Eesti Laul

Eesti Laul (English: 'Estonian Song' or 'The Song of Estonia') is an annual music competition organised by Estonian public broadcaster Eesti Rahvusringhääling (ERR). It determines the country's representative 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.

Eesti Laul
(The Estonian Song)
GenrePop music, etc.
Location(s)Estonia
Years active2009–present
Founded byEesti Rahvusringhääling (ERR)
WebsiteERR official site

History

The contest was introduced by ERR, the organisers of the contest, with a different philosophy on the contest used previously. 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.[1]

The festival has produced four 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. The introduction of a grand final hosted in Saku Suurhall has attracted substantial tourism to the city. 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.[2]

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.[3]

Format

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.

Rules

Most of 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.[4] 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 Alika with the song "Bridges".

Year Song Language Artist Songwriter(s) At Eurovision
Final Points Semi Points
2009 "Rändajad" Estonian Urban Symphony Sven Lõhmus 6 129 3 115
2010 "Siren" English Malcolm Lincoln Robin Juhkental Failed to qualify 14 39
2011 "Rockefeller Street" English Getter Jaani Sven Lõhmus 24 44 9 60
2012 "Kuula" Estonian Ott Lepland Ott Lepland, Aapo Ilves 6 120 4 100
2013 "Et uus saaks alguse" Estonian Birgit Õigemeel Mihkel Mattisen, Silvia Soro 20 19 10 52
2014 "Amazing" English Tanja Timo Vendt, Tatjana Mihhailova Failed to qualify 12 36
2015 "Goodbye to Yesterday" English Elina Born & Stig Rästa Stig Rästa 7 106 3 105
2016 "Play" English Jüri Pootsmann Fred Krieger, Stig Rästa, Vallo Kikas Failed to qualify 18 24
2017 "Verona" English Koit Toome & Laura Sven Lõhmus 14 85
2018 "La forza" Italian Elina Nechayeva Mihkel Mattisen, Timo Vendt, Ksenia Kuchukova, Elina Nechayeva 8 245 5 201
2019 "Storm" English Victor Crone Stig Rästa, Vallo Kikas, Victor Crone, Fred Krieger, Sebastian Lestapier 20 76 4 198
2020 "What Love Is" English Uku Suviste Uku Suviste, Sharon Vaughn Contest cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic
2021 "The Lucky One" English Uku Suviste Uku Suviste, Sharon Vaughn Failed to qualify 13 58
2022 "Hope" English Stefan Stefan Airapetjan, Karl-Ander Reismann 13 141 5 209
2023 "Bridges" English Alika Alika Milova, Wouter Hardy, Nina Sampermans 8 168 10 74

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.

Year Quarter-final presenter(s) Semi-final presenter(s) Final presenter(s)
2009 No quarter-finals No semi-finals Henry Kõrvits, Robert Kõrvits
2010 Ott Sepp, Märt Avandi
2011 Piret Järvis, Lenna Kuurmaa Piret Järvis, Lenna Kuurmaa, Ott Sepp
2012 Piret Järvis Tiit Sukk, Taavi Teplenkov
2013 Anu Välba, Marko Reikop
2014 Helen Sürje, Henrik Kalmet Marko Reikop, Henrik Kalmet
2015 Helen Sürje, Indrek Vaheoja
2016 Henry Kõrvits, Maris Kõrvits Ott Sepp, Märt Avandi
2017 Elina Nechayeva, Marko Reikop
2018 Kristel Aaslaid, Martin Veisman Ott Sepp, Meelis Kubo
2019 Piret Krumm, Ott Sepp Piret Krumm, Karl-Erik Taukar
2020 Karl-Erik Taukar, Tõnis Niinemets
2021 Grete Kuld, Tõnis Niinemets
2022 Tanel Padar and Eda-Ines Etti, Uku Suviste and Tanja, Ott Lepland and Laura, Jüri Pootsmann and Getter Jaani Maarja-Liis Ilus, Priit Log Priit Loog and Maarja-Liis Ilus
2023 No quarter-finals Grete Kuld, Tõnis Niinemets


See also

References
  1. Floras, Stella (14 October 2008). "Estonia: New name, new format, new dynamics". ESCToday. Archived from the original on 15 October 2008. Retrieved 13 June 2009.
  2. Granger, Anthony (5 September 2018). "Estonia: 24 Acts To Compete in Expanded Eesti Laul Selection". Eurovoix. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
  3. Kaldoja, Kerttu (5 July 2023). "Eesti Laul läbib uuenduskuuri" [Eesti Laul is undergoing a renewal]. menu.err.ee (in Estonian). ERR. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  4. Floras, Stella (7 March 2009). "Tonight: Estonia selects for Eurovision". ESCToday. Archived from the original on 10 March 2009. Retrieved 13 June 2009.

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