Estonia to pick entry for Stockholm on March 5th

14 September 2015 at 14:01 CEST

Elina Born and Stig Rästa represented Estonia in 2015 Elena Volotova (EBU)

Estonian public broadcaster ERR has announced the start of Eesti Laul 2016, the annual competition for the best new song in the country. The popular show will once again serve as the selection for Estonia's representative in the Eurovision Song Contest.

The final of Eesti Laul 2016 will take place on the 5th of March in Estonia’s capital city, Tallinn with ticket information for the final being released by the end of October. Singers and songwriters can submit their entries until November 2nd.

In 2015 Elina Born and Stig Rästa won Eesti Laul with Goodbye To Yesterday. They reached the seventh place in the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna.

Stig Rästa, who wrote and co-performed the song explained that the competition is very important for composers and artists: "It makes you view your work more critically", he stated. Rästa also believes that taking part in the competition can open many doors for both composers and artists. "I could not be happier to know that the song I wrote and performed in Eesti Laul and the Eurovision Song Contest is being played all over Europe. This would have been difficult to achieve without the competition."