Eesti Laul () is an annual music competition organised by Estonian public broadcaster (ERR). It determines for the Eurovision Song Contest, and has been staged every year since 2009. Eesti Laul was introduced in 2009, replacing the former Eurolaul festival which had been used since Estonia's first Eurovision participation in 1993. It is one of the most popular television programmes in Estonia; it is also broadcast on radio and the Internet. In 2012, the semi-finals averaged 199,000 viewers, and over an estimated 296,000 viewers watched the final.
History
The contest was introduced by ERR with a new philosophy, and its first producers were Heidy Purga and Mart Normet. Eesti Laul was introduced to produce an Estonian contest, with Estonian musical tastes being presented to a European audience. The contest is also an open one, with all information of the songs being revealed in the selection process.
The festival has produced six top-ten placings for Estonia at the contest. The winner of the Eesti Laul has been chosen by televoting and panels of jurors since its inception. The competition makes a considerable impact on music charts in Estonia and neighbouring countries.
The introduction of semifinals in 2011 raised the potential number of contestants from ten to twenty. The festival is very well known for its alternative rock and electro-pop songs which make the contest more diverse than other Eurovision national finals, so it is sometimes referred to as Alternative Melodifestivalen by the media and the Eurovision fans. In 2016, the grand final was held for the first time at Estonia’s largest concert hall, Saku Suurhall, which also hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in 2002. According to producer Mart Normet, Eesti Laul had grown to become the third-largest national selection for Eurovision in Europe, following Sweden and Norway, with 5,000 people attending the final.
Announced in September 2018, the then new lead producer Tomi Rahula made various changes to the 2019 edition contest including 12 entries in the final, 24 entries overall and broadcasting the semi-finals live from cities outside of Tallinn. Rahula also introduced an entry fee for interested artists and composers; the fee was halved for entrants wishing to perform in the Estonian language.
In July 2023, the broadcaster announced that Rahula would step down from his position and that changes would be made to the format of the next contest.
Format and rules The twenty selected songs in the contest are shown to the Estonian public through two semi-finals. From each semi-final, five acts get through to the final show. The winner is selected through two rounds of voting: the first round selects top three songs, selected through both jury and televoting; the second round selects the winner from the three songs through 100% televoting.
Most of the rules are dictated by those of the Eurovision Song Contest. However, regulations have been introduced by the Estonian broadcaster. The competition's official rules are released by ERR early in preparation for each year's Eesti Laul, to ensure any changes are noted by songwriters and performers.
There is a limit of six people on stage for each performance. All vocals had to be completely live; human voices are not allowed on backing tracks. Entries usually are not publicly broadcast until the songs are previewed on television. Until 2017, competing songs were only permitted if they were written by all-Estonian team. Since 2017, foreign collaborations were allowed as long as 50% of the song authors were Estonians. Artists and songwriters were allowed to submit up to three songs each with an exception to this rule for songwriters who participated in songwriting camps organised by the Estonian Song Academy.
Winners The first winner of Eesti Laul was Urban Symphony with the song "Rändajad", beating the televoting favourite Laura in the first round. At Eurovision, the group changed Estonia's fortunes at the contest, qualifying for the final (third in the semi-final, with 115 points), and placing sixth in the final with 129 points.
The most recent winner of the contest was Vanilla Ninja with the song "Too Epic to Be True".
