Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009

After discussions on whether Estonia should withdraw due to the Russian participation in the 2008 South Ossetia war in Georgia,[1] Eesti Rahvusringhääling (ERR) announced that, due to public demand, they would participate at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, to be held in Moscow.[2]

Eurovision Song Contest 2009
Country Estonia
National selection
Selection processEesti Laul 2009
Selection date(s)7 March 2009
Selected entrantUrban Symphony
Selected song"Rändajad"
Finals performance
Semi-final resultQualified (3rd, 115 points)
Final result6th, 129 points
Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2008 • 2009 • 2010►

In August 2008 Estonian Minister of Culture Laine Jänes announced a possible boycott could be held between the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Latvia later rebuked the boycott and announced that they would be present at the 2009 contest.[3]

In September 2008 a public poll was held on whether Estonia should participate at the contest. 66% of the poll takers wished to see Estonia at the contest. ERR later submitted to public demand and announced that they would participate at the contest in May.[2] The winner of the newly formed contest Eesti Laul, replacing the former Eurolaul, was Urban Symphony with the song "Rändajad" (Nomads or Travellers), written by Sven Lõhmus, which received 82% of the final vote.[4][5][6]

Before Eurovision

Eesti Laul 2009

Eesti Laul 2009 was the first edition of the Estonian national selection Eesti Laul, which selected Estonia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2009. The competition took place on 7 March 2009, broadcast on Eesti Televisioon (ETV) as well as streamed online at the broadcaster's official website err.ee and the official Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.tv.

Competing entries

On 14 October 2008, ERR opened the submission period for artists and composers to submit their entries up until 8 December 2008. All artists and composers were required to have Estonian citizenship or be a permanent resident of Estonia.[7] 110 submissions were received by the deadline. An 11-member jury panel selected 10 finalists from the submissions and the selected songs were announced on 11 December 2008. The selection jury consisted of Timo Steiner, Owe Petersell, Siim Nestor, Toomas Puna, Erik Morna, Ingrid Kohtla, Kaupo Karelson, Valner Valme, Sten Sheripov, Koit Raudsepp and Helen Sildna.[8]

Among the competing artists were previous Eurovision Song Contest entrants Köök, who represented Estonia as member of Ruffus in 2003, Laura, who represented Estonia in 2005 as part of the group Suntribe, and Lowry, who represented Estonia as member of 2XL in 2001 together with Tanel Padar and Dave Benton.[9][10]

Artist Song (English translation) Composer(s)
Chalice & Maagiline kuues"Nelikümmend" (Forty)Chalice
Ithaka Maria"One Last Dance"Pearu Paulus, Ilmar Laisaar, Alar Kotkas, Marya Roxx
Janne Saar"I Am Too Good for You"Vahur Valgmaa, Janne Saar
Köök & Kaire Vilgats"Üürnik" (Tenant)Jaan Pehk, Madis Aesma
Laura"Destiny"Sven Lõhmus
Lowry "You Ain't What I Need"Lowry
Rolf Junior"Fre:dom"Rolf Junior, Maian Kärmas
StereoChemistry"Öösiti kõndides" (Walking in the night)Holger Tilk
Traffic"See päev" (That day)Stig Rästa, Fred Krieger
Urban Symphony"Rändajad" (Nomads/Travellers)Sven Lõhmus

Final

The final took place on 7 March 2009 at the ERR studios in Tallinn, hosted by Henry Kõrvits and Robert Kõrvits.[11][12] Ten songs competed during the show and the winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, a jury (50%) and public televote (50%) determined the top two entries to proceed to the superfinal: "Rändajad" performed by Urban Symphony and "See päev" performed by Traffic.[13][14] The public vote in the first round registered 22,809 votes. In the superfinal, "Rändajad" performed by Urban Symphony was selected as the winner entirely by a public televote.[5][6] The public televote in the superfinal registered 26,475 votes. The jury panel that voted in the first round of the final consisted of Anne Erm, Jaanus Nõgisto, Birgit Õigemeel, Siim Nestor, Mare Väljataga, Owe Petersell, Helen Sildna, Ardo Ran Varres, Marju Marynel Kuut, Erik Morna and Jaagup Kreem.

