Earlier this year Estonian broadcaster ERR announced their participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, taking place in Turin, Italy. Following this, they later revealed their intention to expand the format of selection show, Eesti Laul 2022 to include a quarter-final stage. After surprises already in Quarter-Final 1 and Quarter-Final 2, tonight during Ringvaade, ERR has revealed the next 10 acts that will take part in Quarter-Final 3 on December 4.
Eesti Laul 2022 Quarter-Final 3 line-up
Tonight during the Estonian TV show, Ringvaade, ERR announced the next ten acts taking part in Eesti Laul 2022. Below are the third Quarter-Finalists.
- Alabama Watchdog – ‘Move On’ (Ken Einberg, Taaniel Pogga, Sven Seinpere)
- Anna Sahlene – ‘Champion’ (Anna Sahlene, Nicklas Eklund, Dagmar Oja, Kaire Vilgats)
- deLULU – ‘Music Saved My Soul’ (Taavi Paomets, Mairo Marjamaa, Inga Tislar)
- Elina Nechayeva – ‘Remedy’ (Sven Lõhmus)
- Goodreason – ‘Three Days Ago’ (Hele-Mai Mängel)
- Lauri Pihlap – ‘Take Me Home’ (Lauri Pihlap)
- Levvis – ‘Let’s Talk About’ (Aleksei Baruzdin)
- Merilin Mälk – ‘Little Girl’ (Karl-Ander Reismann)
- Shira – ‘Under Water’ (Marika Rodionova, Kristi Raias, Johannes Laas)
- STEFAN – ‘Hope’ (Stefan Airapetjan, Karl-Ander Reismann)
Among the line up includes – Eurovision 2001 winner, Lauri Pihlap as part of 2XL, Eurovision 2002 artist, Anna Sahlene and 2018 artist, Elina Nechayeva. As well as returns for former Eesti Laul participants – Alabama Watchdog (2021), deLULU (INGA 2019) Lauri Pihlap (2009), Merilin Mälk (2020), Shira (2020) and STEFAN (2019, 2020). Meanwhile on the songwriting credits, includes Malta’s 2021 ‘Je Me Casse’ writer, Nicklas Eklund and Sven Lõhmus who has written the 2005, 2009, 2011 and 2017 Eurovision entries for Estonia.
Already into the Semi-Finals are the following ten acts, including former representatives, Evelin Samuel (1999) and Stig Rästa (2015).
- Boamadu – ‘Mitte Kauaks’
- Evelin Samuel – ‘Waterfall’
- Jaagup Tuisk – ‘Kui vaid’
- Maian – ‘Meeletu’
- Stig Rästa – ‘Interstellar’
- Kaia-Liisa Kesler – ‘Vaikus’
- Helen – ‘Vaata minu poole’
- Jyrise – ‘Plaksuta’
- Andrei Zevakin ft. Grete Paia – ‘Mis nüüd saab’
- Triin Niitoja ja Frants Tikerpuu – ‘Laululind’
New Eesti Laul format
This year it is all change for the Estonian national final, Eesti Laul. In order to give more prominence to Estonian language entries, as well as English ones, it was revealed in September that the selection would be expanded to 40 entries across four Quarter-Finals. Every Saturday, during the quarter-finals, five songs in each show will advance to the Semi-Finals. From a combination of three songs decided by public voting and two songs selected by the national jury. However there will be no live performances of the songs. Only music videos for each song will be shown.
Next February the two Semi-Finals will take place with 10 acts each. From there five songs in each Semi-Final will progress to the Final. Both semi-finals will have two rounds – winners of the first round will be decided by the jury vote and public votes, and winners of the second round will be decided by public voting only.
The Grand Final of Eesti Laul 2022 will take place in the Saku Suurhall on February 12, (5pm GMT, 6pm CET, 7pm EET and 4am AEDT). The winner will be decided with two rounds of voting. Firstly, a combined 50/50 jury and public vote to determine the top 3 advancing to the Super-Final. During the super-final, public voting alone will pick the winner to represent Estonia in Turin next May.
Quarter-Final 3 hosts
Each week familiar Eurovision names in the Estonian industry are turning their hand from performing to hosting. Already we have seen previous participants, Tanel Padar, Ines, Uku Suviste and Tanja take up hosting duties. This week it is the turn of Ott Lepland and Laura Põldvere. Back in 2012, Ott Lepland made us all listen to his gentle Estonian ballad ‘Kuula‘, which remains Estonia’s best result in the contest over the last decade, achieving 6th place. Meanwhile co-host Laura Põldvere is a national final veteran, having competed on six previous occasions, as well as participating in the Finnish selection, UMK 2021 earlier this year. From those participations, Laura has represented Estonia twice. Firstly as part of Suntribe in 2005 with ‘Let’s Get Loud‘ and once more in 2017 with Koit Toome and their duet, ‘Verona’.
Broadcast schedule for Eesti Laul 2022
Below the dates of all the selection shows on ETV are as follows:
- First Quarter-Final – November 20
- Second Quarter-Final – November 27
- Third Quarter-Final – December 4
- Fourth Quarter-Final – December 11
- First Semi-Final – February 3
- Second Semi-Final – February 5
- Grand Final – February 12
The Quarter-Finals will air at 7:35pm GMT, 8:35pm CET, 9:35pm EET and 6:35am AEDT on ETV, which can be viewed here. Furthermore ERR are planning an additional show called ‘Eesti Laulu’, featuring performances from the super finalists. As of yet there is no date for this show, but it will likely take place between April and May.
Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest
The Baltic country made their Eurovision Song Contest debut in 1994, with Silvi Vrait and ‘Nagu merelaine’. Since then, Estonia has participated at the Eurovision Song Contest 26 times, reaching the grand final 16 times. However it was in 2001 that Estonia achieved their first and to date, only victory in the contest with ‘Everybody‘, performed by Tanel Padar, Dave Benton & 2XL.
Back in 2020, Estonia selected Uku Suviste to represent Estonia with, ‘What Love Is’ which was written by Uku, alongside Sharon Vaughn and produced by Dimitris Kontopoulos, who of course is from the famed Eurovision ‘Dream Team’. Unfortunately, the contest was cancelled, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rather than re-select Uku internally, they instead gave him an invitation to compete in Eesti Laul 2021, which he accepted. In a field of 24 acts, Uku won Eesti Laul for the second year in a row with ‘The Lucky One‘. However, this success failed to translate in Rotterdam. During the contest he performed 2nd in semi-final two, where he finished 13th with 58 points.
Which act in the third Quarter-Final of Eesti Laul 2022 are you looking forward to? Let us know! Be sure to stay updated by following @ESCXTRA on Twitter, @escxtra on Instagram and liking our Facebook page for the latest updates! Also, be sure to follow us on Spotify for the latest music from your favourite Eurovision acts. As well as YouTube to see our reactions to the news in the run up to the 2022 contest in Turin!
