Estonia wrapped up the semi-finals of Eesti Laul 2023 last week, with ten acts securing their place in the grand final. But the remaining participants who failed to make it through were given one more lifeline. Now, MIA and ELYSA have earned the two wildcard spots and will also progress to the final in February.
Following the results of semi-final two on Saturday, Estonian broadcaster ERR opened the voting lines once again for the wildcard round. The public were able to vote between the ten acts who had not initially made it through either semi-final, with the two most popular securing a wildcard slot.
After two days of voting, the results were revealed on Monday evening during TV show Ringvaade. And with that, the line-up of 12 acts for the Eesti Laul 2023 grand final is now complete.
Wildcard winners – Eesti Laul 2023
MIA – “Üks samm korraga”
ELYSA – “Bad Philosophy”
Eesti Laul 2023 grand finalists
- ALIKA – “Bridges”
- Andreas – “Why Do You Love Me”
- Anett x Fredi – “You Need To Move On”
- Bedwetters – “Monsters”
- ELYSA – “Bad Philosophy”
- INGER – “Awaiting You”
- Janek – “House of Glass”
- m els – “So Good (At What You Do)”
- Meelik – “Tuju”
- MIA – “Üks samm korraga”
- OLLIE – “Venom”
- SISSI – “Lighthouse”
Grand final details
The grand final of Eesti Laul 2023 will take place on 11 February in Tallin’s Tondiraba Ice Hall. Like the semi-finals, it will be hosted by Tõnis Niinemets and Grete Kuld.
Voting will be done over two rounds. Initially, a 50:50 split of jury and public voting will choose three acts to move onto the superfinal. The jury then has no power in the superfinal. The ultimate winner, and Estonia’s act for Eurovision 2023, will purely be down to votes from the audience at home.
Are you glad to see MIA and ELYSA secure the wildcard spots for Eesti Laul 2023? Who do you think will go on to win the grand final? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Honestly, Eesti Laul was tough this year. So many good songs that I may put in my regular playlists, that’s not a joke, Estonia was honestly the best national selection this year, and I don’t think anything will come close to it.
I’ll be honest, I would’ve liked to have seen Carlos qualify, I liked his song. I’m assuming it was 1 per semi. Mia would’ve been my pick for semi 1 because although the song doesn’t do a whole lot for me, the vocal was great and the staging suited it. Not bad options by any means but I would’ve personally selected Carlos.
Meh.
In this case you summed up my feelings perfectly, but since these are only the third round picks, I don’t expect them to have any kind of impact on the final result, anyway. These staggered voting rounds don’t make a lot of sense to me.
Why would anyone want to be involved in choosing the filler material for the final? And how does this improve the quality of their brand? It’s clear that these songs were neither first nor second nor even third, fourth or fifth choice. It’s completely implausible to think that one of them can make it to the superfinal, let alone go to Eurovision.
Remember Sweden 2013? Robin’s song You did not qualify directly to the final. He won after qualifying from Andra Chansen.
You wanna tell me all these generic/typical specifically-written-for-ESC songs deserved to qualify over Robin Juhkental? No chance at all, but it is what it is…
He was weird
Too weird. He had no chance.
I’m absolutely blown away by the performance of Alika. This is Splendid. One of the best performance so far this season
Mia was good. Elysa was cheap. Thats it.
Very happy to see Mia in the final, her live vocals were great
Yey happy about Elysa, I know her performance was pretty lackluster, but I do often find Bad Phylosophy stuck in my head, it’s very catchy.
She’s got time to improve. The final is a month away.
Happy for Mia and Elysa. Not happy for Whiskey drinkers. Poor Carlos.
Not sure how Mia got through…BUT Great job Elysa! Not sure how the public didn’t get her in before. I find the song underrated this year now.
I think: Superfinal will be between – Anet+Fredi/Alika and SISSI sadly
I really hope – Ollie/Mels or ELYSA could challenge too
I think Mia/Inger/Meelik are out
And i also think Alika/Andreas/Sissi/Duo/Janek could cancelled each other
Elysa is out too
She made Superfinal 2x actually
Probably won’t again
Alika/Ollie/Bedwetters
I hope but i know Sisi has fandom too
Btw Bedwetters have nearly 400k of monthly listeners on Spotify, while Alika and Ollie have about 30k. I don’t know if that means something, but I think Bedwetters will be surprise.
People said same about Kerli and even Uku, Stig and Stefan did not win Esti Laul on their 1time .. same Koite and Laura
Well, I was not surprised to see Elysa as one of the wildcards, but I was surprised to see Mia as the other wildcard. At least there are two songs in Estonian in the final.
Y
I like the song from Mia more than the song from Elysa
Congrats. I understand Elysa, but Mia? For me, it’s the second least impactful entry of EL 23. But fine, people have spoken…
Neither should win, though, considering the quality of a few songs in the final. Still, Elysa would’ve been my 1st in the current line-up of already picked ESC songs.
Wiskey want forget about Estonia people forgot 🙁
But*
Not the ones I wanted, but these were also two good songs. Eesti Laul was tough this year.
Great choices, I enjoy Elysa song but the chorus is too light and not impactful at all unfortunately because this girl has the all package she just need a killer song.
This IS a killer song. The point is that it gets onto you lightly, like an 80s synth song.
The chorus is almost inexistant unfortunately.
*non-existent
Someone has to be last in the final
Probably MIA.
Bummed that Carlos and the Whiskey song didn’t make it.
He should re-name the song: Estonia people forgot