Rotterdam 2021🇪🇪 Estonia

🇪🇪 All three Eesti Laul 2021 shows to take place in Tallinn

Estonian broadcaster ERR has confirmed that all three Eesti Laul 2021 shows will be held in Tallinn.

With or without an audience?

Next year’s Eesti Laul, as usual, will consist of two semi-finals and a grand final. The semi finals will be in ETV Studios, while the final is scheduled to take place at the Saku Suurhall.

The dates confirmed by ERR are as follows:

  • Semi-Final One: 18 February (ETV Studios)
  • Semi-Final Two: 20 February (ETV Studios)
  • Grand Final: 6 March (Saku Suurhall)

The semi-finals previously took place in Tartu. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they have been moved to the Estonian capital. A decision on whether to include an audience will be made nearer the time.

‘120% certainty’ needed

Estonian Head of Delegation and Executive Producer of Eesti Laul, Tomi Rahula, talks about the uncertainty around next year’s national final.

The current situation in the world does not allow us to organise a public event at full capacity. Unfortunately, we do not have the opportunity to take all the production to Tartu to hold a concert in a half-empty or empty hall. To do that, we would need 120% certainty today that the audience would be allowed in the (full) hall. At the moment, this freedom doesn’t appear anywhere.

Tomi Rahula

Moreover, it has been confirmed that Tõnis Niinemets will return to host the show. He explained in an interview that he is looking for a new co-host. This comes after it was revealed that Karl-Erik Taukar will not be joining him for the second consecutive year.

It was undoubtedly a very pleasant and fruitful collaboration, but life goes on its own way. I can’t speak for Karl-Erik, but this year I know he will not be presenting with me. We’re still good friends and meet up from time to time. But this year things overlapped, and he had to make a choice to do other things.

Tõnis Niinemets on former co-host Karl-Erik Taukar

Submission window to close this week

The deadline to send a song for next year’s Eesti Laul is on 6 November. In contrast to the original rules, the participation fee has now increased. Submitting Estonian songs will cost €50 while songs in other languages comes with a €150 fee.

The 24 semi-finalists are said to be revealed no later than 12 November, with their entries due to be presented early next month.

Should this year’s Eesti Laul winner Uku Suviste submit a song, he will be guaranteed a spot in the semi-finals.

Uku was selected to represent Estonia with his song ‘What Love Is’ before Eurovision 2020 was cancelled.

Stay updated by following @ESCXTRA on Twitter@escxtra on Instagram and liking our Facebook page for the latest updates! Also, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to see our reactions to the news in the upcoming months.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button