Eesti Laul went ahead with live shows on Thursday with the first semi-final of Estonia’s Eurovision 2022. Of the ten acts performing tonight, five qualified for the final on 12 February. These five qualifiers are Ott Lepland, ELYSA, Stig Rästa, Andrei Zevakin feat. Grete Paia and Elina Nechayeva.
Estonia’s Eesti Laul 2022 was expanded compared to previous years. The show began all the way back in December when forty acts fought for twenty semi-final spots while premiering their music videos in the quarter-final.
Because of sickness, neither ELYSA nor Merilin Mälk performed their songs live during the first semi-final. Instead, ERR showed their music videos.
The semi-final’s result was determined by a combination of televoting and a jury panel, which each counted for half the results. Four acts qualified from the first round, being chosen by both jury and televoting. One act additionally qualified from the second round, in which only televoters were able to choose.
Ott Lepland, Kaia-Liisa Kesler, Stig Rästa and Merilin Mälk were among the top four of the jury. Eventually, Ott Lepland, ELYSA, Stig Rästa and Andrei Zevakin feat. Grete Paia were among the top four of combined jury and televoting. Eurovision 2018 star Elina Nechayeva joined them from the second round.
Eesti Laul 2022 semi-final one qualifiers’ performances
Ott Lepland – “Aovalguses”
ELYSA – “Fire”
Stig Rästa – “Interstellar”
Andrei Zevakin feat. Grete Paia – “Mis nüüd saab”
Elina Nechayeva – “Remedy”
Eesti Laul 2022 semi-final results
Qualified from the first round
- ELYSA – “Fire”
- Andrei Zevakin feat. Grete Paia – “Mis nüüd saab”
- Stig Rästa – “Interstellar”
- Ott Lepland – “Aovalguses”
Qualified from the second round
- Elina Nechayeva – “Remedy”
Eliminated
- Helen – “Vaata mine poole”
- Alabama Watchdog – “Move On”
- Merilin Mälk – “Little Girl”
- Triin Niitoja and Frants Tikerpuu – “Laululind”
- Kaia-Liisa Kesler – “Vaikus”
Are you satisfied with the results from Eesti Laul 2022 semi-final one? Did you favourites qualify? Let us know in the comments down below!
Very impressive performances by Ott and Elina. I love them both, no complaints. Both would be worthy winners.
Give Ott his trophy already
Elina Nechayeva has awfu song this year, and y’all know it. I like her too but the song sucks. I don’t know how she qualified.
awfu!!!
On a related topic, this semi final also contained the epic glass-smashing contest. For those who missed it: It involved Juri and the Alabama Watchdog singer managing an already injured Elina, a loose tablecloth, safety glasses, screeching high notes, and rogue pieces of glass accidentally hitting Andrei on the sofa! This was car-crash TV at its best. 😀
Oh yeah, that looked dangerous, but fun. 🙂 Thankfully, they all had goggles.
I’ll be very disappointed if Estonia happens to host Eurovision in the next few years and doesn’t ask Juri to be one of the hosts. He’s very charming and comfortable on camera.
I agree. I will never forget a moment years ago when a rep (recorded by Wiwibloggs) began an interview with Juri by saying something like: “So last year, you finished last in your Semi final for us…”) And Juri just raised his eyebrows slightly and cooly carried on. 😀 He’s great.
i feel so sad for elina oh my god
Ott looks like a winner to me. I think it is between him and Stefan, and no matter who wins Estonia will sail to the ESC final.
The results were exactly what I predicted.
Well that was predictable
I would take Kaia over Elysa but oh well..
Also i got so scared for Elina when she fell,hope she isn’t hurt.
So happy for Ott,one of my favourites!
