Eesti laul 2019
A new year, a new boss and a few changes should ensure that Estonia will find the perfect candidate for the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 via the popular show Eesti Laul .
'We have to bring the show back closer to the people', Eesti Laul's new boss , Tomi Rahul, announced in the Estonian talkshow Ringvaade . The show will undergo a few big changes this year. With this announcement, Estonia is also the first country of which we now also know exact dates of their national final.
In previous editions, the semi-finals were held in the capital Tallinn, which will not be the case now. They go around the country with the show and this time they will broadcast the semi-finals live . In previous years, these shows were recorded a week in advance, but viewers could vote live on the day of the broadcast.
However, now there will be a fee for participation, the size of which will depend on the language in which the song will be presented. The fee for participating in the song contest in Estonian will be 25 euros, on foreign - 50. According to Rahul, the participation fee is set so that people do not come to the competition for fun. Due to the introduction of the fee, those wishing to take part in the contest will not storm the Telecast at the last moment before the deadline for submitting applications, as the registration will pass through a bank link on the Internet. With this introduction the makers want to encourage writers in their own language to submit a song.
The money received from the contest participants will be transferred to the preparation fund of the stage show of the winner at Eurovision. ERR will no longer separately allocate money for this.
This year everything will be cast in two live shows. The first semi-final will take place on Saturday 26 January , the second on Saturday 2 February and the winner will be revealed on Saturday 16 February . For those who can not wait so long, the candidates will be announced on 15 November. Although the numbers are still kept until December 4. The number of candidates has also been adjusted from ten per semi-final to twelve, half of which per live show pushed through to the final with twelve finalists . Still new this year is that the artists now have to pay a sum at the registration. Everyone can register for the selection, from 11 October to 6 November.
Rahula noted that he worked on the new rules of Eesti Laul throughout the summer and checked them with the help of the most successful authors of the contest.
Speaking about the need for change, Rahula noted that first of all it is necessary to keep pace with the times. "Certain changes of need everywhere." A small update will benefit the song contest. "
The Estonian preliminary round is known for allowing a very wide range of styles and wants to attract an even wider audience with these changes. Write February 16 in your diary, then we will know who the successor of Elina Nechayeva , who last year won an eighth place in Lisbon with her mix of opera and pop.