Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

participated in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2017 The Eurovision Song Contest 2017 was the 62nd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Kyiv, Ukraine, following the country's victory at the with the song "1944 (song), 1944" by Jamala. Organised by the European Broadcasting Uni ...

with the song "Verona" written by

Sven Lõhmus Sven Lõhmus (born 13 July 1972) is an Estonian pop-composer and lyricist. He is a producer at Moonwalk Studios, a music company featuring Estonian artists. He has worked with leading artists of Estonia, including Vanilla Ninja (of which he w ...

. The song was performed by

Koit Toome Koit Toome (born 3 January 1979), is an Estonian singer and musical actor. He has twice represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest. In 1998 he finished 12th with the song "Mere lapsed". In 2017 he sang a duet with Laura Põldvere, entit ...

, who had previously represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

where he placed twelfth with the song "Mere lapsed", and Laura, who had previously represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest in

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

as part of the group Suntribe where she failed to qualify to the final with the song "Let's Get Loud". The Estonian broadcaster

Eesti Rahvusringhääling Eesti Rahvusringhääling (ERR) – ''Estonian Public Broadcasting'' – is a publicly funded and owned radio and television organisation created in Estonia on 1 June 2007 to take over the functions of the formerly separate Eesti Raadio ...

(ERR) organised the national final ''

Eesti Laul Eesti Laul (English: 'Estonian Song' or 'The Song of Estonia') is an annual music competition organised by Estonian public broadcaster Eesti Rahvusringhääling (ERR). It determines the country's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest, ...

2017'' in order to select the Estonian entry for the 2017 contest in

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

, Ukraine. The national final consisted of three shows: two semi-finals and a final. Ten songs competed in each semi-final and the top five from each semi-final as determined by a jury panel and public vote qualified to the final. In the final, the winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, a jury panel and a public vote selected the top three to qualify to the super final. In the super final, "Verona" performed by Koit Toome and Laura was selected as the winner entirely by a public vote. Estonia was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 11 May 2017. Performing during the show in position 17, "Verona" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Estonia placed fourteenth out of the 18 participating countries in the semi-final with 85 points.

Background

Prior to the 2017 contest, Estonia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest twenty-two times since its first entry in , winning the contest on one occasion in

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

with the song " Everybody" performed by

Tanel Padar Tanel Padar (born 27 October 1980) is an Estonian singer and songwriter. He is best known internationally for winning the Eurovision Song Contest 2001. Padar became famous by winning the ''Kaks takti ette'', a biennial televised competition for ...

Dave Benton Dave Benton (born 31 January 1951, birth name Efrén Eugene Benita) is a pop musician from Aruba who lives in Estonia. He is one of the winners of the Eurovision Song Contest 2001. At the age of 50 years and 101 days at the time of his victory, ...

and 2XL. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the , Estonia has, to this point, managed to qualify to the final on five occasions. In

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

, "Play" performed by

Jüri Pootsmann Jüri Pootsmann (born 1 July 1994), is an Estonian singer. He won the sixth season of ''Eesti otsib superstaari'', and Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016, represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with the song "Play (Jür ...

failed to qualify Estonia to the final where the song placed eighteenth (last) in the semi-final. The Estonian national broadcaster,

(ERR), broadcasts the event within Estonia and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. ERR confirmed Estonia's participation at the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest on 12 April 2016. Since their debut, the Estonian broadcaster has organised national finals that feature a competition among multiple artists and songs in order to select Estonia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. The ''

'' competition has been organised since 2009 in order to select Estonia's entry and on 6 September 2016, ERR announced the organisation of ''Eesti Laul 2017'' in order to select the nation's 2017 entry.

