Its the nation that brewed up a storm at Eurovision 2019. And on Wednesday 13 November, Estonia set out its stall for the 2020 contest… well, half of it. The first 12 acts of Eesti Laul 2020 have been revealed.
In its press release, the Estonian broadcaster ERR confirmed that it received 178 submissions, that’s down from the 216 received for the 2019 competition.
The remaining dozen acts will be announced on Thursday 14 November.
However, we’ll have to wait a little bit before we can enjoy the songs. All 24 entries will be released during a special programme on Saturday 30 November.
Eesti Laul 2020 — First 12 acts
While these are the first 12 acts to be announced, they will not necessarily be performing in the first semi-final.
- “Beautiful Lie” Jaagup Tuisk (Jaagup Tuisk)
- “Break Me” Laura, (Janne Hyöty, Jessica Hyöty and Laura Põldvere)
- “By My Side” STEFAN (Karl-Ander Reismann and Stefan Airapetjan)
- “Lean On Me” Ziggy Wild (Laura Prits, Valdur Viiklepp, Sander Nõmmistu and Henri-Hannes Sell)
- “Leelo” Kruuv (Allan Kasuk)
- “Out In Space” SHIRA (SHIRA and Karl-Ander Reismann)
- “Unistustes” Mariliis Jõgeva (Mariliis Jõgeva and Oliver Mazurtšak)
- “Videomäng” Renate (Renate Saluste)
- “What Love Is” Uku Suviste (Uku Suviste and Sharon Vaugh)
- “Without a Reason” Little Mess (Ebbe Ravn, Timo Vendt, Mihkel Mattisen and Tanja Mihhailova-Saar)
- “Üks kord veel” Traffic (Victor Crone, Fred Krieger, Vallo Kikas and Stig Rästa)
- “Young” Rasmus Rändvee (Karl-Ander Reismann and Rasmus Rändvee)
Eesti Laul 2020 — Standout names
The list includes a number of familiar acts, most notably Laura. She’s competed in the Estonian selection many times. She won with her Koit Toome duet “Verona” in 2017. Sadly, the song stalled in the semis at Eurovision. She’s also responsible for the 2016 fan favourite “Supersonic”.
Also featured is Traffic. The band are veterans of Eesti Laul, although they haven’t competed since their third-place finish in 2014. Estonia’s 2015 rep Stig Rästa is a regular group member, although he does not appear to be joining them for their latest Eurovision attempt… on stage. He’s listed among the songwriters on “Üks kord veel”, along with last year’s Eesti Laul champ Victor Crone.
Other returning names include STEFAN and Uku Suviste from 2019, and Rasmus Rändvee from 2018. The “Amazing” Tanja from Eurovision 2014 is a co-writer on Little Mess’ “Without A Reason”.
Eesti Laul 2020 — Format
The show will keep the same format as recent years. There will be two semi-finals held on 13 and 15 February. In each semi-final, the 24 competing acts will battle for the 12 places in the grand final on 29 February 2020.
The grand final qualifiers will be decided using two rounds of voting. First, a jury and televote will decide the top eight out of the 12 acts in each semi. Those eight will then face a further round of televoting where the top six will qualify for the grand final.
At the grand final, the 12 acts will compete and will again face two rounds of voting. The top three acts will be decided by a jury and televoters. Those acts will battle it out in a superfinal. There, winner of the Eurovision ticket will be decided by televote alone.
Eesti Laul was first expanded to 24 competing acts in 2019. There, Swedish singer Victor Crone won with “Storm”, penned by Estonian songwriter — and Eurovision 2015 singer — Stig Rästa. The performance got Estonia into the Eurovision grand final for the second year in a row, where it finished 20th.
What do you think of the acts so far? Who are you most excited for? Let us know in the comments.
I Don’t want Laura to win again. it’s time to give other acts a chance to represent Estonia. Laura already had her chance at Eurovision at 2005, 2017 smh, why is she doing it again?
Stefan, Laura and Rasmus Randvee are back! Already so excited! 🙂
Victor Crone too, I see! But is he a performer as well or he co-wrote the song? Anyway, great news!
