Eesti Laul 2022 returns this Saturday with its third quarter-final (we are halfway now). 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. While we could enjoy songs in Estonian last week, the third quarter-final of Eesti Laul 2022 will consist of English-language songs only.
Eesti Laul 2022 quarter-final three: Competing acts and songs
- Stefan – “Hope”
- Elina Nechayeva – “Remedy”
- deLuLu – “Music Saved My Soul”
- Goodreason – “Three Days Ago”
- Lauri Pihlap – “Take Me Home”
- Levvis – “Let’s Talk About”
- Merilin Mälk – “Little Girl”
- Alabama Watchdog – “Move On”
- Shira – “Under Water”
- Anna Sahlene – “Champion”
Stefan has regularily participated in Eesti Laul in recent years. He finished seventh during his last appearance in 2020 with “By My Side”. Earlier, he took part as part of Vajé, making it to the superfinal of Eesti Laul 2018 with “Laura”.
Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga actress Elina Nechayeva is returning to the Estonian song contest too. Ever since appearing on the film, the opera singer has not made it a secret that she was willing to return. After all, she managed to hit all the high notes in her Eurovision 2018 song “La forza”.
Eesti Laul 2021 followers will definitely remember Alabama Watchdog, who got many fans talking throughout the national final season. Last year, the group finished sixth in the show’s first semi-final.
Shira has some Eesti Laul experience too, taking part in the 2020 edition. Lauri Pihlap‘s experience is from some time ago – the last time the singer appeared in the Estonian selection was in 2009.
Merelin Mälk was surprised by the reporters from Ringvaarde who told her that she was able to participate. The Eesti otsib superstaari 2018 bronze medallist will participate in Eesti Laul for the second time after her debut in 2020.
Last but not least, we waited for another surprise. Anna Sahlene, who gave Estonia a third place finish at Eurovision 2002, was given a spot in the contest. From her home in Sweden, the singer showed her surprise to the Ringvaarde reporters who contacted her via the phone of her musical friend Dagmar Oja. Anna said she did not know whether to expect her song making it to the last forty participants. At the end she added, emotionally: “I have missed my Estonian audience”.
We won’t be able to here the songs until the quarter-final itself. But we don’t have long to wait as the third quarter-final of Eesti Laul 2022 takes place this Saturday 4 December at 20:35 CET (21:35 EET).
Ott Lepland and Laura Põldvere will host the quarter-final. Both are former Estonian Eurovision acts. Ott is known for his Estonian ballad “Kuula” with which he finished sixth in 2012, Laura has represented the country twice at Eurovision, most recently in 2017 with Koit Toome.
Eesti Laul 2022 – Details
The popular national selection has expanded 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 NovemberQuarter-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 Elina Nechayeva and Sahlene being in Eesti Laul 2022? Whose song are you most looking forward to hearing during the third quarter-final on Saturday? Sound off in the comments below!
Unfortunately I don’t think she can do better. This time it’s more of a pop song… But we’ll see 🙂
Curious about Elina and Anna Sahlene who would have made a much better winner in 2002. But I want Estonia to send an Estonian artist. Unless her song is so much better than everyone else’s.
Maian all the way up.
nope <3
please NO
Cool! I still listen Laura from Vajé 2018 I love it, so I hope Stefan is going to come back with something like that, I was not a fan at all of his last attempt. Of course very curious to see what Elina will bring, pop opera in english? In any case be prepared for the comparisons with La Forza and its epic staging…
Very excited for Shira and of course I’m curious to find out what Elina will do to try to top her stellar performance in “La Forza”.
I’m not even going to put a pressure that Remedy has to be as good as La forza. For me, it’s a masterpiece, and one of my absolute favorites. Having that as a benchmark could be unproductive if the song turns out very good, but not as strong as. If it’s a song I’d enjoy either way, I’d definitely be happy. If by some miracle it manages to equal La forze, the better. 🙂
To be honest, I always thought Elina’s performance (her vocals, her ellegance, her body language) was much more impressive than “La Forza” itself, so I can see she pleasing me even more this time. Though I’m aware that for many of her fans, it will be hard to beat her previous effort. I hope and trust she’s back because she found the right song to face this challenge.
I am still as mesmerized by La Forza as I was back in 2018, and admittedly, it’s very intertwined with the voice, charisma, and personality of Elina Nechayeva. I think that it’s a beautiful song either way, a bit reminiscent of Plavalaguna’s aria from The Fifth Element, but by having her as a performer, it’s really pushed into stratosphere. Thus, I do see a huge probability that I’ll at least like, if not outright love, her next entry. I’ve heard another operatic song of hers, and it’s also beautiful. As long as she plays to her strengths, I think that… Read more »
no one cares it’s not that serious
I agree that Plavalaguna’s aria is exquisit, but I can see comparable atmosphere and poise in La forza. I give you that its structure might be more conventional in comparison, but I don’t say it as a positive or negative, just as a fact. In a scope of all operatic or classical entries from ESC, I find La forza to be quite unique. Now, if anyone would force me to chose between the two arias… but fortunately, nobody did. 🙂 What I find fascinating is how seemingly similar entries can provoke different feelings in the same person. There is this… Read more »
I’m sure that Shira and Elina will deliver all the class we’ve been waiting for! Can’t wait to see what they bring this year. “Out In Space” is def my fave Eesti Laul song that didn’t make it
I also loved Shira out in space last year, but her voice live was less good and she must perform more because maybe people forget the song very quick in Eurovision and you must have an remembering staging
What a stellar line-up! Stefan and Shira both had songs on the very top of my NF lists, Anna Sahlene is another powerhouse returnee from Estonia’s earlier days, and Elina Nechayeva delivered one of the most beautiful songs in my recent memory. To say that I am hyped would be an understatement. 🙂 I’ll take a step back with a hype, as my expectations are over the roof.
