Estonia’s national final to select its Eurovision entry kicked off on Thursday evening. The first semi-final of Eesti Laul 2021 saw 12 superstar acts take to the stage, with six advancing to the final.
The semi-final one qualifiers are Karl Killing, Koit Toome, Egert Milder, Hans Nayna, Andrei Zevakin & Pluuto and Ivo Linna, Robert Linna and Supernova. They’re all one step closer to singing for Estonia in Rotterdam.
Eesti Laul 2021: Semi-final one qualifiers
A 50/50 combination of jury votes and public votes determined the first four qualifiers. Karl Killing, Egert Milder, Koit Toome and Ivo Linna, Robert Linna and Supernova advanced after the first round of voting.
Then, the fifth and sixth qualifiers were determined solely by the Estonian public, in a run-off style second round of voting. Hans Nayna and Andrei Zevakin & Pluuto were the final two qualifiers.
Karl Killing – “Kiss Me”
The first qualifier to be announced was Karl Killing, with his simple yet enchanting performance of “Kiss Me”. He’ll perform again in the final on Saturday 6 March.
Egert Milder – “Free Again”
The folk-pop singer makes it through to the Eesti Laul final for the second year in a row. He delivered a heartfelt performance of “Free Again”. Last year, his track “Georgia (On My Mind)” narrowly missed out on the superfinal. Could he make it all the way this time?
Ivo Linna, Robert Linna and Supernova – “Ma olen siin”
The father-son duo of Ivo and Robert Linna gave some of the best vocals of the night on their track “Ma olen siin”. Together with Supernova, they’re through to the final.
Koit Toome – “We Could Have Been Beautiful”
No surprise here. Our readers voted the two-time Eurovision veteran their favourite to win semi-final one. Lo and behold, Koit Toome is through. He performed most of his classy ballad “We Could Have Been Beautiful” from behind a grand piano, accompanied by semi-final two duo Suured tüdrukud as backing vocalists.
Hans Nayna – “One by One”
A favourite with many members of the Wiwi Jury, Mauritian singer Hans Nayna advances to the final with his passionate indie-pop track “One By One”. Despite some awkward staging and camera work, he delivered powerful vocals. Hans was the first qualifier from the second round of voting to be announced.
Andrei Zevakin & Pluuto – “Wingman”
The final qualifier of the night and the runner-up in our semi-final one poll. Andrei Zevakin & Pluuto brought hip-hop to the Eesti Laul stage. They’ll perform again in the final for the chance to take “Wingman” to Rotterdam.
Eesti Laul 2021: Semi-final one results
- Karl Killing – “Kiss Me” (Round one qualifier)
- Koit Toome – “We Could Have Been Beautiful” (Round one qualifier)
- Egert Milder – “Free Again” (Round one qualifier)
- Ivo Linna, Robert Linna and Supernova – “Ma olen siin” (Round one qualifier)
- Hans Nayna – “One By One” (Round two qualifier)
- Andrei Zevakin & Pluuto – “Wingman” (Round two qualifier)
- Tanja – “Best Night Ever” (NQ)
- Tuuli Rand – Üks öö (NQ)
- Nika Marula – “Calm Down” (NQ)
- Kristin Kalnapenk – “Find a Way” (NQ)
- Kéa – “Hypnotized” (NQ)
- WIIRALT – “Tuuled” (NQ)
What do you think of the results? Is the winner amongst the semi-final one qualifiers? Did your favourite make it through? Let us know in the comments below.
Ma olen siin is just amazing
the best act was seven nation army coverband. 🙂
Koit underrated and Uku overrated in my opinion.
Anyone else really weirded out that only men qualified? Like some of them were a bit mediocre in their performances (koit was straight up out of tune with his backing singers, like really badly and kiss me was a boring song with boring staging). But every single woman in the show turned looks and elevated their songs with how they performed. Like what were any of these results?
Nika’s song was one of my least favorites, but her performance was so well executed that she deserved a spot in the final.
