In February 1965, Tormis introduced one part of the 10-song cycle to his colleagues at a working meeting of the Estonian Composers’ Association. And around the same time, the performance of the new youth choir to the students of Tallinn’s 22nd Secondary School did not go unnoticed. More precisely, the concert on February 23 was a smaller rehearsal, but some parts of “Men’s Songs” were also on the program. The choir had only been together for a few months at that time.

A few days before the premiere of “Men's Songs” in the Estonia Concert Hall, Gustav Ernesaks explained to the readers of the newspaper Noorte Hääl why The Estonian Great Male Choir or RAM needed a youth choir and he spoke in a few words about the program of the debut concert. The maestro used expressions such as “a testing ground” and “a new generation of singers” and said that it would be a waste of time to wait for educational institutions to prepare new singers for RAM. “From here must spring singers, musical figures, music teachers and choir directors,” Ernesaks wrote.

Olev Oja was the most important man in the new choir, and it was he who had grabbed Veljo Tormis by the jacket button and urgently demanded a new piece for the beginning of the youth choir. Oja's original idea was that Tormis could undertake a setting of rhythmic American spirituals, which perhaps would not require much effort from him, but the composer had resolutely announced that this was not the way to go, that something Estonian had to be done.

Ernesaks described the result as "new, daring and fun" - an effective work that used "all sorts of folk tricks and mannerisms". This is exactly what young men in their twenties are capable of doing.

And at the end of his incendiary article, Song Father Ernesaks even humbly asked everyone to come to the new choir's concert on May 9 at the Estonia Concert Hall.

A choir of about 80 people took to the stage, with an average age of 21. Among the singers were both schoolchildren, young workers and university students. The conductor himself was not yet 30 years old. To ensure that the concert was a success, the choir, which was taking its first step, was supported by soloists from RAM in the interim. And the central event of the concert was, of course, Veljo Tormis’s “Meestelaulud”. It filled the second half, the texts of which had been adapted to make it more fluent by Paul-Eerik Rummo.

The review of the newspaper Kodumaa noted that the audience warmly received the new work, and Noorte Hääl added that the joy of playing music had a unique spring atmosphere. Reviewer Marika Oja, characterizing the main work of the concert, added that the performance of “Meestelaulud” was a celebration of our evergreen folk humor.

A little more than a year later, “Meestelaulud” came to the Vanemuine stage as a performance, and year after year it became increasingly clear that male choirs wanted to sing these songs, and some of them with special enthusiasm. As the decades passed, it could be stated that this is one of the most popular male choir works by Veljo Tormis.

60 years later, these songs are still bubbling with vitality.