Eesti Laul 2022 kicks off this Saturday with its first quarter-final (yes, despite it still being 2021). Broadcaster ERR has now revealed the ten acts who will compete at the weekend.
The line-up includes a number of familiar names, both from previous editions of Eesti Laul as well as from Eurovision.
Eesti Laul 2022 quarter-final one: Competing acts and songs
- Jaagup Tuisk – “Kui vaid”
- Boamadu – “Mitte kauaks”
- Evelin Samuel – “Waterfall”
- Fiona and Me – “Feel like this”
- Kéa – “Everytime”
- Peeter Põder – “Koos lõpuni”
- Little Mess – “Hea päev”
- Maian – “Meeletu”
- Stig Rästa – “Insterstellar”
- Traffic – “Kaua veel”
Fans will know Stig Rästa as Estonia’s Eurovision 2015 representative. He performed alongside Elina Born and placed seventh with “Goodbye to Yesterday”. Stig returned to Eesti Laul in 2018 and picked up the bronze medal.
Another past Eurovision star who’s also in the mix is Evelin Samuel. She represented Estonia at the contest in 1999 with violinist Camille, where they performed “Diamond of Night” and finished sixth.
There are also a number of former Eesti Laul contestants. Jaagup Tuisk competed in the national selection in 2020, ultimately ending up as the runner-up with his song “Beautiful Lie”.
Girl-group Little Mess also appeared at Eesti Laul 2020, but failed to make it out of the semi-final with “Without A Reason”.
Maian previously competed alongside Karl-Kristjan and Whogaux at Eesti Laul 2017. They placed fourth in the final with “Have You Now”. But for 2021, Maian will be back as a solo artist.
Kéa returns after previously participating in 2016 and 2021. Meanwhile, this will be Traffic’s fifth appearance at Eesti Laul, after the band previously competed in 2009, 2012, 2014 and 2020.
We won’t be able to here the songs until the quarter-final itself. But we don’t have long to wait as the first quarter-final of Eesti Laul 2022 takes place this Saturday 20 November at 20:35 CET (21:35 EET).
Tanel Padar and Eda-Ines Etti will host the quarter-final. Both are former Estonian Eurovision acts, with Tanel winning the contest in 2001 after Ines participated the previous year in 2000.
Eesti Laul 2022 – Details
The popular national selection is expanding to include quarter-finals involving 40 competing songs for 2022. After 202 entries were submitted, this gave acts a one-in-five chance of making the show. Through the quarter-finals and semi-finals, ten acts will end up progressing to the grand final.
The dates for the seven Eesti Laul show have also been confirmed. All four preliminary heats will take place before Christmas, while the latter stages will take place in February. Unlike recent years, there will not be a gap between the semi-finals and final.
- Quarter-final 1 — Saturday 20 November
- Quarter-final 2 — Saturday 27 November
- Quarter-final 3 — Saturday 4 December
- Quarter-final 4 — Saturday 11 December
- Semi-final 1 — Thursday 3 February
- Semi-final 2 — Saturday 5 February
- Grand final — Saturday 12 February
Are you excited about Stig Rästa and Jaagup Tuisk being in Eesti Laul 2022? Whose song are you most looking forward to hearing during the first quarter-final on Saturday? Sound off in the comments below!
the mayority of the songs are in Estonian, very fine…..
The 5 semi-finalists will be determined by telephone voting and selection by the jury (TV viewers forward 3 + the jury 2 songs).
All quarter-finals / semi-finals / final can be watched later and the participating music videos (videos competing in the quarter-finals, live performances in the semi-finals) will probably be uploaded to both YouTube and ERR websites (ETV / Jupiter).
I noticed that there’s six Estonian songs and four English songs. I hope we get a 3/2 mix of semi finalists from the quarterfinal, not all four English songs plus just one Estonian song.
Has Stig Rasta been involved in selection every year after his participation in 2015?
No Stig songs took part in the 2021 competition. However, he participated in the Estonian jury of the Eurovision Song Contest.
another nq for Estonia is coming
We still have 30 more names + we haven’t even heard the songs yet, please shut up lol
no I have every right to say what I want
and what you are saying is wrong!
? have not heard any songs yet, so how can we say no qualification!
I’m excited for all of these acts!
It’ll be nice to see Tanel and Ines back together – he was her backing singer in 2000, I think they were boyfriend and girlfriend at the time.
I think he was also a backing singer for Malta the same year; Desire by Claudette Pace
No, he was not.
Wouldn’t that be against the rules?
Why? There used to be a professional “backing group”, The Dolls, I think, who showed up for more than one country.
Wow great line up.
I guess jaagup will be one of the favorites already.
I am SO glad that Kéa is back! She was my favorite last year and I was gutted that she didn’t make it to the final
Little mess were among my hot favourites in Eesti Laul 2020, happy and excited for them!
Where we can watch it 🙂
otse.err.ee on Saturday 20:35 CET
The fact that already from the first quarter final there are so many well-known names means that most probably Eesti Laul will be amazing this year! And we could be in for a lot more familiar names in the rest of the quarter-finals.
Sounds like a for-sure qualifier especially with poor Uku out of the way (or not…..)
If only we can listen to the songs before Saturday.
waiting for the russians on VK to leak them
This is definitely a promising list of names, with Stig Rasta and Evelin Samuel being ESC veterans with a big success already on their belt. Jaagup is, of course, another one to watch out for, as his Beautiful Lie was a huge fan-favorite in 2020. While Eesti Laul is known for bringing back reliable performers, they also manage to surprise with newcomers and upgrades. I am looking forward to Saturday. PS. There will *definitely* be many more famous artists returning, as there is 0% of a chance that they’d put Rasta, Tuisk, and Samuel all in the first quarter, unless… Read more »
I thought the same when I saw this list. If there are already a bunch of big names in this first quarterfinal, I’m betting on a packed and exciting Eesti Laul this year. I just hope the fact we’ll only listen to the songs during the show won’t complicate the life of newcomers with good songs.
That is indeed the downside of releasing the songs an hour before the voting starts. While some organizers do it to equalize the field (that’s what Ursula Tolj was trying to do in Dora, anyway), it can backfire. Whether they want it or not, the hype already exists, only it consists solely on artists’ previous work, which doesn’t help the less famous acts, especially not newcomers. Let’s hope for the best.
that is why jurors should be selected wisely and more independent of the mainstream business… let’s hope
hoping jaagup pulls through with a song as good as beautiful lie was
Eda-Ines Etti (she was also on the jury) said that it is an emotional and very cool song, modern in today’s context.
where’s the elina nechayeva we want the elina nechayeva
30 songs/artists have not been named yet. One song was sent in Italian, maybe Nechayeva’s? 🙂
it better be
What an amazing opening of Eesti laul! Jaagup is back plus song in Estonian!! Also Evelin Samuel is back, it will be interesting EL edition.