The crunch time will come in Estonia in two weeks, where the 30-year-old hopes to achieve the qualifying standard of 6, 109 points for August's World Championships.

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Compared with Estonians brought up in Estonia, Mr Ilves was lucky: his parents managed to flee, first to Sweden, where he was born in 1953, then on to the United States, where he grew up.

ECONOMIST: Toomas Ilves, Estonia’s American-European | The

Meanwhile, in between Paris and Estonia, the father of soul has nipped back for a quick concert in the US, in where else of course but...

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