Before Eurovision

''Eesti Laul 2017''

''Eesti Laul 2017'' was the eighth edition of the Estonian national selection ''

'', which selected Estonia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2017. The competition consisted of twenty entries competing in two semi-finals on 11 and 18 February 2017 leading to a ten-song final on 4 March 2017. All three shows were broadcast on

Eesti Televisioon Eesti Televisioon (ETV) ( en, Estonian Television) is an Estonian free-to-air television channel owned and operated by Estonian Public Broadcasting. It made its first broadcast on 19 July 1955. History Eesti Televisioon (''Estonian Televisi ...

(ETV) and on

ETV+ ETV may stand for: Television * e.tv, a South African terrestrial television channel * Educational Television (Hong Kong), a television series * Educational television, the use of television in education * Enhanced TV, an interactive television ...

with Russian commentary as well as streamed online at the broadcaster's official website ''err.ee''. The final was also broadcast via radio on Raadio 2 with commentary by Margus Kamlat, Erik Morna, Kristo Rajasaare and

Karl-Andreas Kalmet Karl-Andreas Kalmet (born on 8 February 1989) is an Estonian actor. Kalmet's parents are actor and director Madis Kalmet and diplomat and former actress Gita Kalmet (née Ränk). In 2008, he graduated from British School in The Netherlands in Th ...

Format

The format of the competition included two semi-finals on 11 and 18 February 2017 and a final on 4 March 2017. Ten songs competed in each semi-final and the top 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 2017 Eurovision Song Contest, the winning songwriters were also awarded monetary prizes of €3,000. The Estonian Authors' Society and Estonian Performers Association also awarded a monetary prize of €1,000 to the top three entries.

Competing entries

On 6 September 2016, ERR opened the submission period for artists and composers to submit their entries up until 1 November 2016. 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 composers who participated in songwriting camps organised by the Estonian Song Academy in spring and autumn 2016. Foreign collaborations were allowed as long as 50% of the songwriters were Estonian. A record 242 submissions were received by the deadline—breaking the previous record of 238, set during the 2016 edition. An 11-member jury panel selected 20 semi-finalists from the submissions and the selected songs were announced during the ETV entertainment program ''Ringvaade'' on 8 November 2016. The selection jury consisted of Andres Puusepp (DJ), Erik Morna (

Raadio 2 Raadio 2 is Estonian radio station. It belongs to Estonian Public Broadcasting (formerly Estonian Radio) and started broadcasting on 1 May 1993. History In the course of the radio reform, Vikerraadio was merged with the I program (the name remai ...

head of music), Harri Hakanen (''

Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (; abbreviated UMK; en, italics=yes, Contest for New Music) is an annual music contest organised by the Finnish public broadcaster Yle. UMK began in 2012 as the new format for the Eurovision Song Contest, replacing the original Finnish Eurovi ...

'' music manager), Ingrid Kohtla (music editor), Kaidi Klein (screenwriter), Kristel Aaslaid (musician), Olavi Paide (producer), Owe Petersell (Raadio Elmar chief editor),

Piret Järvis Piret Järvis (born 6 February 1984 in Tallinn) is an Estonian television host and a singer, guitarist, and songwriter of the popular girl group Vanilla Ninja. Born to Maire and Enno Järvis she has an older sister and a younger brother. After ...

(ERR journalist), Siim Nestor (music critic) and Toomas Puna (Raadio Sky+ program director). Among the competing artists were previous Eurovision Song Contest entrants

Ivo Linna Ivo Linna (born 12 June 1949 in Kuressaare) is an Estonian singer. Eurovision Song Contest and Eesti Laul He represented Estonia alongside Maarja Liis Ilus in the Eurovision Song Contest 1996 in Oslo with the song " Kaelakee Hääl" (The Sound ...

, who represented Estonia in

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

with

Maarja-Liis Ilus Maarja-Liis Ilus, sometimes better known by her performing name Maarja (born 24 December 1980) is an Estonian pop musician and presenter. She has represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest twice. She was only 15 when she participated in the ...

