One of the most famous and successful national finals of all is the one that was held today in Estonia, helping the Baltic nation to choose its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 in Basel, Switzerland. The discussion, of course, revolves around Eesti Laul 2025!
The Show:
The Estonian national and participating broadcaster, Eesti Rahvusringhääling (ERR), organized the show for the seventeenth consecutive year, taking place at the Unibet Arena, in Tallinn, while the hosts of the national selection was the famous singer Karl “Korea” Kivastik, a member of the Estonian group 5miinust, who represented the country last year at Eurovision, and Eda-Ines Etti, also known as simply Ines, who represented Estonia back in 2000.
In contrast to all the previous years, the Eesti Laul 2025 Grand Final consisted only of one final show, which was on air live at 18.30 CET, through the official Estonian public broadcaster’s website, ERR.EE.
During the opening act of the night, last year’s representatives of Estonia, 5miinust alongside Puuluup, performed their song “(Nendest) narkootikumidest ei tea me (küll) midagi”, while also their latest hit named “Pilates Spiritual Clüb”. Right up next, the audience watched a beautiful parade of all the sixteen (16) contestants along with their dancers on stage.
Let’s remember here that on 16 September 2024, ERR opened the submission period for artists and composers to submit their entries up until 21 October 2024 through an online upload platform. Each artist and songwriter was only able to submit a maximum of five entries. Foreign collaborations were allowed as long as one of the songwriters was Estonian. One hundred and seventy five (175) submissions were received by the deadline, of which sixty five (65) were in Estonian and the remaining one hundred and ten (110) were in multiple languages.
At the end of the day, sixteen (16) entries made it to the Grand Final of Eesti Laul 2025, while the fifteen (15) of them were determined by a 34-memeber jury panel. The last one was a wildcard entry that the public could vote on the Raadio 2 website between 28 December and 5 January 2025 and it was revealed on January 6.
The Songs:
The voting lines for the public opened since the beginning of the show.
Let’s remember the sixteen (16) of them:
01. Ant – “Tomorrow Never Comes”
The first one to perform was the Turkish-born singer Ant Nurhan with his song “Tomorrow Never Comes”, written by he himself, Kim Wennerström and Merili Käsper. An emotional power ballad by Ant along with a ballerina live on stage, trying to imitate the aesthetic vibe of the video. 8/10.
02. Stereo Terror – “Prty Till The End Of The World”
The show continued with Stereo Terror being on stage singing their song “Prty Till The End Of The World”, written by Lauri Hämäläinen and Heigo Anto. A rock song having as goal to uplift and cheer the arena up. 5/10.
03. Janek – “Frozen”
Later, it was time for an already known artist of Eesti Laul, Janek, with his song “Frozen”, written by himself and Norwegian Mørland, who represented Norway at Eurovision 2015 alongside Debrah Scarlett with his song “A Monster Like Me”. Janek did his best inside a glass box as a prop, singing his song as best as possible. 8/10.
04. Räpina Jack & Kaisa Ling – “Tule”
Right up next, it was time for Räpina Jack featuring Kaisa Ling wit their song “Tule”, the first one of the night sung in Estonian and written by Kaisa Ling herself and Kill Kaare. A nice and calm song that gave some folk vibes to the audience, having a real campfire on stage as well. 6/10.
05. Johanna Elise – “Eyes Don’t Lie”
The fifth contestant was Johanna Elise singing her song “Eyes Don’t Lie”, written by Timo Vendt and herself. A really sensual song by Johanna, who was vocally perfect, accompanied by some pyro effects towards the end. 6/10.
06. Felin – “Solo Anthem”
The next contestant was Felin and her song “Solo Anthem”, written by Swedish Paul Rey, Gevin Niglas, Johanna Ekholm and Elin Blom Etoall. Although Felin gave an active performance, her song sounded a little bit outdated. 5/10.
07. Elysa – “The Last To Know”
Next in line was Elysa performing her song “The Last To Know”, written by Simon Peyron, Angelino Markenhorn, Julie Aagaard and Elisa Kolk. It was a nice and catchy power ballad that was staged as a classic Eurovision ballad, using some wind machines and the famous golden rain towards the end. Also Elysa got emotional. 8/10.
08. Gem98 – “Psycho”
The next one to perform his song was Gem98 singing “Psycho”, written by Richard Sepajõe, Gevin Niglas, Karl Birnbaum and Frederik Küüts. He gave as a crazy performance, looking like a madman himself as well. 6/10.
09. An-Marlen – “Külm”
The next participant and the second Estonian-titled song was “Külm” performed by An-Marlen and written by Frederik Mustonen, Ingel Marlen Mikk and Maria Vainumägi. Her song, it really was an earworm to tell the truth. 5/10.
