Yesterday the deadline for Eesti Laul 2018, the national Estonian national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon, Portugal next year, passed and broadcaster ERR has revealed that 258 songs have been received in total. Which is a record yet again, beating last year’s high of 242 submissions! Funny enough: among the submissions a master’s thesis was found, but it’s not really clear yet if that was intentional or not.
Mart Normet, main producer for Eesti Laul, is happy and says:
Every year more and more songs are brought to Eesti Laul, which is a very good indicator of trust, and I thank all the musicians who brought us our songs today. At the same time, I would like to see Saku Suurhall be expanded in size as it’s seen that the finale is selling out very rapidly
Due to this increase in submitted songs, ERR have tweaked their jury selection and the changes for this year are:
- A 15-person jury (instead of the previous 11), which will consist of music experts from both Estonian and abroad, will be listening to the entries blindly, spread over several days, as Mart Normet admits listening to that many entries is exhausting, both physically and mentally, and is disrespectful to the artists, as they now risk their song not getting the full attention. Every jury members grades the songs from 0 to 5 and the 15 highest-scoring ones go through.
- The five remaining songs will be chosen by the Eesti Laul board in order to enrich the complete picture and ensure musical diversity.
On the 10th of November, those who made the semi-finals will be announced on the show Ringvaade, while the songs themselves will be released on thr 19th and 20th of December for the whole wide world to listen to. The semi-finals themselves will take place on February 10 and 17, while the big final will be held in Saku Suurhall in Tallinn on the 3rd of March.
