Estonia: ERR confirms Eurovision 2024 participation

• Estonia will be taking part in the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden in May 2024. 

  Estonia will be present in Sweden for Eurovision 2024 as the national broadcaster, ERR, has confirmed their participation in the 68th edition of the contest. 

  This will be marking Estonia's 29th participation since they debuted back in 1994. The Baltic nation will be selecting their next Eurovision 2024 representative through the traditional national selection format of Eesti Laul. 

   

  Team & Format changes

  The Estonian national broadcaster, intends to introduces changes in the natiional selection format of Essti Laul while the same time the team behind the country's Eurovision preparation will be renewed with fresh faces. Tomi Rahula, the Estonian Head of Delegation and Eesti Laul producer will be stepping down from his position after 5 years.

   The ERR Chief Editor Entertainment Programs Karmel Killandi stated:

  Every big project needs to be re-evaluated and refreshed from time to time. Eesti Laul is even more so, because on the one hand it is Estonia’s biggest and most important music show and on the other hand it is a stepping stone to Eurovision. We want to face autumn with innovations, and summer is the best time to analyze the season that ended and also previous years.

   

  We are very grateful to Tom for leading Estonian Song for five years and hopefully we will see him participating in the competition soon

   

  Tomi Rahula Eesti Laul Producer and Estonian Head of Delegation up to dated commented on his five year service:

  It’s great to say that in five years you could contribute to such a big TV project. Go outside the TV studio with the semi-finals and throw a proper party right in Tartu. Try to add the autumn quarter-finals to the event, which gave great results to the artists, who otherwise would not have made it to the stage of the semi-finals and the final. It was also important for me to include a completely neutral jury in the final. As a bonus, Estonian music and musicians were also introduced and brought together with top foreign players.

   

  Estonia in Eurovision 

  Estonia joined the Eurovision family in 1994 . On their debut participation they were represented by Silvi Vrait, who finished 2nd last with only 2 points. Seven years later the country was crowned winner of  Eurovision Song Contest 2001 for the first and only time until today. Tanel Padar, Dave Benton & 2XL, performed the song Everybody and against all odds achieved to bring the trophy from Copenhagen in Estonia.

  However this success didn’t continue as Estonia failed to qualify for the final from 2004-2008. In 2009 after successive bad results led to the establishment of Eesti Laul, as the show through which the country has been selecting its Eurovision entries the last ten years, having seven times qualified to the final.
  
  

  Uku Suviste won the Eesti Laul 2021 finals after the covid year with his song 'The Lucky One' and went off to representing the country in Rotterdam. Uku competed in the second semi final and depsite his strong performance didn't make it to the Grand Final. In 2022 STEFAN won the national final with the song 'Hope' and flew the flag in Turin where he finished 13th in the Grand final with 141 points. 

  This year Alika won Eesti Laul 2023 with 'Bridges' and flew the Estonian flag in Liverpool where she achieved a top 10 placing for her nation by finishing 8th in the Grand final scoring 168 points. 

   

  News Source: ESCToday/ ERR

  Image: EBU/Corinne Cumming

AUTHORS

Angelos D.
Loyal follower of the Eurovision Song Contest since 1987, I've made the competition one of the stories of my life. After attending as accredited press the event for 13 consecutive years along with the 2017-2024 JESC editions, I also enjoy the last three years sharing more Eurovision music through the Eurofans radio's project.