radios. Stig was also the writer for ESC 2016 Estonian entry song ‘Play’ by Jüri Pootsmann.
Karl Killing
Karl Killing, at mere 22 years old, has immensely proven himself over the past few years in the Estonian music scene. He is actively working with many loved Estonian hip-hop and rap artists such as 5MIINUST, säm, Pluuto, nublu and villemdrillem.
Two years ago, Karl participated in the Eesti Laul contest (Estonia’s national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest) where he placed 7th with his song ‘Kiss Me’. His solo project kick-started in 2020 when he released his debut single ‘High Heels’, which came out with Canadian record label found/red. This year was massive for Karl as he signed to Warner Music Baltics, released a video single ‘powerless’ with them, and intends to release his first album in 2022. While his solo project is on the softer, pop side, for his producing, he definitely has a weakness for hip-hop.
Hugo Martin Maasikas
Hugo has a solo project Whogaux and is also part of two successful EDM projects WATEVA and Cartoon. Cartoon’s most successful track ‘On & On’ has 170M+ streams on Spotify and 400M+ on Youtube, making them an absolute flagship in Estonia’s electronic music scene.
Hugo has released music with many well established record labels such as Armada Music, Selected, NCS, Future House Music, Enhanced Music and Liquicity. Hugo with this talent and passion for sure has a lot to provide for the lovers of fine electronic music.
Gevin Niglas
Gevin Niglas is a producer for a number of different award-winning artists such as nublu (Estonian Male Artist of the Year 2019 and 2020) and 5MIINUST (Artist of the Year 2020). In 2021, nublu released his debut album ‘Café Kosmos’, where Gevin co-wrote/co-produced four songs. The album was very well received by both critics and Estonian radios. In 2020, they produced ‘paaristõuked’ by 5MIINUST together with Karl Killing and ‘niiea’ by Elina Born and Villemdrillem – both some of the most played songs on Estonian radio that year.
Gevin is also actively working with several new stars in Estonian music scene like Maian, Heleza and Anett Kulbin. In 2021, he started working on his solo project. “My solo project – I’d say it’s trap-rnb influenced pop. When I write or produce for others, I don’t have a specific favourite genre – everything that’s authentic is appealing to me,” Gevin says.
Kristine Kebbinau
Kristine Kebbinau has been active in the Estonian music industry for ten years, taking on roles from label management, marketing & PR to organizing festivals and events. She was the organizer of the Estonian Music Industry Awards (2021) and developed the youth music scene via Estonian Youth Band Award (Noortebändi konkurss). Kristine has also been involved with festivals like Tallinn Music Week, Black Nights Film Festival (seminars Music Meets Film) and Intsikurmu Festival, where she was the CEO.
Since Kristine has taken on many different roles in the industry – being an artist, working with artists, organizing events and done strategical marketing and PR, she really understands the different parts of the sector. Nowadays Kristine mainly focuses on bringing the Baltic Music Markets together to broaden the opportunities for the talents of the region.
Brynja Mary
When she was 13, Brynja was in a Danish tv show called “En sang Fra hjertet” and recorded a song with one of Denmark’s biggest producers. At 14 she signed her first publishing deal. Then when she just turned 16 she competed in the Icelandic national final for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 with an original song that she had written at the age of 14. She’s been working with people all over the world in Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Los Angeles, London, Canada, Spain and the Netherlands.
In February 2021, Brynja signed a record deal with Universal Music Group as a duo with her sister (Sara Victoria) called EYJAA. Their first single, Don’t Forget About Me, charted as number 3 on Denmarks’ Airplay Chart Top 100 for over 16 weeks and it became the song of the week in Denmark alongside their second single, The Wrecking Crew, that received the 4th place on the Airplay Chart Top 100. Their 3rd single, Ultraviolet, also did very well and ended up getting the 3rd place on the Icelandic radio for Most Popular Played Songs of the Month in April 2022.
Brynja has always loved performing and it’s one of her favorite things to do besides writing. She’s performed a lot in LA and Spain and on live television for the Eurovision Song Contest national final. Next to that, she performed support shows as her duo EYJAA and a few festivals in the summer of 2022. She also studied at the Wisseloord Academy from 2020 – 2021 and after that she’s been studying professional dance and performing in Copenhagen and Los Angeles.