I assume something went wrong when Elina was dropped, because it made a big noise and her voice even got shaky, when we know she’s usually flawless. Still the most interesting package of the night to me, they just need to make adjustments (don’t show us the dancers putting the wires on her back!). Ott had great vocals as expected, it’s a pity the song isn’t special. “Interstellar” and “Mis nüüd saab” left me completely indifferent (which is not bad news to them, since I’m still trying to figure out what Estonians see in Uku Suviste). And I don’t like… Read more »
I wondered about that, the impact must have hurt. Ouch. Glad she is through.
It was quite scary to watch it. And like Balint said, Elina handled it like a pro, because I guess most people won’t be able to finish the performance.
A WTF moment to be sure. handled it professionally. My knees are bad and i felt that for her. Ouch
Yeah she said later that she wasn’t supposed to drop that fast and bounce back like that. She was okay and happy otherwise, but said she might feel it tomorrow.
I’m glad to know she’s fine! May she take the weekend to rest before the next rehearsals. 🙂
Very happy, but Zevakin/Paia I dont like… its “too much” !
Ott, Elina and Elysa are very good !!! Im waiting for the live performance of Elysa …
On the other hand, Stig I love his song but it was very average live I hope that Saturday he will improve!!
Elina , very good voice !!
I hope “stefan” will do a good live saturday !! I Hope I hope I hope !!!!
Decent qualifiers, but “vaikus” was so robbed! She was one of the few performers that had great vocals, and it was a beautiful song too!
It was a really difficult semi, and I at least liked nine of these songs. I am happy that Elina qualified, even if only by public. Stig and Ott were also expected, and well deserved qualifiers. I’d qualify Merilin over Elysa, but I am happy that least one of them made it through, considering their circumstances. I hope that both make a full recovery soon. Grete and Andrei are such growers for me too. Sure, the song is somewhat on a repetitive side, but they are such incredibly talented performers. They served classy club realness. Kaia-Liisa and the Laululind duo… Read more »
Poor Elina. Stig Rästa didn’t deserve to qualify.
Kind of what I expected, I would’ve rather had Merilin over Elysa, but I didn’t have high expectations from this SF. On the other hand, Saturday’s SF will be a bloodbath.
Elina handled that fall so professionally. If it happened to me, I would have fainted.
At first i thought it was Spain 2016 moment but after i heard her voice afterward i figured it wasn’t intentional.
It was semi-intentional, in the rehearsals she did the same, but looks like this time the fall was a little too fast
ouch, I felt that as I watched. Poor Elina
Congrats to the five acts, but “ouch” – personally I only chose three of the five qualifiers.
Interesting that Elysa qualified despite being not able to perform live, yet Merliin didn’t make it.
Also, a shout-out goes to Triin and Frants for a wonderful duet with piano – it seems that my style of songwriting has not yet died in Estonia and this gives me hope. 🙂
5/5 i am happy
Elina not qualifying from the first round?
Gets ready for Moth to turn up and start calling the show and everyone else tastless. I can’t wait to see their reaction when she doesn’t win next week.
Otherwise it was a good show and I’m pleased that Ott and Stig went through they were the best of the night for me.
i see u r still obsessed with me lol
all in all i do not care if elina doesn’t win, after her almost breaking her legs tonight i hope she ditches eesti laul for a while now
I’m pretty happy with the qualifiers, except for Andrei and Grete qualifying over Merilin. I knew both her and Elysa were in danger because they only had their MVs shown and I thought that one of them might not qualify because of it. But overall this is the result I expected. Also, good job to everyone I thought no one really flopped or had a bad performance except some vocal issues and weird choices in terms of camera angles for “Laululind” but really other than that every performance was well thought through. Now I’m just hoping for Maian to have… Read more »
I hope Elina is ok from that fall it looked like she did not expect it
We saw the fall during rehearsals too, but looks like she landed wrong (it looked faster than in the rehearsals too)
Kinda like Melodifestivalen – big names are worth more than a good song…
Eesti Laul is practically a scale version of Mello :/
She may not have qualified but the winner of my heart is Kaia-Liisa. She was excellent