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 2006 The Eurovision Song Contest 2006 was the 51st edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Athens, Greece, following the country's victory at the with the song "My Number One" by Helena Paparizou. Organised by the European Broadcasti ...

with the song "Through My Window" written by Pearu Paulus, Ilmar Laisaar, Alar Kotkas and Jana Hallas. The song was performed by

Sandra Oxenryd Sandra Oxenryd (born 1 October 1982) is a Swedish singer who won Fame Factory in 2005, and represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006. Biography Oxenryd was born in Kristinehamn and is a former economics student and floorball pl ...

. The Estonian broadcaster

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) organised the national final ''Eurolaul 2006'' in order to select the Estonian entry for the 2006 contest in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

, Greece. Ten songs competed in the national final and "Through My Window" performed by Sandra Oxenryd was selected as the winner by a jury panel. Estonia competed in the semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 18 May 2006. Performing during the show in position 21, "Through My Window" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Estonia placed eighteenth out of the 23 participating countries in the semi-final with 28 points.

Background

Prior to the 2006 Contest, Estonia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest eleven 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, yet to qualify to the final. 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 ...

, "Let's Get Loud" performed by Suntribe failed to qualify Estonia to the final where the song placed twentieth in the semi-final. The Estonian national broadcaster,

(ETV), broadcasts the event within Estonia and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. 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 ''Eurolaul'' competition has been organised since 1996 in order to select Estonia's entry and on 16 October 2005, ETV announced the organisation of ''Eurolaul 2006'' in order to select the nation's 2006 entry.

Before Eurovision

Eurolaul 2006

''Eurolaul 2006'' was the thirteenth edition of the Estonian national selection ''Eurolaul'', which selected Estonia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2006. The competition consisted of a ten-song final on 4 February 2006 at the ETV 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 ' ...

, hosted 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

Gerli Padar Gerli Padar (born 6 November 1979) is an Estonian singer and actress. She represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007. She is the sister of Tanel Padar, who won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2001 for Estonia. Career Padar has perfo ...

and broadcast on ETV. The national final was watched by 268,000 viewers in Estonia.

Competing entries

On 16 October 2005, ETV opened the submission period for artists and composers to submit their entries up until 5 December 2005. 76 submissions were received by the deadline. A 10-member jury panel selected 6 finalists from the submissions, while an additional 4 finalists were selected by ETV via composers directly invited for the competition: Alar Kotkas,

Ivar Must Ivar Must (born 7 May 1961 in Tallinn as Igor Tsõganov) is an Estonian composer and music producer. He composed " Everybody", which won the 2001 Eurovision Song Contest. Eurovision Song Contest entries *"Nagu Merelaine" by Silvi Vrait, Estonia, ...

, Mikk Targo and Priit Pajusaar. The selected songs were announced on 13 January 2006 and among the competing artists was previous Eurovision Song Contest entrant

Ines Ines or INES may refer to: People * Ines (name), a feminine given name, also written as Inés or Inês * Saint Ines or Agnes (), Roman virgin–martyr * Eda-Ines Etti (stage name: ''Ines''; born 1981), Estonian singer Places * Doña Ines, a vo ...

, who represented Estonia in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

. Glow, Noorkuu and Sofia Rubina have all competed in previous editions of Eurolaul. The selection jury consisted of

Jaak Joala Jaak Joala (26 June 1950 – 25 September 2014) was an Estonian singer, musician and a member of two bands: Kristallid and Virmalised. He began as a flautist, later adding singing and bass guitar. Biography Early life Jaak Joala was born i ...

(musician), Priit Hõbemägi (culture critic), Jaan Elgula (musician), Olavi Pihlamägi (journalist),

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 ...

(singer), Maido Maadik (

Eesti Raadio Eesti Raadio (Estonian Radio, ER) was the public service radio broadcaster of Estonia that, at the time of closure, operated five national radio stations. It was closed in 2007 as a result of a merger with Eesti Televisioon (Estonian Television, ...

sound engineer), Jaan Karp (musician), Heidy Purga (television presenter),

Olav Osolin Olav Osolin (born 13 November 1953 in Tallinn) is an Estonian journalist, advertisement figure, radio and television personality and actor. In 1977 he graduated from University of Tartu, Tartu State University in Estonian philology. 1977-1981 he ...