Final – 7 March 2009
Draw Artist Song Jury Televote Total Place
1Lowry "You Ain't What I Need"64614518144
2Janne Saar"I Am Too Good for You"6488464125
3StereoChemistry"Öösiti kõndides"5023601310
4Urban Symphony"Rändajad"781077349191
5Chalice & Maagiline kuues"Nelikümmend"613852587
6Köök & Kaire Vilgats"Üürnik"624534269
7Rolf Junior"Fre:dom"3311013678
8Traffic"See päev"67912757162
9Ithaka Maria"One Last Dance"6477783106
10Laura"Destiny"625796610153
Superfinal – 7 March 2009
Draw Artist Song Televote Place
1 Urban Symphony "Rändajad" 21710 (82%) 1
2 Traffic "See päev" 4765 (18%) 2

At Eurovision

Since Estonia came 18th in the semi-final of the 2008 contest they had to compete in one of the two semi-finals in Moscow. At the second semi-final on 14 May Estonia and Urban Symphony performed 18th in the running order, following Ukraine and preceding the Netherlands. The group qualified Estonia to the finals for the first time in the country's history since the semi-finals were introduced in 2004.

At the final on 16 May Urban Symphony performed 15th in the running order, following Malta and preceding Denmark and finished 6th.

Split results
  • In the Final Estonia came 6th with 129 points: the public awarded Estonia 6th place with 129 points and the jury awarded 5th place with 124 points.

Points awarded by Estonia[15]
Split voting results from Estonia (final)
Draw Country Jury points Televoting points Scoreboard (Points)
01  Lithuania 5 2
02  Israel 7 5
03  France 3
04  Sweden 3 4 6
05  Croatia
06  Portugal 6 3
07  Iceland 12 7 8
08  Greece
09  Armenia
10  Russia 10 10 10
11  Azerbaijan 1 8 7
12  Bosnia and Herzegovina
13  Moldova
14  Malta
15  Estonia
16  Denmark 2
17  Germany 2
18  Turkey 4
19  Albania 5 1
20  Norway 8 12 12
21  Ukraine
22  Romania
23  United Kingdom 1
24  Finland 6 4
25  Spain
Points awarded to Estonia (Semi-final 2)
12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points
5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point
Points awarded to Estonia (Final)
12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points
5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

See also

References
  1. Floras, Stella (22 August 2008). "Estonia: Minister discusses possible boycott of Eurovision in Moscow". ESCToday. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  2. Floras, Stella (17 September 2008). "Estonia will participate in 2009". ESCToday. Retrieved 17 September 2008.
  3. van Tongeren, Mario (26 August 2008). "Latvia not to boycott ESC in Moscow". Oikotimes. Archived from the original on 22 November 2008. Retrieved 26 August 2008.
  4. "Estonia: Staging modern fairytale". 26 April 2009. Retrieved 19 May 2009.
  5. Calleja Bayliss, Marc (7 March 2009). "Urban Symphony to represent Estonia in Moscow". Oikotimes. Archived from the original on 10 March 2009. Retrieved 7 March 2009.
  6. Webb, Glen (7 March 2009). "Urban Symphony win Eesti Laul in Estonia". EBU. Retrieved 7 March 2009.
  7. Floras, Stella (14 October 2008). "Estonia: New name, new format, new dynamics". ESCToday. Retrieved 14 October 2008.
  8. "EESTI LAUL 2009 finaallood on teada!". Kroonika (in Estonian). 11 December 2008.
  9. Lewis, Daniel (11 December 2008). "Estonia: Eesti Laul 2009 songs announced". ESCToday. Retrieved 11 December 2008.
  10. Supranavicius, Alekas (11 December 2008). "Estonia: Eesti Laul 2009 finalists announced". ESCToday. Archived from the original on 13 February 2009. Retrieved 11 December 2008.
  11. Floras, Stella (7 March 2009). "Estonia selects for Eurovision". ESCToday. Retrieved 7 March 2009.
  12. https://arhiiv.err.ee/vaata/eesti-laul-2009-peamine-finaal
  13. http://www.eurovisioon.ee/eestilaul.php?id=2009
  14. Calleja Bayliss, Marc (7 March 2009). "Superfinalists Decided, Eesti Laul 2009". Oikotimes. Archived from the original on 12 March 2009. Retrieved 7 March 2009.
  15. Eurovision Song Contest 2009
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