, who represented Estonia in

, Laura, who represented Estonia in

as part of the group Suntribe,

Lenna Kuurmaa Lenna Kuurmaa (born 26 September 1985) is an Estonian singer-songwriter and actress.Switzerland in 2005 as member of the band

Vanilla Ninja Vanilla Ninja is an Estonian all-female rock band which enjoyed chart success in a number of countries across Europe, especially in Estonia, Germany and Austria. The group formed in 2002 and released their self-titled debut album '' Vanilla N ...

, and

Elina Born Elina Born (born 29 June 1994) is an Estonian singer. She represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 along with Stig Rästa with the song " Goodbye to Yesterday". She previously attempted to represent Estonia in the Eurovision Song ...

, who represented Estonia in

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

with

Stig Rästa Raul-Stig Rästa (born 24 February 1980) is an Estonian singer and songwriter who, along with singer Elina Born, represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with the song " Goodbye to Yesterday". Career Between 2002 and 2006 he form ...

who also co-wrote her entry. Daniel Levi,

Liis Lemsalu Liis Lemsalu (born October 20, 1992 in Pärnu, Estonia) is an Estonian singer. 2011 : ''Eesti otsib superstaari'' Lemsalu rose to fame as the winner of the fourth season of ''Eesti otsib superstaari'', the Estonian version of Idol series. Aft ...

and Rasmus Rändvee have all competed in previous editions of Eesti Laul.

Semi-finals

Two semi-finals took place on 11 and 18 February 2017, hosted by Ott Sepp and Märt Avandi. The live portion of the show was held at the ERR studios in

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...

where the artists awaited the results while their performances, which were filmed earlier at the ERR studios between 2 and 5 February 2017, were screened. In each semi-final ten 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, with the fifth qualifier decided by an additional televote between the remaining non-qualifiers. The jury panel that voted in the semi-finals consisted of Metsakutsu, Kadri Voorand, Niko Nykänen, Eva Palm, Jüri Pihel, Maia Vahtramäe, Sten Teppan, Aleksandr Žedeljov, Ingrid Kohtla, Meisterjaan and Allan Roosileht.

Final

The final took place on 4 March 2017 at the

Saku Suurhall Unibet Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the Haabersti subdistrict of the Estonian capital, Tallinn. Opened in November 2001, it is the largest multi-purpose hall in the country with around 7,000 seats but can hold up to 10,000 people. It ...

, hosted by Ott Sepp and Märt Avandi. The five entries that qualified from each of the two preceding semi-finals, all together ten 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 100,578 votes. In the superfinal, "Verona" performed by Koit Toome & Laura was selected as the winner entirely by a public televote. The public televote in the superfinal registered 72,518 votes. In addition to the performances of the competing entries,

, who represented

Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 Estonia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with the song "Play" written by Fred Krieger, Stig Rästa and Vallo Kikas. The song was performed by Jüri Pootsmann. The Estonian broadcaster Eesti Rahvusringhääling (ERR) organised the ...

, Swedish singer

Måns Zelmerlöw Måns Petter Albert Sahlén Zelmerlöw (; born 13 June 1986) is a Swedish pop singer, songwriter and television presenter. He took part in '' Idol 2005'', eventually finishing fifth, won the first season of '' Let's Dance,'' and scored a hit w ...

, who won the

Eurovision Song Contest 2015 The Eurovision Song Contest 2015 was the 60th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Vienna, Austria, following the country's victory at the with the song "Rise Like a Phoenix" by Conchita Wurst. Organised by the European Broa ...

, and the band Beyond Beyond performed as the interval acts. The jury panel that voted in the first round of the final consisted of

(singer), Toomas Edur (ballet dancer), Julia Bali ( Raadio 4 chief editor), Harri Hakanen (''

'' music manager),

Marju Länik Marju Länik (born 7 September 1957, Otepää) is an Estonian singer. Biography Länik began singing in the early 1970s in her hometown of Otepää. In 1975, he graduated from Otepää Secondary School and in the summer of the same year she bec ...