(music critic) and

Jaagup Kreem Terminaator () is an Estonian rock group formed in 1987 by Arno Veimer and Jaagup Kreem in Tallinn 10. High School (today known as Nõmme Gymnasium). Kreem was in the 7th grade then. The first public performance was in Tallinn 47. High School i ...

(musician).

Final

The final took place on 4 February 2006. Ten songs competed during the show and a jury selected "Through My Window" performed by

as the winner. A non-competitive public televote which registered 24,756 votes was also held and selected "Mr Right" performed by Meribel as the winner. The jury panel that voted in the final consisted of

Maja Tatić Maja Tatić ( sr-cyr, Маја Татић) (born 30 October 1970 in Belgrade, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, SFR Yugoslavia) is a Serbian Bosnian singer. She represented Bosnia and Herzegovina at the 2002 Eurovision Song Contest. At ...

(Bosnian singer), Mariija Naumova (Latvian singer), Jürgen Meier-Beer (German television producer), Sietse Bakker (Dutch journalist),

Jari Sillanpää Jari Veikko Sillanpää (; born 16 August 1965) is a Finnish-Swedish singer. With over 820,000 records sold, he is the fifth-best-selling music artist and second-best-selling solo artist in Finland. Life and career Born into a Sweden-Finnish ...

(Finnish singer), John Groves (British music producer),

Sandra Studer Sandra Studer (born 10 February 1969 in Zürich) is a Swiss moderator and singer who represented Switzerland in Eurovision Song Contest 1991, which was held in Rome, Italy. Performing with the stage name Sandra Simó, she came fifth with her song ...

(Swiss singer and television presenter), Urša Vlašic (Slovenian lyricist),

Bo Halldórsson Bo or BO may refer to Arts and entertainment Film, television, and theatre *Box office, where tickets to an event are sold, and by extension, the amount of business a production receives *'' BA:BO'', 2008 South Korean film * ''Bo'' (film), a ...

(Icelandic singer) and

Kobi Oshrat Kobi Oshrat ( he, קובי אשרת; born July 15, 1944) is an Israeli composer and conductor. He composed and conducted the winning entry at the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest ''Hallelujah'' sung by the vocal ensemble Milk and Honey. Biography ...

(Israeli conductor).

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country, the " Big Four" (France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom) and the ten highest placed finishers in the

contest are required to qualify from the semi-final on 18 May 2006 in order to compete for the final on 20 May 2006; the top ten countries from the semi-final progress to the final. On 21 March 2006, an allocation draw was held which determined the running order for the semi-final and Estonia was set to perform in position 21, following the entry from

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

and before the entry from

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

. The semi-final 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 by

. The Estonian spokesperson, who announced the Estonian votes during the final, was

Evelin Samuel Evelin Samuel (born 13 May 1975) is an Estonian singer, songwriter, musical theater performer, author of children's books and participant in the Eurovision Song Contest. Career Evelin Samuel has been singing since childhood and was even record ...

who had previously represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest in

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

together with Camille.

Semi-final

Sandra Oxenryd took part in technical rehearsals on 12 and 14 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 17 and 18 May. The Estonian performance featured Sandra Oxenryd performing on stage in a blue dress and white thigh boots with the stage displaying pink, yellow, purple and red colours. Sandra Oxenryd was joined by five backing vocalists, three of them which later joined Oxenryd from the raised parts of the stage that they stood on: Carita Nyström,

Emma Andersson Emma Cornelia Zetterberg ( Andersson; 24 April 1979) is a Swedish television personality and singer. She is married to former Detroit Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg. Career Andersson first claimed to fame in ''Expedition Robinson'' 2001 ...

, Jacob Gyldenskog,

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 ...

and Jelena Juzvik. At the end of the show, Estonia was not announced among the top 10 entries in the semi-final and therefore failed to qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Estonia placed 18th in the semi-final, receiving a total of 28 points.

Voting

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Estonia and awarded by Estonia in the semi-final and grand final of the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Finland in the semi-final and the final of the contest.

Points awarded to Estonia

Points awarded by Estonia

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 2006

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006

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 ...