The national final season is well and truly underway a lot earlier than normal, with the 2021 contest seeing a renewed excitement for Eurovision among a number of broadcasters and nations. With Israel already deep into the audition stages for The X Factor as they look to find the right star for Turin, a second country is now ready to embark on the long journey to hopeful Eurovision success in May – Estonia’s Eesti Laul is back!
This time around, Eesti Laul has gone bumper-sized – no less than 40 entries will compete across this year’s competition with ten songs to be presented as part of four quarter-final shows over the coming weekends. All this, and we haven’t even got to Festivali i Këngës yet!
Tonight, the first quarter-final kicks off in ERR’s TV studios in Tallinn, with ten acts performing their entries in the hopes of making it through to February’s traditional semi-finals; three acts will qualify purely on the will of Estonian televoters, with two more acts being decided by professional juries.
Tonight’s ten hopefuls include some very familiar faces to Eurovision and Eesti Laul fans;
- Boamadu – Mitte kauaks
- Evelin Samuel – Waterfall
- Fiona and Me – Feels Like This
- Jaagup Tuisk – Kui vaid
- Kéa – Everytime
- Little Mess – Hea päev
- Maian – Meeletu
- Peter Põder – Koos lõpuni
- Stig Rästa – Interstellar
- Traffic – Kaua veel
Jaagup Tuisk, Kéa and Traffic are all familiar with the Eesti Laul contest, having previously made multiple attempts between them to make it to Eurovision. Of course, one of Traffic’s former members Stig Rästa also returns, having previously represented Estonia in 2015 alongside Elina Born with “Goodbye to Yesterday”.
Among the songwriters, 2014 representative Tanja is a co-writer for Little Mess’ entry, with Karl Killing (an Eesti Laul 2021 performer) co-writing for Traffic and Estonia’s 2019 representative and former Melodifestivalen entrant Victor Crone helping out with Stig Rästa’s entry.
Tanel Padar, part of Estonia’s only victorious Eurovision act in 2001, will host this year’s competition alongside Eda-Ines Etti, who finished fourth for Estonia in Eurovision 2000. The show is set to begin at 21:35 local time (20:35 CET) and #YOU can watch the action unfold LIVE on ERR’s website HERE.
Estonia will be looking to make amends this year in Eurovision, after Uku Suviste’s “The Lucky One” failed to qualify in Rotterdam, finishing 13th in the semi-final.
What do #YOU hope to see from tonight’s maiden quarter-final in Estonia? Which acts are #YOU rooting for? Share your thoughts with us on our forum HERE, or join the discussion below in the comments and on social media!
