Tonight ERR the national broadcaster of Estonia held their national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2022. Overall ten acts took part in the live Grand Final. After two rounds of voting STEFAN and his Country fusion entry, ‘Hope’ won Eesti Laul 2022 and will represent the Baltic nation in Turin, Italy this May.
Eesti Laul 2022 – Grand Final
Last year ERR announced an expanded format of selection show, Eesti Laul 2022 which included a quarter-final stage. After going through over 200 submissions, 40 songs took part in this years’ national final. Over the last few months we have seen four Quarter-Finals and two Semi-Finals, all behind closed doors. Tonight the Grand Final took place in the Saku Suurhall, with a live audience of 3000 spectators. Our hosts, Maarja-Liis Ilus, Priit Loog and Jüri Pootsmann announced the results during the show. In the first round, we saw the full jury votes before the three super-finalists were announced. Only the bottom six in the televoting was announced. The jury votes for the first round was as follows:
| Position | Artist | Song | Votes | Points |
| 1 | Minimal Wind ft. Elisabeth Tiffany | “What to Make of This” | 101 | 12 |
| 2 | STEFAN | “Hope” | 85 | 10 |
| 3 | Anna Sahlene | “Champion” | 69 | 8 |
| 4 | ELYSA | “Fire” | 66 | 7 |
| 5 | Ott Lepland | “Aovalguses” | 62 | 6 |
| 6 | Black Velvet | “Sandra” | 56 | 5 |
| 7 | Andrei Zevakin ft. Grete Paia | “Mis nüüd saab” | 55 | 4 |
| 8 | Stig Rästa | “Interstellar” | 53 | 3 |
| 9 | Jaagup | “Kui vaid” | 48 | 2 |
| 10 | Elina Nechayeva | “Remedy” | 43 | 1 |
During the first round of voting three Super-Finalists were chosen by a combination of 50% international jury voting and 50% public voting. These three Super-Finalists were ELYSA, Minimal Wind ft. Elisabeth Tiffany and STEFAN.
| Position | Artist | Song |
| 1 | STEFAN | “Hope” |
| 2 | Minimal Wind ft. Elisabeth Tiffany | “What to Make of This” |
| 3 | ELYSA | “Fire” |
Overall the winner of Eesti Laul 2022 was STEFAN and his song ‘Hope’. He will represent Estonia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 this May in Turin, Italy.
Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest
The Baltic country made their Eurovision Song Contest debut in 1994, with Silvi Vrait and her song ‘Nagu merelaine’. Since then, Estonia has participated at the Eurovision Song Contest 26 times, reaching the grand final 16 times. Back in 2001 Estonia achieved their first and to date, only victory in the contest with ‘Everybody‘, performed by Tanel Padar, Dave Benton & 2XL.
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. Unfortunately, the EBU announced the cancellation of the contest, 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. Performing 2nd in semi-final two, he finished 13th with 58 points.
Was STEFAN your winner of Eesti Laul 2022? 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!
