Eesti Laul ('Estonian Song' or 'The Song of Estonia') is the national selection process in Estonia for the Eurovision Song Contest. The contest was introduced in 2009, replacing the former Eurolaul festival, used since Estonia's first participation in Eurovision in 1993.
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 ten selected songs in the contest are shown to the Estonian public through a number of special shows. The final winner is selected through two rounds of voting: the first round selects the top two songs, selected through both jury and televoting; the second round selects the winner from the two songs through 100% televotiong.
The first winner of Eesti Laul was Urban Symphony with the song "Rändajad", beating the televoting favourite Laura in the first round.[2] At Eurovision, the group changed Estonia's previous fortunes at Eurovision, qualifying to the final, and placing 6th in the final with 129 points.
| Year | Song | Translation | Artist | Songwriter(s) | Position in ESC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | "Rändajad" | Nomads | Urban Symphony | Sven Lõhmus | 6th |
| 2010 | "Siren" | – | Malcolm Lincoln | Robin Juhkental | Semi-final 14th |
| 2011 | "Rockefeller Street" | – | Getter Jaani | Sven Lõhmus | 24th |
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