# Eesti Laul

Eesti Laul (transl. Estonian song) is an annual music competition organised by Estonian public broadcaster Eesti Rahvusringhääling (ERR). It determines its entry 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 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. 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 Tommy Cash with the song "Espresso macchiato".
| Year | Song | Language | Artist | Songwriter(s) | At Eurovision | At Eurovision | At Eurovision | At Eurovision |
| Year | Song | Language | Artist | Songwriter(s) | 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 | 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 | Failed to qualify | 12 | 36 |
| 2015 | "Goodbye to Yesterday" | English | Elina Born and Stig Rästa | Stig Rästa | 7 | 106 | 3 | 105 |
| 2016 | "Play" | English | Jüri Pootsmann | Fred Krieger, Stig Rästa, Vallo Kikas | Failed to qualify | Failed to qualify | 18 | 24 |
| 2017 | "Verona" | English | Koit Toome and Laura | Sven Lõhmus | Failed to qualify | Failed to qualify | 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 | Contest cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic | Contest cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic | Contest cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic |
| 2021 | "The Lucky One" | English | Uku Suviste | Uku Suviste, Sharon Vaughn | Failed to qualify | 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 |
| 2024 | "(Nendest) narkootikumidest ei tea me (küll) midagi" | Estonian | 5miinust and Puuluup | Kim Wennerström, Kohver, Lancelot, Marko Veisson, Päevakoer, Põhja Korea, Ramo Teder | 20 | 37 | 6 | 79 |
| 2025 | "Espresso macchiato" | Italian, English | Tommy Cash | Tomas Tammemets, Johannes Naukkarinen | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD |

## 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 | No quarter-finals | No semi-finals | Ott Sepp, Märt Avandi |
| 2011 | No quarter-finals | Piret Järvis, Lenna Kuurmaa | Piret Järvis, Lenna Kuurmaa, Ott Sepp |
| 2012 | No quarter-finals | Piret Järvis | Tiit Sukk, Taavi Teplenkov |
| 2013 | No quarter-finals | Anu Välba, Marko Reikop | Anu Välba, Marko Reikop |
| 2014 | No quarter-finals | Helen Sürje, Henrik Kalmet | Marko Reikop, Henrik Kalmet |
| 2015 | No quarter-finals | Helen Sürje, Indrek Vaheoja | Marko Reikop, Henrik Kalmet |
| 2016 | No quarter-finals | Henry Kõrvits, Maris Kõrvits | Ott Sepp, Märt Avandi |
| 2017 | No quarter-finals | Elina Nechayeva, Marko Reikop | Ott Sepp, Märt Avandi |
| 2018 | No quarter-finals | Kristel Aaslaid, Martin Veisman | Ott Sepp, Meelis Kubo |
| 2019 | No quarter-finals | Piret Krumm, Ott Sepp | Piret Krumm, Karl-Erik Taukar |
| 2020 | No quarter-finals | Karl-Erik Taukar, Tõnis Niinemets | Karl-Erik Taukar, Tõnis Niinemets |
| 2021 | No quarter-finals | Grete Kuld, Tõnis Niinemets | 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 | Grete Kuld, Tõnis Niinemets |
| 2024 | No quarter-finals | Grete Kuld, Tõnis Niinemets | Grete Kuld, Tõnis Niinemets |
| 2025 | No quarter-finals | No semi-finals | Eda-Ines Etti and Karl Kivastik |