10. Frants Tikerpuu – “Trouble”
The tenth entrant of the night on stage was Frants who performed his song “Trouble”, written by he himself. Frants gave a quite cinematic and musical-like vibe to the performance of his song, although it lacked a nice climax, since it was quite flat during the whole time. 6/10.
11. Anna Sahlene – “Love Me Low”
Right up next in the line was probably on the most known and beloved artists of Eurovision in general, Swedish Anne Sahlene. who had also represented Estonia at Eurovision 2002 in Tallinn, when the country hosted the Contest for the first time. Back then her song was “Runaway”, but tonight was “Love Me Low”, written by David Lindgren Zacharias, Bobby Ljunggren, Michaela Stridbeck, Dagmar Oja, Kaire Vilgats and Sahlene herself. Although it is a descent Swedish-made power pop song, the performance on stage was quite disappointing because Sahlene was all alone during the whole time of the song. 6/10.
12. Tuuli Rand – “Rem”
Next on stage was Tuuli with her song “Rem”, written by Cecilia-Martina Mägi and Sander Sadam. Rand was really good vocally speaking, although the quake effect was quite unnecessary. 5/10.
13. Minimal Wind – “Armageddon”
The next artists to perform live on Eesti Laul’s stage was the band Minimal Wind with their song named “Armageddon”, written by Elisabeth Tiffany Lepik, Taavi-Hans Kõlar, Paula Pajusaar, Velle Tamme, Robin Kiisholts and Katri Merily Reimand. It was a really nice and interesting soft rock song. The lead singer performed half of it among the audience, while there was a brutalist and dark aesthetic on stage. 9/10.
14. Andrei Zevakin & Karita – “Ma Ei Tea Sind”
The third Estonian song of the show, “Ma Ei Tea Sind”, was performed by Karita and Andrei Zevakin, while the latter wrote their song alongside Liina Ariadne Pedanik and Martti Hallik. It was a really active performance on stage by the duo, with a lot of fire, energy, high volume, scream and some sound problems though, but still a nice moment. 9/10.
15. Tommy Cash – “Espresso Macchiato”
Probably the most provocative, already well-known and most anticipated singer, rapper, producer and visual artist of all Europe’s national finals was the next one to perform his entry on stage. The discussion is about Tomas Tammemets, known professionally as Tommy Cash, who performed in Italian and English his song “Espresso Macchiato” written by him and Johannes Naukkarinen. A picture was worth a thousand words. Tommy had not only the support of the audience, but also of Käärijä as well, who was among the people. To tell you the truth, he has also mine. Do you think that “Espresso Macchiato” sounds to similar to the “Barber Of Seville (Overture)” or is it just me? Anyway, salute! 9/10.
16. Marta Lotta – “Tantsin Veel”
The last one to perform at this year’s Eesti Laul was also the wildcard contestant, Marta Lotta, singing “Tantsin Veel”, written by her, Johannes Pihlak and Taavi-Peeter Liiv. The last performane of the night had a little bit of French and a smiley Marta. 6/10.
The voting lines were open during the whole time the songs were performed.
Interval Acts:
During the interval acts of the night various male artists that had represented Estonia in the past gave a nostalgic medley to the audience, singing some famous songs of the most successful boyband of all time, the Backstreet Boys. Moreover, the well known folk rock band DAGÖ performed their song “Šveits”. Also, Ines performed her new song “Viimane Piisk”.
The First Voting Round:
The Eesti Laul of 2025 consisted of two separate voting rounds. During the first one, the first three entries were detrmined by a 50-50 split voting system between the public and a professional jury. The professional jury consisted of members from eight (8) countries from all around Europe, including Iceland, the United Kingdom, Latvia, Lithuania, Austria, France, Norway and Sweden. The results of the juries were the following:
A little bit afterward, the lines closed and the public’s votes were added to the jury’s ones in order to determine the top three artists that qualified to the Superfinal, who were the following:
- An-Marlen – “Külm”
- Andrei Zevakin & Karita – “Ma Ei Tea Sind”
- Tommy Cash – “Espresso Macchiato”
The Second Voting Round (Superfinal) and the Final Results:
The lines opened once again in order for the public to decide the overall winner of the night among the three songs. The final results of the Superfinal were determined exclusively by the public vote and were the following:
3. An-Marlen – “Külm”
2. Andrei Zevakin & Karita – “Ma Ei Tea Sind”
- Tommy Cash – “Espresso Macchiato”
Source: ERR
Stay tuned in Eurovisionfun for even more national finals from all across Europe!