Some thoughts/opinions I had after watching the show: Part 1 of the stream was really laggy, so that was a bit annoying to watch (I ended up watching the replay cause I live in Australia and I was not going to get up at 4:30am), but part 2 ended up working fine. The stage reminds me of the DMGP stage. It looks really good. Andrei Zevakin & Pluuto were my favourites, so I was really happy they qualified (Estonia, that was not funny toying with my emotions and announcing them last). Dissapointed that Nika didn’t qualify. She was probably my… Read more »
But semi final 2 was considered to be the stronger semi with Uku, juri, gram of fun all in it.
Has anyone made any Koit memes yet from his latest performance? Just wondering. Legendary.
I saw one meme on Twitter
Estonia is trying to pull a Hungary final lineup
“Ma olen siin” so perfect, my favorite one is qualified, the “Gran Amore” from Estonia.
It’s possibly (and I mean possibly) my favourite song in NF season this year so far. It is just SO good. If any country were to pick it, it would be Estonia but I dare not get my hopes up.
The female singers either disappointed vocally, on staging, or both imo.
One by One was the only full package tonight tbh.
Nika, Kéa, and Tanja robbed
Wait. Kristin isn’t spelt k-é-a…
Koit stopping his piano-playing was nowhere near as bad as Karl stopping his guitar-playing. I mean, literally, Karl’s song has little going on in it apart from the constant guitar. Yet, it continues when he’s not playing it? Asking me to suspend a lot of belief right there!
Just one BRAVO for ETV/ERR and their stage.
The Baltic states are delivering in that department.
Haha. That’s a Melfest-level of female qualification right there. 😉
*shade rattle sound effect* courtesy of ru Paul
I’m a bit sad as the old lady from Koit’s music video did not appear on his performance. I’m surprised by how many people actually want her to join, so hopefully Koit should think about inviting her for his Finals performance!
Ngl, all the songs I liked in this semi qualified(hans, koit, Karl, Andrei and pluuto, egert) so for me eesti laul is off to a good start. Sorry to those who’s favourites didn’t qualify. When I say favourites, I mean from the snippets
Just realized these are all men. That’s good to see. I’m used to seeing so much more female singers at Eurovision.
Koit and Andrei & Pluto were the only qualifiers I personally agree with, I can understand why the other songs qualified but I can’t say I agree. Think the winner will be in the much stronger SF2 on Saturday!
Hypnotized has been one of my most played ESC NF songs so far on Spotify so im gutted it didn’t progress. Fingers crossed for Sunday Night & Lost In A Dance in semi 2
I think we just saw our first Eurovision Winner contender in karl killing. I have goosebumps all over my body.
We didn’t see this already with the Roop and Barbara? Or with IMERIKA in MGP if she makes it?
The roop and imerika, no. You could make a case for barbara but I doubt it. I think Eric Saade is the big favourite to win Eurovision. His song is/will be insanely good for sure.
As insanely good as the awful Popular? lol. The last thing we need in this world is that annoying guy winning Eurovision.
Eric Saade evolves with time. Popular was sensational and may I even say, revolutionizing for its time. Then, in 2015, if heroes didn’t win melodifestivalen, sting could have won Eurovision as well. He’s a brilliant artist, one of the best ever at Eurovision. Whether you like it or not, he is more likely than not going to win Eurovision.
Koit could also give Estonia a Eurovision win with his pure emotion. Egert would give them an upper half of the table finish as well. What a fantastic national final.
You’re delusional lol
Why are you calling people dumb for having an opinion that’s different from yours? I mean, Iceland (actual joke song) was a favourite last year. You probably liked that, didn’t you.
The first minute of this song is nice indeed. But as soon he sings higher it gets cringe…
I am just glad koit got through to the final that’s all that matters for now eagerly awaiting semi final 2 and hopefully my other favourites make the final 🙂
Oh great downvoted because an act I like made the final nice really nice
Estonian Sausage Party
They make sausages in Estonia? No, you mean… owh!
