Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021

The format of the competition included two semi-finals on 18 and 20 February 2021 and a final on 6 March 2021.[5] Twelve songs competed in each semi-final and the top six from each semi-final qualified to complete the twelve song lineup in the final. The results of the semi-finals was determined by the 50/50 combination of votes from a professional jury and public televoting for the first four qualifiers and a second round of public televoting for the fifth and sixth qualifiers. The winning song in the final was selected over two rounds of voting: the first round results selected the top three songs via the 50/50 combination of jury and public voting, while the second round (superfinal) determined the winner solely by public televoting.

Competing entries

On 1 September 2020, ERR opened the submission period for artists and composers to submit their entries up until 6 November 2020 through an online upload platform. Each artist and songwriter was only able to submit a maximum of five entries. Foreign collaborations were allowed as long as 50% of the songwriters were Estonian. A fee was also imposed on songs being submitted to the competition, with €25 for songs in the Estonian language and €75 for songs in other languages. One of the semi-finalist spots was reserved for

Among the competing artists were previous Eurovision Song Contest entrants Ivo Linna, who represented Estonia in 1996 with Maarja-Liis Ilus, Koit Toome, who represented Estonia in 1998 and in 2017 with Laura, Tanja, who represented Estonia in 2014, and Jüri Pootsmann, who represented Estonia in 2016. Andrei Zevakin, Egert Milder, Kaire Vilgats (member of Suured tüdrukud), Karl Killing, Kéa, Kristel Aaslaid (lead singer of Gram-Of-Fun), Nika Marula, Redel, Robert Linna, Sissi, Tuuli Rand, Uku Suviste and Wiiralt have all competed in previous editions of Eesti Laul.

Shows

Semi-finals

The two semi-finals took place on 18 and 20 February 2021. In each semi-final twelve songs competed for the first four spots in the final with the outcome decided upon by the combination of the votes from a jury panel and a public televote which registered 12,643 votes in the first semi-final and 27,785 votes in the second semi-final; the remaining two qualifiers were decided by an additional televote between the remaining non-qualifiers which registered 5,902 votes in the first semi-final and 11,800 votes in the second semi-final. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, Elina Born, who represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015, and singers Beebilõust and Villemdrillem performed as the interval act in the first semi-final, while singer Daniel Levi and the group Curly Strings performed as the interval act in the second semi-final.^[8][9] The jury panel that voted in the semi-finals consisted of Kerli Kõiv, Heidy Purga, Sünne Valtri, Janika Sillamaa, Anett Kulbin, Nele Kirsipuu, Kristjan Järvi, Koit Raudsepp, Silver Laas, Andres Puusepp and Genka.^[10]

Final

The final took place on 6 March 2021. The six entries that qualified from each of the two preceding semi-finals, all together twelve songs, competed during the show. The winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, a jury (50%) and public televote (50%) determined the top three entries to proceed to the superfinal. The public vote in the first round registered 55,956 votes. In the superfinal, "

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "

Once all the competing songs for the 2021 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Estonia was set to perform in position 2, following the entry from San Marino and before the entry from Czech Republic.^[14]

The two semi-finals and the final were broadcast in Estonia on ETV with commentary in Estonian by Marko Reikop, and on ETV+ with commentary in Russian by Aleksandr Hobotov and Julia Kalenda.^[15][16] For the first time in the history of the contest, all three shows were broadcast in Estonia with Estonian sign language translation provided by twenty interpreters.^[17] The Estonian spokesperson, who announced the top 12-point score awarded by the Estonian jury during the final, was Sissi.

Semi-final

Uku Suviste took part in technical rehearsals on 10 and 13 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 19 and 20 May. This included the jury show on 19 May where the professional juries of each country watched and voted on the competing entries.^[18]

The Estonian performance featured Uku Suviste performing on stage in a white loose bowtie outfit with the stage displaying dark blue colours and a large moon graphic with lightning effects appearing on the LED screens alongside water effects appearing on the LED floor.^[19][20] The stage director for the Estonian performance was Dan Shipton and Marvin Dietmann.^[21] Uku Suviste was joined by a backing vocalist: Kaarel Orumägi.^[22]

At the end of the show, Estonia was not announced among the top 10 entries in the first semi-final and therefore failed to qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Estonia placed 13th in the semi-final, receiving a total of 58 points: 29 points from both the televoting and the juries.

