Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018

Eesti Laul 2018 was the tenth edition of the Estonian national selection Eesti Laul, which selected Estonia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. The competition consisted of twenty entries competing in two semi-finals on 10 and 17 February 2018 leading to a ten-song final on 3 March 2018.[3] All three shows were broadcast on Eesti Televisioon (ETV) as well as streamed online on the broadcaster's official website err.ee.

The format of the competition included two semi-finals on 10 and 17 February 2018 and a final on 3 March 2018.[4] Ten songs competed in each semi-final and five from each semi-final qualified to complete the ten 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 qualifier. 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. In addition to winning the right to represent Estonia at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest, the winning songwriters and producers were also awarded a monetary prize of €3,000 and €1,000, respectively. The Estonian Authors' Society and Estonian Performers Association also awarded monetary prizes of €1,000 to the performers of the top three entries.[5]

On 19 September 2017, ERR opened the submission period for artists and composers to submit their entries up until 1 November 2017. All artists and composers were required to have Estonian citizenship or be a permanent resident of Estonia and each artist and songwriter was only able to submit a maximum of three entries with an exception for songwriters who participated in songwriting camps organised by the Estonian Song Academy in spring and autumn 2017. Foreign collaborations were allowed as long as 50% of the songwriters were Estonian.[6] A record 258 submissions were received by the deadline—breaking the previous record of 242, set during the 2017 edition. A 15-member jury panel, which consisted of Karl-Erik Taukar (singer), Koit Raudsepp (Raadio 2 presenter), Alon Amir (music manager), Mariliis Mõttus (Müürileht music editor), Andres Puusepp (DJ), Jaane Tomps (Eesti Ekspress music journalist), Harri Hakanen (Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu music manager), Mingo Rajandi (musician), Siim Nestor (Eesti Ekspress music journalist), Getter Jaani (singer), Sten Teppan (Vikerradio music editor), Mari-Liis Männik (Radio Elmar), Toomas Puna (Raadio Sky+ program director), Irina Svensson (Raadio 4 editor) and Valner Valme (music critic), selected 15 of the 20 semi-finalists from the submissions, while the remaining 5 semi-finalists were selected by the Eesti Laul editors: Ove Musting, Ingrid Kohtla, Mai Palling, Filip Adamo, Ruth Heinmaa and Mart Normet.[5] The selected songs were announced during the ETV entertainment program Ringvaade on 10 November 2017.[7]

Among the competing artists were previous Eurovision Song Contest entrants Semy, who represented Estonia as member of 2XL in 2010 together with Tanel Padar and Dave Benton, Gerli Padar, who represented Estonia in 2007, and Stig Rästa, who represented Estonia in 2015 together with Elina Born. Marju Länik's entry was written by Axel Ehnström, who represented Finland in 2011 as Paradise Oskar.

The first semi-final took place on 10 February 2018, hosted by Kristel Aaslaid and Martin Veisman. The live portion of the show was held at the ERR studios in Tallinn where the artists awaited the results while their performances, which were filmed earlier at the ERR studios between 2 and 4 February 2018, were screened.[5] Ten songs competed for five 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 22,985 votes in the first round and 10,909 votes in the second round. The jury panel that voted in the first semi-final consisted of Lenna Kuurmaa, Eeva Talsi, Hanna Parman, Mariliis Mõttus, Kristjan Hirmo, Tomi Rahula, Jaanus Nõgisto, Dave Benton, Rainer Ild, Aleksandr Žemžurov and Erik Morna.[9]

  First round (jury and televote) qualifier   Second round (televote-only) qualifier

The second semi-final took place on 17 February 2018, hosted by Kristel Aaslaid and Martin Veisman. The live portion of the show was held at the ERR studios in Tallinn where the artists awaited the results while their performances, which were filmed earlier at the ERR studios between 2 and 4 February 2018, were screened.[5] Ten songs competed for five 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 9,782 votes in the first round and 7,920 votes in the second round. The jury panel that voted in the second semi-final consisted of Lenna Kuurmaa, Eeva Talsi, Hanna Parman, Mariliis Mõttus, Kristjan Hirmo, Tomi Rahula, Jaanus Nõgisto, Dave Benton, Rainer Ild, Aleksandr Žemžurov and Erik Morna.[11]

  First round (jury and televote) qualifier   Second round (televote-only) qualifier

