Tonight, twelve acts competed to represent Estonia at the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest. After two rounds of voting, Uku Suviste took home the trophy.

This year’s Estonian final, the Eesti Laul, featured twelve acts after two semi-finals which took place on the 18th and 20th of February 2021. 12 artists competed in each semi-final and 12 of them lined up for the big final tonight.

Tonight, among the 12 finalists, we saw some Eurovision familiar faces like Uku Suviste (2020 Estonian selected artist), Ivo Linna (Estonia 1996), Jüri Pootsman (Estonia 2016) and Koit Toome (Estonia 1998 and 2017).

Eesti Laul 2021 – result

The selection process tonight was made by a two round voting: In the first round, among 12 participants, a top 3 was determined by 50% jury vote and 50% percent public televote. In the super final round between Uku Suviste, Sissi and Jüri Pootsmann, the winner was decided 100% by public televote. Eventually, after the super final voting, Uku Suviste raised the trophy and earned the ticket to Rotterdam again.

The show

The show was hosted by Grete Kuld and Tõnis Niinemets as in the semi-finals and kicked off at 18:30 CET. Although, already at 17:45, they kicked off with backstage hosts Heleri All and Jüri Muttika showing the preparations before the show and interviewing the finalists to mirror their feelings and their musical background before the contest.

The main part of the show then started at 18:30 CET at Saku Suurhall. The interval act was a performance of a heavy metal version of Uku Suuviste’s What Love Is (Estonia’s 2020 hopeful) by Goresoerd. After that, was the presentation of the contestants. Then the competing performances began. We saw short comedy shows and interviews with the contestants by the hosts between the performances. It was pleasant enough to see Tanel Padar (Winner 2001) in one of those short comedy shows. The viewers were also invited to play a fun bingo during the show and express their feelings about the entries via Eestilaul.ee. During the performances, we saw nice examples of cooperation between artists such as Suured tüdrukud singing backing vocals for Sissi, and Koit Toome singing backing vocals and composing for Suured tüdrukud, Andrei Zevakin composing for Sissi etc. After the 12 performances, the main show ended with a recap of the 12 participant songs.

The third and the final part of the show, the result part, started at 20:30 CET. After the first voting, Sissi received the top votes of the international jury from Lithuania, UK, USA, Czech Republic and Belarus. The show continued with fun live interviews with participants and recaps. We also saw the band Smilers performing their single Tee Mis Sa Tahad, and Mr. Lawrence performing Annabel. At the end of public and jury voting, Uku Suviste, Sissi and Jüri Pootsmann made it to the super final round. The super finalists were treated with beer and sandwiches before the result was announced. Before the final announcement we saw Liis Lemsalu and Stefan performing Doomino. Jüri Pootsmann was the first one to leave the super final.

Estonia at the Eurovision Song Contest

A pre-selection round in place before the contest in 1993 sorted the Estonian entry out, and as such the country had to wait until 1994 to get its debut. Silvi Vrait represented the country, but failed to reach the final. Whether it was due to the result, Estonia didn’t take part in 1995, but since 96′ they have been a steady Eurovision participant.

The baltic country won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2001. In Copenhagen, Denmark. Their energetic and joyful song Everybody was performed by Tanel Padar and Dave Benton and received 198 points which was enough to win the contest ahead of host country Denmark in second place.

Among their 25 participations, Estonia really have their ups and downs with 10 times in top 10, but also since the introduction of semi-finals in 2004, failing to reach the final a total of 9 times. In fact, from 2004 and on, they faced five years in a row not making it to final.

With the 2020 edition cancelled, their last act on the Eurovision stage was Swedish Victor Crone. With the song Storm, he finished in 20th place after being 4th in his semi-final.