National final season continued on Saturday with the second quarter-final of Estonia’s Eesti Laul 2022. Ten acts competed for five places in the semi-finals..
Similar to the first quarter-final last week, it was a low-key round. Rather than have the acts perform their songs live, the songs were assessed with music videos. The first three places were decided by the public televote, with the final two places decided by the jury vote. However, this week’s biggest twist was that all the competing songs were performed in Estonian.
Helen – “Vaata minu poole”
Eesti Laul 2020 alumna Helen was the first televote qualifier with her song “Vaata minu poole”. The mid-tempo dance pop track shone bright enough to convince the Estonian public. Eesti Laul 2021 finalist Karl Killing is among its writers and producers.
Andrei Zevakin feat. Grete Paia – “Mis nüüd saab”
The second televoting qualifier of the night saw two Eesti Laul veterans returning. YouTuber and singer Andrei Zevakin came sixth in Eesti Laul 2021’s first semi-final despite finishing top three with the televoting. Grete Paia competed in several selections as both a guest artist and main singer. In 2013, she lost out on a Eurovision ticket to Birgit Õigemeel in the superfinal of Eesti Laul.
“Mis nüüd saab” delivers is a pop duet between the two artists that is easy on the ear and extremely radio-friendly. The song was composed by Pluuto, who also wrote Andrei’s Eesti Laul 2021 song “Wingman”.
Triin Niitoja and Frants Tikerpuu – “Laululind”
The duet between Triin and Frants became the third and last televoting qualifier of the night. Triin finished fourth in the fourth season of Eesti otsib superstaari, while Frants is a more of an unknown songwriter and pianist, who also penned this song.
The track is close to the classic Eesti Laul ballad genre that we’ve seen from Koit Toome and Traffic in recent years. The Estonian lyrics are romantic and reminisce about a past love that only remains in memories.
Kaia-Liisa Kesler – “Vaikus”
Kaia-Liisa Kesler and her song “Vaikus” were the first jury qualifier of the night. With her strong vocals, it was not surprising to see Kaia-Liisa among the judges’ choices. Her song “Vaikus”, meaning “Silence”, is a dramatic ballad about finding internal calm and was written by herself and Kaarel Orumägi.
Jyrise – “Plaksuta”
Estonian rapper Jyrise became the last qualifier of the second quarter-final with his song “Plaksuta”, meaning “Clap”. The song’s lyrics talk about the difficulty of growing up and realising that life is not all fun and rock, paper, scissors. However, Jyrise also conveys the message that money is not the most important thing either.
Over the next month, three more quarter-finals will be held. They will decide the 20 acts that will compete in the two semi-finals of Eesti Laul 2022.
The semi-finals are due to be held in early February 2022, with the grand final scheduled for 12 February.
Who are your favourites from the first qualifiers of Eesti Laul 2022?
Of tonight’s five qualifiers, tell us your favourites by voting in our poll. As always, you can vote for as many acts as you like, but you can only vote once — so make it count!
What do you think? Are you happy with these five qualifiers? Can any of these acts go on to win Eesti Laul 2022? Tell us your thoughts below!
Maybe I’m part of a minority that was sure Kuradile was going to pass, but still I’m glad with the qualifiers line up.
I wanted it to qualify! It’s live performance would have been something to look forward to.
Laululind has potential but MV is questionable.
As for mis nuu saab the only issue woth it is Andrei’s voice it becomes annoying after a while.
Surprised how close the poll is! Desiree deserved better though.
Desiree was robbed damn…
But for esc fans that’s just another day in the office…
I love all the qualifiers apart from Helen
An-Marlen’s song is a bop and I enjoyed it the most of all these song and she didn’t qualify…
what a waste for estonias hopes not choosing desiree – this is finest jury food for turin!
a warm gentle piano ballad with a lot of grower potential thrown away for 5 very,very average songs.
