Estonia: Eesti Laul to determine the country’s Eurovision 2020 entry
The Estonian national broadcaster ERR has revealed the timeline and terms of the next edition of Eesti Laul, the national selection format that will determine once again the country’s Eurovision act and entry.
After latest years satisfying results at the Eurovision Song Contest, EER will be sticking with the traditional national selection format of Eesti Laul. A total of 24 acts will compete in the national selection and battle fot the golden ticket that leads to Rotterdam next May.
With the Grand final set to take place on February 29th , the 24 acts will have to go through two semi final rounds scheduled for the 13th and 15th February. Six acts out of 12 semi finalist will qualify to the grand final from each semi final heat. The Grand final will see to rounds of voting with the final winner being determined in the second and Super final round.
Submission period
The Submission window will open on 1st September. Therefore, from tomorrow Sunday (1/9) and up to November 6th at 12:00 the interested acts will be able to send in their entries. The 24 acts that will selected to compete in Eesti Laul 2020 will be revealed by November 15 while the entries will go public no later than December 1.
Terms and Conditions
All entries that want to compete in the national selection must not have been released after September 1st 2019, so as to comply with the Eurovision regulations. Acts must be born before April 15 2004. Additionally, another significant term is that the Eesti Laul staging will not change on the Ahoy Rotterdam stage as long as it doesn’t conflict any Eurovision rules.
THE EUROVISION STORY SO FAR
Estonia joined the Eurovision family in 1994 . On their debut participation they were represented by Silvi Vrait, who finished 2nd last with only 2 points. Seven years later the country was crowned winner of Eurovision Song Contest 2001 for the first and only time until today. Tanel Padar, Dave Benton & 2XL, performed the song Everybody and against all odds achieved to bring the trophy from Copenhagen in Estonia.
However this success didn’t continue as Estonia failed to qualify for the final from 2004-2008. In 2009 after successive bad results led to the establishment of Eesti Laul, as the show through which the country has been selecting its Eurovision entries the last ten years, having seven times qualified to the final.
In 2019 with Swedish singer, Victor Crone won Eesti Laul 2019 and rerpesented Estonia with his song, “Storm”. The Estonian representative finished in 20th place in the final with 76 points, marking Estonia’s qualification to the final for a second year in a row. Lets remember Victor’s performance on Expo Tel Aviv’s stage:
