Background and career
Tomas Tammemets (born 18 November 1991), known professionally as Tommy Cash (stylised as TOMM¥ €A$H), is an Estonian rapper, singer, dancer, and visual artist. He usually performs in English with a distinct non-native accent, and is known for sexually explicit lyrical themes and provocative music videos. He represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 with the song "Espresso Macchiato", where he finished in third place overall with 356 points.
Early life and education Tammemets was born and raised in Estonia, in Kopli, a subdistrict of Tallinn, the capital. In interviews, Tammemets mentioned his mixed immigrant "Ukrainian-Kazakh-Russian-Estonian" ancestry. He described in detail his mixed roots from his grandparents: Estonian, Ukrainian, Russian, and Kazakh. Tammemets went to Estonian school and he speaks Estonian as one of his mother languages. In one of his early interviews, he said that "not many even know I can speak Russian", that his parents talked to each other in Russian at home, and that he comes from the Kopli ghetto. In childhood, Tammemets recounted running away from the police many times, and (his parents) then having to pay a fine for painting illegal graffiti. He said that his marijuana use led him to be "ejected" from schooling. Although his family spoke only Russian at home, he also learned the Estonian language early on in the local preschool, primary school and basic school.
He never graduated from upper secondary school, despite sitting final exams, and later took up painting and dancing instead of formal education.
2012–2015: First releases In 2012, Tammemets released his first songs on SoundCloud including "Dusk", "Oldkool", and "Toxic". Using the stylised pseudonym TOMM¥ €A$H, his first live performance took place at Cafe Peterson in Tallinn, on 7 December 2012. In 2013, he released the soundtracks "Deep Purp" and "Oldkool" (which was used in video advertisements shown at the ERKI Fashion Show) and he performed at the Patarei Kultuuritolm festival in Tallinn. The weekly Eesti Ekspress remarked, "with his nasal voice and androgynous quacking he looked more like a cartoon character than the serious self-assertive macho rapper we are used to". During this year, he also released his first music video, "Guez Whoz Bak", directed by Janar Aronija. "Guez Whoz Bak" later received the Hit of the Year 2013 (R2 Aastahitt 2013) award from Estonian radio station Raadio 2. Two of Tommy Cash's collaborations with Justicious and Ba., "MTWAH" and "Kongo Jungle" with TV Maskava, were released as part of the Baltic Trail Compilation (on vinyl).
How Tommy Cash makes money
He usually performs in English with a distinct non-native accent, and is known for sexually explicit lyrical themes and provocative music videos.