Estonian is one of the most beautiful, melodic languages of europe and I hope that they will choose an at least partly estonian song next year…
i don’t get why they barely use Estonian in their esc entries – they placed so well in 2009, 2012 and 2013 so why sing a boring english song again??
anybody else who wants elina born & jüri pootsmann to join each other with a song in Estonian?
jagatud saladus is a masterpiece and i want sth similar at eurovision…
‘Kuula’ is a masterpiece.
20th place is hardly placing ‘so well’ Estonian is a beautiful melodic language indeed but the quality of Estonian language songs in Eesti Laul recent years has been tame and average, the only one that I go back and listen is “Milline Päev” do remember it is a song contest where people vote for the best song regardless of it’s genre, language or act.
what a great lineup! so many big names, even those who are not “big” in estonia yet, are still great. for example new estonian girl band little mess . they have released 2 singles so far and their mentors are tanja mihhailova-saar, who competed for estonia with the song “amazing” in 2014 and timo vendt, who has written songs for birgit (“et uus saaks alguse” 2013) . SHIRA is a woman who was the backup singer for victor crone’s recorded version @”storm”. everyone else are big names in estonia. really can not wait last 12 acts!
Wow! That’s an incredible line-up. Lots of great performers and songwriters who I am already a fan of. (You know who you are.) 🙂
The young one in the list is Jaagup Tuisk – 18 years old and already quite well-established.
Just a note on Renate Saluste – is she the same Renate who has been producing piano covers of Eurovision songs for the last few years? Or is she a different Renate?
P.S. Ziggy Wild is Laura Prits and band, so technically she is a returnee as well.
It’s the same Renate. 8 out of 12 so far are returning artists, 9/12 if you count backing vocalists as well.
Oh wow! Things are moving so fast this year! That’s amazing!
I really hope Eesti Laul brings their A game this year, I have lots of faith in Estonia, although it’s usually a mixed bag for me with this country given that Rändajad is one of my most favourite songs ever in ESC and yet, Verona is the song that I hate the most from ESC 2018.
Verona was 2017 hun…
Good ol’ Stig will forever be chasing that dragon that was Goodbye to Yesterday, but I always look forward to seeing what he sends to Eesti Laul. One of the few NF regulars I never get sick of. And Storm has been a real grower for me. Surprised that a song I never gave much thought before the contest this year might be in my top 10 now. (Helps that it was my grandpa’s favorite and I could see he was pleased that they advanced to the final, although that was also the moment I seriously started sweating about San… Read more »
Belarus? I guess you had to like it.
Agreed on “Storm”. I thought it was okay around ESC season, but now I really like it and listening to it always gives me really great vibes.
(For the record, the other two I didn’t expect were Belarus and Serbia, but I sort of figured after they’d performed that they were good enough to qualify. Serbia was still great in the final. Belarus, not so much.)
Lmao Victor Crone touching Eesti Laul again? Please.
So we’ll end November with 3 announced acts and knowing the songs (I hope with more than snippets) from Albania and Estonia. Things are moving faster this year!
I got a Sandra return last year and a Laura return this year! Happy.
Strong first 12 which makes me think there could be a surprise in the second 12. Here’s to Elina Nechayeva, Grete Paia (with a bop like Stories Untold), Elina Born and Kerli.
I’m still hoping Elina Nechayeva will be in tomorrow names. She deserves a comeback and win everything.
she’s my favourite estonian artist and i love her as much as you do but there is no way that she is coming back to eesti laul so soon
I like Elina too but I think its a bit too early for her to come back and do Eesti Laul/Eurovision again. (Maybe 2022 or 2024 might be a more appropriate time to come back).
I don’t see her returning simply because she placed quite well in Lisbon, in comparison to Laura in Kyiv. Laura has the scope to improve her placing in Rotterdam, whereas that scope is reduced for Elina.
well elina has said before that she doesn’t mind returning to eesti laul but it definitely wont be this year since she knows that other singers deserve a chance too
Opera songs will never win Eurovision. Even jury’s favorite Australia couldn’t get top 5 with the jury.
just because an opera song will never win esc (according to you) doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t have them in the contest… it’s always great to have musical diversity
I think I don’t want to hear that ‘Leelo’ song, I’m sure it will be cringe best. Estonian traditional music is so bad
But musical diversity is needed for a better show and broader local audience.
