Tonight Estonian Television (ETV) broadcast the second half of their Eesti Laul 2017 competition. Five acts proceed to the March 4th final, with dreams of representing Estonia at Eurovision in Kiev.

Estonia will appear in the second half of the second semi final on May 11th 2017.

The Songs

Koit Toome & Laura – Verona

Koit , the lad of the sea returns, with last years runner up, Laura and they have a really good pop song. Laura starts out in silhouette in white, when Koit comes in, he is surrounded by black. There is a good build to this song, it is surely amongst the front runners this year.

Kerli – Spirit Animal

A violin and drummer introduce this Toyah sound-a-like number. Kerli stands in silver, in a circle surrounded by four white clothed male dancers. The circle spins and when Kerli gets dizzy, she ends up writhing on the floor with her dancers. They get up and bang on four big kettle drum which surround the stage. Good catchy song.

Daniel Levi – All I Need  

Not a solo singer, but a six piece, three male, three female group. This is a nice little pop song, almost a bunch of students getting together to see what they can come up with. The result is another song that could see itself heading for the final. The stage was totally overpowered by blue laser lights here.

Liis Lemsalu – Keep Running  

Here’s the Zara Larsson wanna be and she might just manage to achieve her goals. Starting out with a casual run through of a verse, as expected it jumps into a dance type chorus. The music plays along exactly on the notes, if that makes sense, one note per word. By the second chorus everyone’s dancing along. Liis wore a shiny silver dress.

Close To Infinity feat. Ian Karell – Sounds Like Home  

With a name like Close To Infinity this should be a big disco dance number, but its an old eighties throwback like the Cure or Dexys Midnight Runners. The backing singer needs a little bit more practice but this is another good attempt. In fact by the end, it’s not that far away from the Twenty One Pilots sound.

Antsud – Vihm

An old accordion starts the proceedings and ancient Estonia returns. Similar to Belgium’s made up Sanomi song, this may as well be in a made up language too. Dum dum de dum da. However for those who like their songs in a folk style, this is made for you. Great for jumping around outside in mud at those summer folk festivals. Many traditional instruments were on display.

Almost Natural – Electric

Yet another good song. This is a mellow little number with a good steady rhythm all the way through. Based mostly on a gentle electronic beat, it has a late night feel, just right for listening to in the dark. Many possible entries for Estonia this year, let’s see where the votes go.

Rasmus Rändvee – This Love

This is a good bouncy raucous number, something like Ed Sheeran or Tom Odell would do. Backed by a guitarist and a drummer, Rasmus’s voice is slightly distorted in places. This will probably qualify. It has that modern day sound that would do well in the charts, and is sure to be a fan favourite.

Liis Lemsalu – Keep Running  

Here’s the Zara Larsson wanna be and she might just manage. Starting out with a casual run through of a verse, as expected it jumps into a dance type chorus. The music plays along exactly on the notes, if that makes sense, one note per word. By the second chorus everyone’s dancing along.

Alvistar Funk Association – Make Love, Not War 

The award for craziest Estonian entry this year, goes to this gem. A run through the countries of Europe, with tongue firmly in cheek. Highlights are Give A Ti Holland and the shout outs to Georgia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan. By the time they get to Estonia, there is still a minutes madness to come. Are they singing in Estonian, or is just any old word that comes into her mouth. This is this year’s Eurovision winner, if there’s any justice ..isn’t it?

Angeelia – We Ride With Our Flow

This is another of these young singer songwriter numbers. Starting slowly, the song picks up quickly after the introduction, with more instruments being introduced as the song goes along. Not sure what flow she is riding with, but this is also a passable entry.

The Show

The hosts for this semi final of Eesti Laul were Marko Reikop and Elina Netšajeva. A party type video opened the show tonight. After that, a contestant march took place as they walked into the studio. It soon becomes clear that the performances are already taped, while the acts watch themselves from a comfortable couch. They are interviewed after watching their performances.

The jury was made up of several member of Estonian royalty, though none recognizable outside their home land, probably. The five winners were declared, judged by part jury, part tele vote. After the first four acts were divulged, a revote was cast, which sent Daniel through as the fifth finalist..

The Results

The top five acts proceeded to the final. They are:

Koit Toome & Laura

Rasmus Rändvee

Liis Lemsalu

Kerli

Daniel Levi

Estonia At The Eurovision Song Contest

Estonia were one of seven countries to debut in 1994. Silvi Vrait debuted the song Nagu merelaine. It scored 2 points leaving Estonia removed from the contest the following year. A great comeback in 1996 saw Maarja-Liis Ilus & Ivo Linna and the song Kaelakee hääl finish 5th. After a string of reasonably good results, Estonia finally won in 2001 with the song Everybody by Tanel Padar and Dave Benton with 2XL.

In the home land in 2002 Sahlene almost won again, finishing third with Runaway. It was until 2009 that Estonia finished in the top 10 again, this time with Urban Symphony, sixth with the song Rändajad. Ott Lepland equaled that in 2002 with Kuula.

The last top ten placing for Estonia was in 2015 with Stig and Elena’s Goodbye To Yesterday.

See if Estonia could win again, should they choose to send this to Kiev this year. This was the first act declared through to the final tonight, Kerli and Spirit Animal.