Koit looks dangerous. He can cause a major upset and we may have a Koiterdam.
Nika Marula was by far the best. Its crazy she didnt qualify!!!
I don’t understand Estonian and when Nika was announced as a jury favourite I thought it qualified and I was so excited. I’m still pissed that they did that and this is my number 1 and the performance was so good 🙁
True! I was watching the results being announced and she got announced and she seemed happy and clapped…? But then she wasn’t listed in the qualifiers. What happened there? Haha
I don’t know if I saw it wrong but I thought Suured tüdrukud was on stage with Koit? It would be so funny if Koit is also on stage with them next saturday 🙂 Overall, a lot of performances disappointed me and I don’t think we saw the winner of Eesti Laul tonight. Wingman was my pick before the show, but Hans stole my heart during his performance.
Yes, Suured tüdrukud were the backing singers of Koit. And Koit wrote a song for them, so I’m sure that he will support them, just not on the stage.
Yess I knew that, I meant as a backing singer tho
I see 🙂 But yes, it’s certain that Koit won’t be their backup singer. 🙂
In addition to Koit, Suured tüdrukud are the backup singers for Sissi and one of them also sang for Tanja today.
Is that allowed? To Back another song while you have your own song? They’re going to be exhausted by the time they will sing.
You would think not wouldn’t you!
They are veteran backup singers. I think that they’ve been to Eurovision about 7 times so far and every year they sing backup vocals for about half of the contestants at Eesti Laul
A really enjoyable show tonight. I was so pleased that Andrei and Pluuto made it, they have the most modern sounding song and we need that in the final. Koit was in imperious form, I really enjoyed his performance and Egert pleasantly surprised me – I wasn’t a massive fan of the studio cut but he sold it well tonight.
Every song that I wanted to qualify, failed to. At least Kea deserved to qualify, she is my favourite. I only like Egert’s song from the qualifiers
You are the definition of unpopular opinions.
Also, can someone explain the voting. The first part, 4 songs were called (which I assumed were through to the final and was quite shocked!) but then everything refreshed. What was that about?
These 4 were the favorites of the jury + the audience (adding up the votes). In the second round, only the public voted on which 2 songs to send to the finals.
Oh and the very first 4 were just jury favorites:
Nika Marula
Koit Toome
Egert Milder
Ivo Linna, Robert Linna and Supernova
4 song were jury+public TOP4, next 2 songs only public
The first 4 songs that were called out were jury favorites and the televoting results were added. The second voting was just televotes.
Feels a slightly strange system to me, if you went to the final knowing you came 5th or 6th in your semi, I wouldn’t be hedging my bets doing any good in the final.
Well have a few feelings from this semi. Is there not a pandemic in Estonia?? I guess coming from UK it’s crazy to see what the rules are in other countries. I predicted 5 of the 6 qualifiers, however I am very shocked Nika Marula did not get through! I thought she would of been one of the favourites from her performance, definitely the best staging. Koit was my other favourite of the night, I do think he was struggling vocally on this one though, you could hear the backing singers really carrying him through. Good semi though, and the… Read more »
Yes, there is also a pandemic in Estonia and it’s serious, but restaurants, cinemas, theaters are open with certain concessions, so yep even concerts can be organized.
I was more referencing the lack of social distancing, limiting people in the studio, and mainly made me giggle seeing masks go on and dissappear like nobodies business lol!
Yes, wearing masks and keeping distance is mandatory in indoor spaces and actually our corona situation is pretty bad so I was surprised too that the organizers took this so calmly. It wouldn’t surprise me if another corona outbreak started from there. The hall is big enough and only for them, the artists should be more spread out and wearing masks all time, only removing when performing.
I’m so happy for “Ma Olen Siin”. It’s such a grower. I just love it!