I think it’s next year’s version of the song about cats (where are the cats? But in German)
Is the “Sharon Vaugh” in this article actually “Sharon Vaughn” of Russia 2019 “swallow hard” fame? If so, I’m very curious to find out about her take on “what love is”.
I love Eesti Laul and Stefan has had great two songs before. And his new ”We’ll be fine” is catchy. Rasmus’ This love was mu favourite back then. So really excited to see him back too.
The quality of Eesti Laul seems to be making a return! I am so thrilled to see Jaagup competing, he’s so cute. I am also pleased to see that Rasmus Rändvee and Laura are back. Eesti Laul 2020 has just become a must watch. I am already truly excited about Estonia. Please let the songs be good.
Good to see you noticed Jaagup too. 🙂
Of course, it’s all about the songs. Of course.
Excellent line-up so far! Eesti Laul already drawing the big guns! Stefan, Laura, Uku Suviste, Rasmus Rändvee & Traffic competing together just makes you wonder who else in recent years is joining them, interesting to see Victor Crone has co-written a song in Estonian too.
Victor AND Stig co-writing a song makes me happy. And what would an Eesti Laul be without a new Stig Rästa song?
Now this is an interesting NF. Not the annual MF church
just like melfest it’s the same names all over tho
eesti laul has the same names all over again because estonia is an extremely small country with a small music scene… you really can’t compare it with melfest
Those “same names” are quite beloved. Furthermore, there ARE new names in the mix.
Do you complain at everything when you are with you friends to? you must be a fun person haha.
I am not complaining, dude. I am congratulating Estonia. The world is not only Sweden, you know?
But they are very good and this is the key issue for me.
I literally predicted this comment before i opened the tab… Like exactly this And you’re the same person who told me there’s no slightly negative bias towards sweden among eurofans. But then again sweden is the only country that gets negatively mentioned under other countries posts at random…
People dont get this: if you are an artist and have that as your job and like to compete in selections. Then go for it:). In Sweden an artist can compete 2 year in a row then have to take a break. Its the rules here but it still get people mad haha. Really pathetic. We dont care here that arstist are cmpeting 2 years in a row. Its fun.
I don’t know why you are saying that. I didn’t even mentioned the fact that people are coming back. That was not my point. My point is that Eesti Laul is much more interesting musically than many other NFs, including and especially MF. But as you pay the taxes for SVT and you like it above all in the world, then good for you. But I for one, would perfer to pay my taxes in Estonia for that matter.
I can only speak for myself. I actually admire Sweden for many many things. I wish my country and all the countries could be a bit more like Sweden in many aspects. On the ESC, I think that Sweden brought in the past really good stuff and even shaped the history of ESC. So kudos for that. Now, the contast bragging from the Swedish ESC fans, always saying that everybody else is envious, and a complete sense of crtique and accepting everyting that SVT does as the absolute truth is what makes me questioning Sweden. And of course the over-qualification… Read more »
Excited about Laura, Rasmus and Stefan (and Traffic as well). Hoping to see some bigger names tomorrow like Elina Born, Liis Lemsalu, Juri Pootsman and Kerli. Excited though
Among the names you mentioned I can only see Liis Lemsalu re-appearing tbh.
Really hope kerli competes because she is the mother and queen of everything and ‘spirit animal’ didn’t do her justice in 2017.
If she competes she will be the last to be announced tomorrow just like Laura was last announced today.
I’ll be waiting with baited breath
Like…..she’s literally a goddess
if kerli’s live vocals are as bad as they were in 2017 then… no thanks
Laura is trying to become Estonia’s Valentina at this point. There you girl! I suppose it’s the thing of small countries, some names are always around, like also Stig, because there’s not that of big pool to choose from.
Out of Topic: Have any of you seen Poli Genova’s insta lately? She’s got a post about something big being announce soon, just after Bulgaria said they were back.
omg the one and only legendary fashion icon, the truine laura verona….. this eurovision season is already amazing !