I was just thinking about this…if Mikolas is one of the finalists in ESCZ and Elina has a winner entry…then we will have two contestants from 2018 back next year:D
There is a rumor that Ieva will try again for Lithuania too.
Not too different from 2016, which got back Greta Salome, Donny Montell, and Kaliopi from 2012; 2017, which got back Laura and Omar Naber from 2005; and 2019, which got back Sergey Lazarev and Serhat from 2016. (Honorable mention to 2005, which featured three different contestants from 1995 as backing vocalists: Alex Panayi, Elina Konstaninopoulou, and Anabel Conde).
Maybe Eleni for Cyprus and Ermal Meta for Italy again. So we will have a 2018 comeback probably.
Eleni Foureira hasn’t been mentioned as being in the running for Cyprus at all.
I’ve heard that rumor too, and she may have submitted something. But we’ll see if Ieva is n the running once the participants are revealed for PiN.
Really excited about Shira, I still listen to Out in Space today and I love her voice. And Elina of course nothing to add
I’m a big fan of Stefan. I hope he has a good song. I would really love to see him go to Eurovision!
elina winner everyone else go home
Basing this solely of songtitles, I think these will qualify:
Merilin Mälk and Sahlene don’t really have promising song titles imo.
Actual predictions about who will qualify are only possible when the songs are released tho.
Judging a song by its title is a bit like judging a book by its cover. 🙂
That’s why I said “Actual predictions about who will qualify are only possible when the songs are released tho”. My comment was meant to be a pre-prediction as how I would like to call it.
Some juries have been known to judge by far less 😉
I think Sahlene will qualify. All big names have qualified up to now in Eesti Laul. I think the public will push her through like they did with Evelin Samuel. Elina is also a sure public qualifier. The rest is up for grabs.
Traffis is a big name, didn’t qualify. Most of qualifiers are small names or totally unknown.
I’d say that Elina and Sahlene are both likely in. Considering that this would be Stefan’s fourth try, and that he qualified in all of his previous efforts, reached superfinals twice, and won the overall jury vote in 2019, I’d be surprised if he misses out. Fingers crossed for Shira too, if her song is even remotely as good as Out In Space. It will definitely be a very competitive semi.
Yes seems like we have a lot of big names for only 3 televoting qualifiers. Even if this quarter-final is not as much an even battle as the previous one, it is surely gonna be exciting! And I sense that quarter final 3 will have a lot of strong entries that will finish high in the final ranking!
All the rumors were true! That means ott lepland might compete next week also as a contestant.
I hope to not get disappointed by Elina because if someone wants to come back he has to bring a superb song.
Yes I am also really anxious about Elina’s entry. Fingers crossed it will be superb! Also given that Ott is hosting now, I think he won’t be participating this year.
Yeah, I feel like that would be a conflict of interest. People had also been saying Laura and Uku might come back and we can see they definitely aren’t. Just makes me wonder who the next duo of hosts will be. Stig, Elina, Sahlene, and Evelin Samuel are all competing, so who’s next? We’re running out of famous Estonian entrants that actually speak Estonian!
Juri and Elina from 2015 probably
Laura and Ott said that this time her song is not operetic and it´s more pop but definitely with some high range notes… also the author is Sven Lõhmus who composed Rändajad, Verona, Supersonic, Päästke Noored hinged and etc so I´m waiting for something cool but magical at the same time..
Give me something as amazing as Rändajad and I am surely in for the ride!
Elina might as well have the winner entry and I am very excited to hear her entry!
Oh blimey, that’s a lot of good acts in one quarter final. There are going to be some good ones who don’t make it cos of statistics, which is sad. But everyone have fun watching videos. 🙂
That’s not Laura Pöldvere, lol.
Nvm. I didn’t read the article correctly. Smh
We’ve all done that from time to time.
Not really tbh. When I commented, I only saw the list of participants and not the hosts.
Btw, next time when this (me not reading the article correctly) happens, just remove the words “I mean no offense, but”. Without those words I already know you don’t mean offense because it is a genuine question you ask. Only capitals or an exclamation mark would make a question look offensive.
If I could, I would’ve disliked my “That’s not Laura Pöldvere, lol.” comment.
Sahlene! Elina! Stefan! Shira! This could be the strongest quarter of the bunch! deLULU & Goodreason sound very promising too.
Sahlene and Elina!!! I’m very excited to hear both songs! Maybe Elina have a winner entry
interesting how they made the last semi all Estonian songs and these are all in English–guess this was their guarantee to have Estonian songs be in the final
I am super excited to have Shira return!!!