but not my decision – estonian people have decided – we in germany have some experience with these decisions. 😀
This quarterfinal was pretty even and I agree with Colin when he says musical taste probably defined preferences here, which explains why the results of the poll and the rankings I saw on Twitter were all over the place. I like “Mis nüüd saab”, it may not have the punch “Wingman” had, but Andrei and Grete combine well and I think it can work if they display the right chemistry on the stage. I’m glad that the jury saved Kaia-Liisa, because from the many ballads competing yesterday I think this was the best one. In any case, I still prefer… Read more »
The results of this poll don’t surprise me at all, as I see this as a fairly even field, highly dependent on personal preferences. I am pleasantly surprised with Helen’s song! Her previous entry was mostly not impactful, but this time I see her as a contender. It’s something I could see Raylee performing. Vaikus also has a strong hook and a pretty cool climax. Elu rupes is another nice one, but I’m not surprised it was deemed too subtle to make it. I am still unsure what to think of Meisterjaan’s song. Is it abysmal? Perfection? A perfection of… Read more »
Meisterjaan is probably the biggest “victim” of the format. Since Eesti Laul’s producers usually like to add something weird to the lineup, this entry could be the one in 2022. But without the possibility of using quirky staging to make people talk about it, it was hard for him to compete this time. Especially when Jyrise took his light-hearted thunder with something much easier to digest.
You are likely right. Jyrise’s song is much more accessible to both juries and televoters, while still being quirky. It is also the fact that Meisterjaan’s joke comes mostly from visuals and lyrics, while being musically quite minimalistic. I also agree with Vaikus being the ballad with the most memorable chorus. It gets especially strong in the third minute.
Wow these are my two personal favourites of last night’s show as well!! And with the same order as yours!
I´m happy about Jyrise !
an-marlen and desiree were fully the only two good songs here and neither qualified
Apparently Elina(2018) and ott lepland are in one of the next heats, so I guess we haven’t seen the winner yet.
pretty sure elina is in qf3
They are hosting one of the quarterfinals, not participating.
it was already leaked that they are participating
here is the promo with some of the hosts, and they are both in there: https://jupiter.err.ee/1608409991/eesti-laul-2022
yes and? that doesn’t mean that they can’t participate.. and i already said that they were leaked, the person who leaked it also said that grete paia is participating before she was announced
why would ERR give an unfair advantage to 2 out of 40 participants by including them in a promo clip?
Because they are winners, just like everyone else in the clip… besides, I don’t think a 5 second appearance in the clip gives them a big advantage lol
LOL https://menu.err.ee/1608419186/eesti-laulu-kolmandat-veerandfinaali-juhivad-ott-lepland-ja-laura-poldvere
I already knew this lmfao
Yes, imo it would be weird to include them in the promo clip if they participated. It would be unfair for other participants. That’s why I think Ott Lepland and Elina Nechayeva are the hosts of the semi finals or quarter finals, not the participants.
Yall keep forgetting that 1) a song was sent in italian and 2) Rahula made it very clear that qf3 is only foreign language songs (not just english)
then it should’ve been like this:
qf2 – uku & tanja
qf3 – laura & ott
qf4 – jüri & elina b (probably)
qf1 was hosted by tanel padar & ines who were not in the promo clip when, by your logic, it should’ve been elina n hosting with someone
yet she is not hosting, therefore she is very clearly participating lol
Let’s wait until the quarter final 3 participants are revealed today.
kinda sad that meisterjaan didnt qualify for 2 reasons:
1) the live performance would be a wild experience
2) the lyrics
As an Estonian…I have no idea ? it’s kinda artsy song I think and I’m sure that there is a meaning behing it but seriously I have no idea.
Also I’m kinda sad that it didn’t pass and we can’t see what stuff would he came up with next
all my love to the juries for saving Plaksuta. this could make it to my top10 of ESC if it won eesti laul!
Let´s cross the fingers !
Of all of these, I could see both Vaikus and plaksuta doing well. Vaikus has this powefully moving vibe and Plaksuta is just really fun an well made
An-Marlen should’ve gone through instead of Jyrise. Wtf was going on there…
More hum drum songs. Not a ESC qualifier in sight.
We’re just halfway through.
Mis Nüüd Saab and Vaata Minu Poole were my favourites and the immediate standouts so glad the public got them both through. Surprised Meisterjaan didn’t go through though. ;;
I thank the juries for saving my top 2.
The televote qualifiers were predictable. Although I like Mis Nuud Saab, its kinda too repetitive. I prefer Lopuks muutub to laululind, especially since Laululind’s music video I cant hear well despite m laptop’s sound on 100
On the other hand, despite being happy that Helen qualified, her song this year was better, this one sounds like a rehash of Uks Oo.
All in all quite a dreary quarterfinal.
Vaikus was my favourite from last night, I am glad it qualified. I think that with a good staging, it can really be impressive. Andrei & Grete are also solid but not a winner imo. Up to now though, I think that Stig is still the big favourite for the win.