EESTI LAUL 2014: THE 20 HOPEFULS

TALLINN, ESTONIA – The country which debuted 20 years ago, in 1994, announced he participants for their anniversary national selection, Eesti Laul. From a record number of 189 songs, 20 of them will proceed to the preselection procedure and they are:

Tanja – Amazing
Sofia Rubina – City Lights
Maltised – Elu
MiaMee – Fearful Heart (with Liisi Koikson)
The Titles – Flame
Sandra Nurmsalu – Kui tuuled pöörduvad
August Hunt – Kus on exit
Norman Salumäe – Search
Traffic – Für Elise
Brigita Murutar – Laule täis taevakaar
Lowry – Lootus
Vöörad – Maailm on hull
Super Hot Cosmos Blues Band – Maybe-Maybe
Nion – Muud pole vaja
Wilhelm – Resignal
Nimmerschmidt – Sandra
Maiken – Siin või sealpool maad
State of Zoe – Solina
Kõrsikud – Tule ja jää
Lenna – Supernoova

Estonian national broadcaster already announced that Eesti Laul’s semi-finals will take place on February 14 and 21 while the Final is set for March 1st.

Out of this year’s qualifiers, Sandra Nurmsalu and Lenna have already experience from the Eurovision Song Contest as singers. The first having represented Estonia in 2009 with Rändajad and Lenna carrying the Swiss flag in 2005 with Vanilla Ninja’s Cool Vibes. The author of Sandra’s song, Sven Lõhmus, has also written three songs that have competed for Estonia – Suntribe’s Let’s Get Loud (2005), Sandra Nurmsalu’s Rändajad (2009) and Getter Jaani’s Rockefeller Street (2011).

Lauri Pihlap was a member of 2XL who won the Eurovision Song Contest the last time it was held in Denmark, in 2001 with Tanel Padar and Dave Benton.

Sofia Rubina, August Hunt, Norman salumäe, Traffic, Liisi Koikson and Kõrsikud have all taken part previously in the Estonian national selection but have not managed to win it yet. Kadri Koppel has also taken part in the previous Estonian selection format, Eurolaul and is the vocal coach of Ott Lepland who finished sixth at the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest. (source: eurovision.tv)