Nice choice Estonia. Now don’t forget to vote for Gram-of-Fun on Saturday! I believe in you! <3
Wait … no women at all? Wtf
Even before today’s semi-final, it was not expected that any of the women would go through with these bad songs 🙂
These qualifiers are decent, but I would’ve loved to see Kea qualify too. Her song was one, if not the, the most modern, catchy and fresh songs of this year. Her stage presence and staging was good. Her vocals were a little bit weak at some parts, but the song still deserved to qualify, in my opinion.
Fun fact: Kea was one of Uku Suviste’s favourite this year. Among Koit Toome and Jüri Pootsmann.
SEXIST
Your username explains the dislikes.
The results were totally fair in my opinion. I don’t like Wingman, but I can’t deny the singers gave a very entertaining performance and the song is very modern too. Anyway I totally agree witht he other 5 acts qualifyiong, they were the only ones I cared about after live performances. Nika was terrible live unfortunately and I couldn’t connect with her performance, it was so cold. The other girls were not good, too, I only liked Kristin, she would have been my 6th qualifer, but people were never going to appreciate her song unfortunately. I am going to root… Read more »
Oh shame on you the jurors and thank you the estonian public, Estonia you had one job, it was to pick Hans, fortunately for you you did it, if not, you would be cancelled until the next year for me. Wtf is this jury omg! Anyway Hans was my winner pre show, and it’s confirmed he is my Eesti Laul winner 2021, period. I have to admit that I have found my big crush of this year, he is so handsome. So Estonia don’t disappoint please, send him to Rotterdam. Koit has already gone to eurovision and Uku is affiliated… Read more »
Lol downvote me I don’t care, like Benny Cristo, but sorry Egert and Karl weren’t good live and Nika deserved to qualify, this jury is totally out.
Hmm I did lick out Han’s as a qualifier, but in my 6th place. Not sure I saw winning potential at all, in my opinion.
I can’t explain why, the first time I listened the song I really liked it, his voice is something, and tonight when I saw his performance I felt in love directly, the tastes and feelings are different for each persons, and it’s cool if not it would be boring, but I’m team Hans more than ever and until the end. You can’t deny it was the best vocalist of the night, his song is really good, he feels his song when he sings and he touched me. Not the case for the others.
His voice is indeed something, but his pronunciation of English words is bad and juries don’t like that. If he had good English pronunciation, I think Hans would’ve been one of the 4 jury winners of this semi.
Andrei and Pluuto had a horrendous live and yet made it through the public vote ! Understandable but They Jury didn’t vote for Hans who had one of the better vocal performances of round 1 ? Or was it that the Televote and Jury Top 4 were same in round 1 ??
Everyone deserved it this time. Satisfied with this choices. Now I just need Gram-of-Fun to win it all.
I hope they can qualify. Fingers crossed they do. It’s actually my favorite song of this national final, more than Uku’s song.
Yess I havnt paid much attention to Estonia so much till now and gram-of-fun on the preview of the next show looked great!
yikes @ the juries trying to kill one of the few current-sounding songs aka WIGman
It was so weak ? They had their backs turned to the audience, the staging was a WHOLE mess and they were in a completely different key
I’m glad that “Ma olen siin” and “Wingman” made it. But I would exchange Karl Killing (Eesti Laul always have these male singers that are so bland to me but people there love) with Kristin or Nika. The silver lining is that this sea of men in the final (we already know that Jüri and Uku will join them on Saturday) may help Gram-of-Fun to stand out. Also good to Heleza, as Colin pointed.
The jury likely put Wingman not as high and will likely put them not as high in the finals. However, the lower they go with the juries, the more likely they are to win *if* they reach the superfinals. Think like this – If juries would put them, say 8th, and they’d still qualify with a combined vote, that would mean that their televote is massive. I still think this is Uku’s to lose, but Juri, Koit, Gram-Of-Fun, Andrei & Pluuto and Egert are not chanceless.
