Estonia’s national broadcaster ERR has confirmed that 171 songs have been submitted to participate in Eesti Laul 2026. The winner will go on to represent Estonia at Eurovision 2026 in Vienna.
Variety of acts competing at Eesti Laul 2026
In a press release uploaded to their official website, ERR confirmed that 94 songs were in foreign languages, while the remaining 77 were in Estonian. A variety of other nationalities are also represented in terms of songwriters, with songwriters from Estonia, Australia and Brazil taking part.
Speaking on the quality of acts, Karmel Killandi, head of ERR’s entertainment department praised the acts’ ability to be inspired by previous winner Tommy Cash. She explained:
I am very glad that Tommy Cash did not scare away the artists with his great success, but instead encouraged them.
Next steps in the process
With all entries now submitted, a musical jury of 34 people – including musicians, composers and people working in television – will whittle the number of competing songs down from 171 to 12. All tracks will be anonymised so as not to causee prejudice when working through the songs.
ERR added that the acts that will compete in Eesti Laul 2026 will be revealed no later than the beginning of November. The songs they will be competing with will then be released one month later in December. The one-show final of Eesti Laul 2026 will take place on February 14th.
Estonia’s Eurovision journey
Estonia has appeared at almost every Eurovision since their debut in 1994. They have won the contest once with Tanel Padar, Dave Benton and 2XL in 2001, singing Everybody. Other notable Estonian entrants include 3rd placer Sahlene with Runaway in 2002 and Ines with Once In A Lifetime in 2000, who placed 4th. More recently, their highest-placing entries have been Urban Symphony with Rändajad in 2009 and Ott Lepland with Kuula in 2012, both of which finished in 6th place.
In 2025, Estonia elected to send Tommy Cash through Eesti Laul to the Contest with “Espresso Macchiato”. They successfully qualified for the final and finshed in 3rd place with 356 points. Of these, 258 points came from the televote, while 98 came from the juries.
Are you excited to see what Eesti Laul 2026 will produce? Who would you like to see compete in the selection? As always, please let us know what you think by getting involved in the comments below. Also, be sure to follow ‘That Eurovision Site’ on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Threads, tumblr, and Bluesky for more information about Eurovision 2026!
News Source: ERR
Photo Credit: ERR
Thomas James