YearSongLanguageArtistSongwriter(s)At EurovisionFinalPointsSemiPoints 2009 "Rändajad"Estonian Urban Symphony Sven Lõhmus61293115 2010 "Siren"English Malcolm Lincoln Robin Juhkental colspan="2" 1439 2011 "Rockefeller Street"English Getter Jaani Sven Lõhmus2444960 2012 "Kuula"Estonian Ott Lepland Ott Lepland, Aapo Ilves61204100 2013 "Et uus saaks alguse"Estonian Birgit Õigemeel Mihkel Mattisen, Silvia Soro20191052 2014 "Amazing"English Tanja Timo Vendt, Tatjana Mihhailova colspan="2" 1236 2015 "Goodbye to Yesterday"English Elina Born and Stig Rästa Stig Rästa71063105 2016 "Play"English Jüri Pootsmann Fred Krieger, Stig Rästa, Vallo Kikas rowspan="2" colspan="2" 1824 2017 "Verona"English Koit Toome and Laura Sven Lõhmus1485 2018"La forza"ItalianElina Nechayeva Mihkel Mattisen, Timo Vendt, Ksenia Kuchukova, Elina Nechayeva82455201 2019 "Storm"English Victor Crone Stig Rästa, Vallo Kikas, Victor Crone, Fred Krieger, Sebastian Lestapier20764198 2020"What Love Is"EnglishUku Suviste Uku Suviste, Sharon Vaughn colspan="4" 2021"The Lucky One"EnglishUku Suviste Uku Suviste, Sharon Vaughn colspan="2" 1358 2022"Hope"EnglishStefan Stefan Airapetjan, Karl-Ander Reismann131415209 2023"Bridges"EnglishAlika Alika Milova, Wouter Hardy, Nina Sampermans81681074 2024"(Nendest) narkootikumidest ei tea me (küll) midagi"Estonian5miinust and Puuluup Kim Wennerström, Kohver, Lancelot, Marko Veisson, Päevakoer, Põhja Korea, Ramo Teder2037679 2025""Italian, EnglishTommy Cash Tomas Tammemets, Johannes Naukkarinen33565113 2026"Too Epic to Be True"EnglishVanilla Ninja Sven Lõhmus colspan="2" 1179
Editions overview Color key
Year Premiere Final Contestants Episodes Winner Runner-up Third place 2009 7 March 2009 10 1 Urban Symphony"" Traffic"" Laura"Destiny" 2010 12 March 2010 10 1 Malcolm Lincoln and Manpower 4"Siren" Lenna Kuurmaa"Rapunzel" Violina Rolf Junior"" 2011 12 February 2011 26 February 2011 19 3 Getter Jaani"Rockefeller Street" Outloudz"I Wanna Meet Bob Dylan" Orelipoiss"" 2012 18 February 2012 3 March 2012 20 3 Ott Lepland"" Lenna Kuurmaa"" Tenfold Rabbit"Oblivion" 2013 16 February 2013 2 March 2013 20 3 Birgit"" Grete Paia"" Winny Puhh"" 2014 14 February 2014 1 March 2014 20 3 Tanja"Amazing" Super Hot Cosmos Blues Band"Maybe-Maybe" Traffic"Für Elise" 2015 7 February 2015 21 February 2015 20 3 Elina Born and Stig Rästa"Goodbye to Yesterday" Daniel Levi"Burning Lights" Elisa Kolk"Superlove" 2016 13 February 2016 5 March 2016 20 3 Jüri Pootsmann"Play" Laura"Supersonic" Cartoon Kristel Aaslaid"Immortality" 2017 11 February 2017 4 March 2017 20 3 Koit Toome and Laura"Verona" Kerli"Spirit Animal" Rasmus Rändvee"This Love" 2018 10 February 2018 3 March 2018 20 3 Elina Nechayeva"" Stig Rästa"Home" Vajé"Laura (Walk with Me)" 2019 31 January 2019 16 February 2019 24 3 Victor Crone"Storm" Uku Suviste"Pretty Little Liar" Stefan"Without You" 2020 13 February 2020 29 February 2020 24 3 Uku Suviste"What Love Is" Jaagup Tuisk"Beautiful Lie" Anett and Fredi"Write About Me" 2021 18 February 2021 6 March 2021 24 3 Uku Suviste"The Lucky One" Sissi"Time" Jüri Pootsmann"" 2022 20 November 2021 12 February 2022 40 7 Stefan"Hope" Minimal Wind Elisabeth Tiffany"What to Make of This" Elysa"Fire" 2023 12 January 2023 11 February 2023 20 3 Alika"Bridges" Ollie"Venom" Bedwetters"Monsters" 2024 20 January 2024 17 February 2024 20 2 5miinust and Puuluup"" Ollie"My Friend" Nele-Liis Vaiksoo"" 2025 15 February 2025 16 1 Tommy Cash"" Andrei Zevakin Karita"" An-Marlen"" 2026 14 February 2026 12 1 Vanilla Ninja"Too Epic to Be True" Noëp"Days Like This" Ollie"Slave"
Presenters This list includes those who have presented Eesti Laul. In 2009, there were two presenters for the first time. Since the introduction of semi-finals, various people have presented the shows.
YearQuarter-final presenter(s)Semi-final presenter(s)Final presenter(s) 2009rowspan="13" rowspan="2" Henry Kõrvits, Robert Kõrvits 2010Ott Sepp, Märt Avandi 2011Piret Järvis, Lenna KuurmaaPiret Järvis, Lenna Kuurmaa, Ott Sepp 2012Piret JärvisTiit Sukk, Taavi Teplenkov 2013Anu Välba, Marko Reikop 2014Helen Sürje, Henrik KalmetMarko Reikop, Henrik Kalmet 2015Helen Sürje, Indrek Vaheoja 2016Henry Kõrvits, Maris KõrvitsOtt Sepp, Märt Avandi 2017Elina Nechayeva, Marko Reikop 2018Kristel Aaslaid, Martin VeismanOtt Sepp, Meelis Kubo 2019Piret Krumm, Ott SeppPiret Krumm, Karl-Erik Taukar 2020Karl-Erik Taukar, Tõnis Niinemets 2021Grete Kuld, Tõnis Niinemets 2022Tanel Padar and Eda-Ines Etti, Uku Suviste and Tanja, Ott Lepland and Laura, Jüri Pootsmann and Getter JaaniMaarja-Liis Ilus, Priit Log Priit Loog and Maarja-Liis Ilus 2023rowspan="4" Grete Kuld, Tõnis Niinemets 2024 2025rowspan="2" Eda-Ines Etti and Karl Kivastik 2026 Karl Kivastik and Karl-Erik Taukar
See also List of historic rock festivals Melodi Grand Prix Dansk Melodi Grand Prix Melodifestivalen Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest Eurolaul
References
Notes
External links
et:Eesti Laul