(singer), Valner Valme (music critic), Henry Kõrvits (musician), Siim Nestor (music critic),

Piret Krumm Piret Krumm (born 20 January 1989) is an Estonian actress, singer, and comedian whose career began in the early 2010s. She has performed as a stage, television, film and voice actress, as well as a jury panelist for the ''Eesti Laul'' competition ...

(actress), Alon Amir (music manager) and

Poli Genova Poli Plamenova Genova ( bg, Поли Пламенова Генова; born 10 February 1987) is a Bulgarian singer, songwriter, actress, and television presenter. Genova began her career in 1991, at the age of four, as a member of the Bulgarian ch ...

(singer).

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the " Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who ar ...

(EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 31 January 2017, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Estonia was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 11 May 2017, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show. Once all the competing songs for the 2017 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 18, following the entry from

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

and before the entry from

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. However, following Russia's disqualification from the contest on 13 April and subsequent removal from the running order of the second semi-final, Estonia's performing position shifted to 17. The two semi-finals and the final were broadcast in Estonia on

ETV ETV may stand for: Television * e.tv, a South African terrestrial television channel * Educational Television (Hong Kong), a television series * Educational television, the use of television in education * Enhanced TV, an interactive television ap ...

with commentary in Estonian by

Marko Reikop Marko Reikop (born 19 June 1969 in Tallinn) is an Estonian TV host. He graduated from the Tallinn University on bibliography and is employed by radio and TV channels of the Estonian Public Broadcasting since 1991. He has presented the Estonian n ...

and on

with commentary in Russian by Julia Kalenda and Aleksandr Hobotov. The first semi-final and final were also broadcast via radio on Raadio 2 with Estonian commentary by Mart Juur and

Andrus Kivirähk Andrus Kivirähk (born 17 August 1970) is an Estonian writer, a playwright, topical satirist, and screenwriter. As of 2004, 25,000 copies of his novel ''Rehepapp ehk November'' (''Old Barny or November'') had been sold, making him the most popul ...

. The Estonian spokesperson, who announced the top 12-point score awarded by the Estonian jury during the final, was

who had previously represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest in

Semi-final

Koit Toome and Laura took part in technical rehearsals on 3 and 6 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 10 and 11 May. This included the jury show on 10 May where the professional juries of each country watched and voted on the competing entries. The Estonian performance featured Koit Toome in a black suit with sequin embellishments and Laura in a white dress performing on stage which displayed black and white colours and holograms of Toome and Laura appearing on the LED screens, with a light-up pathway on the LED floor accompanying Toome's entrance to the stage. Koit Toome and Laura were joined by three backing vocalists:

Dagmar Oja Dagmar Oja (born 8 July 1981) is an Estonian singer. Life Oja was born in Avinurme, Jõgeva County. She graduated from the Georg Ots Music School of Tallinn, and become known as a backing singer for different pop acts of Estonia, such as Anne ...

, Kaire Vilgats and

Rolf Roosalu Rolf Roosalu, also known as Rolf Junior (born 18 January 1982 in Tartu), is an Estonian singer who has participated in a number of musicals. He has also, yet unsuccessfully, competed to represent Estonia at the Eurovision Song Contest six times ...

. At the end of the show, Estonia was not announced among the top 10 entries in the second semi-final and therefore failed to qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Estonia placed 14th in the semi-final, receiving a total of 85 points: 69 points from the televoting and 16 points from 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, 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. 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. 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 by Estonia

Detailed voting results

The following members comprised the Estonian jury: * Olavi Paide (jury chairperson)TV producer * Rasmus Rändveesinger *

Getter Jaani Getter Jaani (born 3 February 1993) is an Estonian singer and actress. She represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 with the song " Rockefeller Street". Early life Getter was born and raised in Tallinn. In 2015, she graduated n ...

singer, represented Estonia in the 2011 contest * singer *

singer

References

External links

* {{Eurovision Song Contest 2017

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...