The final took place on 3 March 2018 at the Saku Suurhall in Tallinn, hosted by Kristel Aaslaid and Martin Veisman. The five entries that qualified from each of the two preceding semi-finals, all together ten songs, competed during the show.[12] 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: "Home" performed by Stig Rästa, "Laura (Walk with Me)" performed by Vajé and "La forza" performed by Elina Nechayeva. The public vote in the first round registered 70,755 votes. In the superfinal, "La forza" performed by Elina Nechayeva was selected as the winner entirely by a public televote.[13][14] The public televote in the superfinal registered 61,637 votes. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, Koit Toome and Laura, who represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017, performed as the interval act. The jury panel that voted in the final consisted of Valter Soosalu, Maiken, Ģirts Majors, Nicola Caligiore, Laura Prits, Sten Teppan, Joana Levieva-Sawyer, Helena Sildna, Ole Tøpholm, Marina Kesler and Ivar Must.[15]

Nechayeva's dress at the contest measured 52 m² and weighted around 8 kg.[18] Light projections of the song's theme were beamed continuously on the dress. According to Estonia's video artist Alyona Movko, the projections began with an ice queen imagery whose heart is melted by love, as the snow turned into water.[18] Afterwards a fairytale-like glow followed and then the growing of flowers which were sent out by Nechayeva as a symbol of love.[18] A team of at least eight people moved Nechayeva's dress onto the stage, in the exact position required by the projectors.[18] The entire preparation for the performance (finding a dress, creation and generation of the animations, mapping the projections onto the dress, synching with television when captured by a camera and finalising the choreography) took two weeks.[18]

Estonia performed sixth in the grand final, following Austria and preceding Norway. They received sixth place from the jury vote and ninth from the televote, allowing them to finish eighth.

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, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. 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.[19] In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.[20]

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

The following five members comprised the Estonian jury: [21]

• Eva Palm – Chairperson – head promoter of Live Nation Baltics
• Alan Roosileht – radio host and DJ
• Anett Kulbin – artist
• Karl Killing – artist
• Rainer Ild – artist

Split voting results from Estonia (Semi-final 1)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		E. Palm	A. Roosileht	A. Kulbin	K. Killing	R. Ild	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Azerbaijan	3	8	14	8	14	8	3	11
02	Iceland	12	5	9	9	17	11		16
03	Albania	10	10	13	5	8	10	1	13
04	Belgium	7	11	3	15	10	7	4	8	3
05	Czech Republic	18	6	6	18	16	14		4	7
06	Lithuania	13	3	1	2	2	2	10	2	10
07	Israel	17	14	2	17	18	12		10	1
08	Belarus	8	12	18	16	15	17		5	6
09	Estonia
10	Bulgaria	4	15	12	6	3	4	7	17
11	Macedonia	16	16	15	14	13	18		18
12	Croatia	9	13	7	10	5	9	2	15
13	Austria	2	1	8	1	1	1	12	3	8
14	Greece	6	7	16	12	12	13		14
15	Finland	5	2	10	13	11	6	5	1	12
16	Armenia	14	18	17	7	7	15		12
17	Switzerland	15	17	11	11	6	16		9	2
18	Ireland	11	9	5	3	9	5	6	6	5
19	Cyprus	1	4	4	4	4	3	8	7	4

Split voting results from Estonia (final)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		E. Palm	A. Roosileht	A. Kulbin	K. Killing	R. Ild	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Ukraine	19	17	11	14	18	19		19
02	Spain	20	20	6	9	9	13		18
03	Slovenia	22	25	17	13	19	23		24
04	Lithuania	11	4	1	2	1	2	10	1	12
05	Austria	3	1	3	1	2	1	12	5	6
06	Estonia
07	Norway	6	6	14	8	12	7	4	9	2
08	Portugal	5	19	12	10	7	8	3	22
09	United Kingdom	12	9	5	19	17	12		21
10	Serbia	25	24	23	20	21	25		25
11	Germany	17	7	2	4	3	5	6	15
12	Albania	18	18	19	18	10	20		20
13	France	8	10	15	17	16	14		12
14	Czech Republic	23	11	8	25	24	15		6	5
15	Denmark	14	12	16	21	14	17		3	8
16	Australia	13	13	24	12	20	18		14
17	Finland	7	5	18	11	15	9	2	2	10
18	Bulgaria	2	15	4	5	4	4	7	23
19	Moldova	10	16	25	23	23	22		10	1
20	Sweden	4	3	20	7	11	6	5	17
21	Hungary	21	23	22	22	13	24		8	3
22	Israel	24	22	7	24	25	16		16
23	Netherlands	9	8	21	15	5	10	1	11
24	Ireland	15	21	10	6	8	11		13
25	Cyprus	1	2	9	3	6	3	8	7	4
26	Italy	16	14	13	16	22	21		4	7