National Final Season officially arrives this week, with this Saturday seeing the first selection show of the year. It comes courtesy of the Estonian Broadcaster ERR, with the first show of Eesti Laul 2022.
This sees an earlier than usual start to the season, as it was revealed some time ago that changes were coming to the process for Eesti Laul with the introduction of quarter finals. The selection process will this year comprise a total of seven shows. There will be four quarter-finals and two semi-finals before the grand final at the Saku Suurhall on 12th February. The competition will this year be hosted by Ines and Tanel Padar
Each quarter final will consist of ten songs, with the top five (determined by a combination of public and jury votes) progressing to the next stage of the competition.
This afternoon, the first songs competing were announced during the TV show ‘Ringvaade’. They are:
- Jaguup Tuisk – ‘Kui Vaid’
- Boamadu – ‘Mitte Kauaks’
- Evelin Samuel – ‘Waterfall’
- Fiona and Me – ‘Feel Like This’
- Kéa – ‘Every Time’
- Little Mess – ‘Hea Päev’
- Peter Põder – ‘Koos lõpuni’
- Maian – ‘Meeletu’
- Stig – ‘Interstellar’
- Traffic – ‘Kaua Veel’
The list sees a number of returning Eesti Laul artists. Jaagup Tuisk finished in second place behind Uku Suviste in 2020; Stig Rasta has competed on a number of occasions as an artist, as a band member with Traffic, and as a songwriter, and he also won Eesti Laul and represented Estonia in 2015 with Elina Born with the song ‘Goodbye To Yesterday’. Stig’s song ‘Interstellar’ also features (in the writing credits) Sweden’s Victor Crone (who returns the favour after Stig co-wrote Victor’s ‘Storm’ in 2019). Other returnees include Kéa (2016 and 2021), Little Mess (2020), and Traffic.
Estonia were represented in 2021 by Uku Suviste, with ‘The Lucky One’, but it turned out that luck wasn’t quite on his side as he failed to qualify for the grand final. Will any of these ten artists take the Eesti laul crown and will they fare better in Turin?. Join us on Saturday for our live coverage of the show!
In the meantime, you can relive the winning performance from Eesti Laul 2021 right here:
