It was the very grand show, that people have been waiting for in Estonia. The final of Eesti Laul 2017, finally took place in the grand Saku Suurhall, which is the arena, that also hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in 2002.
Back in February, 2 semi-finals were held. In each semi-final, 10 acts competed, and only half of them, made it to tonight’s final. From the 20 songs taking part in the selection, 10 songs had in total made it to the Grand show.
The Grand Final
The competitors tonight were:
- Liis Lemsalu – “Keep Running”
- Koit Toome & Laura – “Verona”
- Whogaux & Karl-Kristjan feat. Maian – “Have You Now”
- Lenna Kuurmaa – “Slingshot”
- Daniel Levi – “All I Need”
- Elina Born . “In Or Out”
- Ivo Linna – “Suur Loterii”
- Rasmus Rändvee – “This Love”
- Ariadne – “Feel Me Now”
- Kerli – “Spirit Animal”
The show was hosted by the male duo of Ott Sepp & Märt Avandi.
For a week, we ran a poll on the site, to see what all of #YOU think, and who should represent Estonia in the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest. The poll was closed just a bit, before the final took place, with the following results:
- Kerli – “Spirit Animal” – 35%
- Koit Toome & Laura – “Verona” – 32%
- Elina Born – “In Or Out” – 11%
- Rasmus Rändvee – “This Love” – 9%
- Liis Lemsalu – “Keep Running” – 5%
- Lenna Kuurmaa – “Slingshot” – 4%
- Ariadne – “Feel Me Now” – 4%
- Ivo Linna – “Suur Loterii” – 2%
- Whogaux & Karl-Kristjan feat. Maian – “Have You Now” – 0%
- Daniel Levi – “All I Need” – 0%
We must give some credit to the Estonians, for a well produced and enjoyable final. The final contained something for everyone, and had quite some different acts, and also some funny commercials. Even if you didn’t understand Estonian, then you could easily wonder and enjoy the whacky commercials.
After the last song was performed, we were given a well deserved break, while the Estonians made their decision on, who should qualify to the super-final. The first round is decided by 50% jury vote, and 50% televote. While the Super-final will be decided by a 100% televote.
After the news break, then we got back to the Saku Suurhall, where everyone was waiting in patience, to hear who would be the 3 super-finalists. Therefor, back to the arena, where we were greeted by Måns Zelmerlöw, who would start giving the first set of jury points, while we ended it all with Poli Genova giving the last set of jury points. It has to be said, that during the jury points, it was still possible for the viewers to vote for their favorite act.
Kerli was the big jury winner, gaining loads of points, ahead of the rest of the field, the question was, would the viewers agree?
After all the other acts had gained their points. Then we still had a top 4, where 3 of the acts would move on to the next round. Here we can see, that in the combined results, we had Kerli, Rasmus Rändvee & Koit Toome & Laura in the top 3.
The Super Final
This was the moment that counted! Now it was all up to the viewers to decide, who will represent Estonia in Kyiv.
However, the 3 super-finalists were not asked to perform once again, instead the voting started straight away, and the public were given 15 minutes to vote.
While we waited for the final results, Måns Zelmerlöw decided to take the stage, and perform some songs which included “Glorious” and of course, his Eurovision winning song “Heroes“.
The 15 minutes passed by very fast, and then it was time to announce the winner.
First it was announced who had finished on 3rd place, which went to… Rasmus Rändvee.
Then it was either Kerli or Koit Toome & Laura. The name that was announced, as the winner was… Koit Toome & Laura!
Both names have Eurovision experience, as both of them have perviously taking part in Eurovision Song Contest. Koit Toome represented Estonia in 1998. While Laura was part of the group Suntribe, who represented Estonia in 2005. Questions is now, does Laura and Omar Naber remember each other, after they both took part in the contest 12 years ago, in Kyiv as well.
Here is the winning song, Estonia will participate in the second semi-final, in Kyiv.