Voting

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act.^[23] In addition, each member of a national jury may only take part in the panel once every three years, and no jury was permitted to discuss of their vote with other members or be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently.^[24] The individual rankings of each jury member in an anonymised form as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.^[25][26]

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Estonia and awarded by Estonia in the second semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows:

Points awarded to Estonia

Points awarded to Estonia (Semi-final 2)^[27]

Score	Televote	Jury
12 points
10 points	Latvia
8 points
7 points	Finland	Bulgaria
6 points	Denmark
5 points
4 points		Poland
3 points	Moldova	Georgia  Latvia  Moldova   Switzerland
2 points		United Kingdom
1 point	Bulgaria  Czech Republic   Switzerland	Greece  Portugal  Serbia  Spain

Points awarded by Estonia

Points awarded by Estonia (Semi-final 2)[27] Score Televote Jury 12 points  Moldova   Switzerland 10 points  Finland  Bulgaria 8 points  Denmark  Iceland 7 points  Iceland  Finland 6 points   Switzerland  Portugal 5 points  Portugal  Serbia 4 points  San Marino  Austria 3 points  Georgia  Greece 2 points  Bulgaria  Albania 1 point  Latvia  San Marino

Points awarded by Estonia (Final)[28] Score Televote Jury 12 points  Finland   Switzerland 10 points  Lithuania  France 8 points  Italy  Iceland 7 points  France  Finland 6 points  Russia  Bulgaria 5 points  Ukraine  Portugal 4 points  Norway  Ukraine 3 points  Iceland  Italy 2 points   Switzerland  Lithuania 1 point  Sweden  Malta

Detailed voting results

The following members comprised the Estonian jury:^[25][26]

• Dave Benton
• Elina Born
• Stig Rästa
• Karl-Ander Reismann
• Birgit Sarrap

Detailed voting results from Estonia (Semi-final 2)^[27]

Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		Juror A	Juror B	Juror C	Juror D	Juror E	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	San Marino	10	7	7	11	13	10	1	7	4
02	Estonia
03	Czech Republic	9	14	15	8	10	11		16
04	Greece	7	8	12	7	7	8	3	11
05	Austria	13	6	9	5	6	7	4	12
06	Poland	15	16	16	13	15	16		15
07	Moldova	14	13	13	10	11	13		1	12
08	Iceland	3	1	4	2	9	3	8	4	7
09	Serbia	5	11	2	16	5	6	5	14
10	Georgia	12	10	8	15	14	12		8	3
11	Albania	8	9	6	14	8	9	2	13
12	Portugal	6	3	5	4	4	5	6	6	5
13	Bulgaria	4	4	3	3	2	2	10	9	2
14	Finland	1	5	11	6	1	4	7	2	10
15	Latvia	11	15	10	12	16	15		10	1
16	Switzerland	2	2	1	1	3	1	12	5	6
17	Denmark	16	12	14	9	12	14		3	8

Detailed voting results from Estonia (Final)^[28]

Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		Juror A	Juror B	Juror C	Juror D	Juror E	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Cyprus	20	8	10	12	24	14		16
02	Albania	14	20	16	18	20	21		25
03	Israel	13	11	14	8	13	13		21
04	Belgium	16	10	15	16	21	19		15
05	Russia	23	23	6	22	12	17		5	6
06	Malta	18	9	17	7	9	10	1	13
07	Portugal	17	3	11	5	6	6	5	12
08	Serbia	10	14	5	19	16	11		23
09	United Kingdom	19	22	20	17	17	25		22
10	Greece	9	17	18	9	22	18		17
11	Switzerland	1	2	2	1	3	1	12	9	2
12	Iceland	2	4	8	3	7	3	8	8	3
13	Spain	4	24	23	13	19	12		24
14	Moldova	25	26	25	25	26	26		19
15	Germany	26	25	26	24	11	24		18
16	Finland	3	7	9	6	1	4	7	1	12
17	Bulgaria	6	6	4	2	8	5	6	11
18	Lithuania	12	12	7	10	10	9	2	2	10
19	Ukraine	7	13	1	20	23	7	4	6	5
20	France	5	1	3	4	2	2	10	4	7
21	Azerbaijan	22	18	12	26	18	23		14
22	Norway	11	19	21	23	25	22		7	4
23	Netherlands	21	21	24	15	5	15		26
24	Italy	15	5	13	21	4	8	3	3	8
25	Sweden	8	15	22	11	14	16		10	1
26	San Marino	24	16	19	14	15	20		20

References

External links

• Official site of Eesti Laul