I know you can’t. I also know that I (along with 90% of televoters, probably) wouldn’t even notice it if you haven’t pointed it out. Unless the vocal performance is of the Serhat / Yulia Samoylova level (okay, I’m exaggerating a bit 🙂 ), average televote likely won’t penalize it for it. Of course, you can personally disagree. 😉
It’s because professional juries are instructed to rate various aspects of the song (vocals, lyrics, melody, staging, ”chart potential” and more). So, if, for example, one act had a strong case in multiple of these aspects, and an average / weaker one in one of them, they’d still likely be rated quite high. 🙂
And yeah, I re-checked and I admit that, taken by lovely lyrics and creative staging, I have indeed missed some wrong notes. It can happen sometimes, I guess, especially if I listened to it only once. 🙂
I think that all of us can have different approaches when assessing songs. For instance, I know that I put way much thought into lyrics compared to majority. I think I recall reading that the juries are indeed instructed to assess multiple aspects to be as ”objective” as they can (however hard to achieve that is). If this was ”The Voice” then we could certainly make a definitive statement that Hans had better live vocals compared to Egert and that’s that. For my ears, Egert was still pretty solid. I noticed some off notes, but they weren’t as bad to… Read more »
I agree with everything said here. 🙂
PS. We know that Egert is in his core a good singer, so I’m hopeful he’ll brush it up in the finals. 😉
That was fun! Of course I love Estonian men, but that result was just a tad unfair to Kéa and Nika, at the very least. I feel awkward about that. Still, I am reasonably happy that most of my favourites made it through to the final. My cousin, on the other hand, is not so happy. My congrats in particular to Hans Nayna, who gave a wonderful vocal performance and truly surprised me tonight.
I agree with you. But for me, that scene, at the end of the show, with the qualifiers on stage was just weird. The only lady there was the hostess. I’ll miss Nika for sure.
I agree about Nika, but I thought Kea’s song was quite weak and outdated.
There’s nothing sexist about the choice.. the 6 qualifiers had the best songs tonight, don’t blame them because they‘re male. I think in SF2 we will see a lot of women advancing 🙂
I can’t believe how Koit can be even liked by anyone as an artist. His singing is outdated, and he has no charisma as a performer
Best songs of the night: Karl Killing and Egert.
Best staging: Andrei and Pluuto, Nika Marula and also Karl I think.
I’m gonna tell you very honestly. Therr are so many amazing young singers in Estonia who are overshadowed by these old men who even dueing the pandemic took all restaurant gigs from poor performers not known to others. Eesti laul is ruled by best friends of old estonian artists. I just can’t wait for it to be fairer!
Overall, it’s a good choice of finalists. I’d perhaps put Kristin through as well, but I get that the song perhaps needed more variety to attract wider audiences. I still enjoyed it and her performance elevated it so much.
This time, men really did have somewhat better songs on average, but semi 2 will just *have* to put through Heleza and Gram-Of-Fun. By the way, I don’t find semi 2 to be any weaker. Can’t wait for Saturday…
The one thing I noticed from this is that only guys advantaged, and all the girls got eliminated.
Can only hope the same thing doesn’t happen in Semi 2.
Nearly all of the qualifying acts were quite obvious to me. That Ivo Linna, Robert Linna and Supernova made it through was a surprise for me. I would have loved to see Nika instead, I liked her performance a lot.
Wingman is a great studio track but it seemed a bit messy on that stage. I couldn’t connect with that performance. But luckily they made it, that song deserved it either way.
They’ve got time to polish before the final in three weeks. Though, seriously, why is it two weeks later after semi final 2 and not the next immediate Saturday after?
That’s true. Let’s see what they will bring up to the final!
I wish we could see the final next week so that we all know another entry that ‘early’. But I think it’s just a matter of time until it’s official. We all know the winner right now and he’s not comming from this semi.
It just seems weird to be that Estonia would schedule their grand final two weeks later. It’s not like there’s a second chance round to bring up a wildcard entry from the eliminated acts.
Semi 2 is where all of my faves are. I’m kinda indifferent to semi final 1. I agree with you–the winning entry will be from the second semi final.