A lot of changes have been made in Estonia regarding their selection process this year. Long standing producer Juhan Paadam stepped down and Heidy Purga has taken over the role. The selection show is later in the calendar than ever before, and the format and presentation of the show have been changed.
Brothers Henry and Robert Kõrvits will present the show Eesti Laul 2009. Henry is a well known musician and rapper and Robert is the Editor-In-Chief of FHM magazine. Henry also hosted the Hit Of The Year award ceremony in Estonia together with the new producer Heidy Purga.
A total of 110 songs were submitted to broadcaster ERR. A professional jury then narrowed these down to a final ten. The running order for the show will be as follows:
Lowry - You Ain't What I Need
Janne Saar - I Am Too Good For You
StereoChemistry - Öösiti Kõndides
Urban Symphony - Rändajad
Chalice & Maagiline Kuues - Nelikümmend
Köök & Kaire Vilgats - Üürnik
Rolf Junior - Freedom
Traffic - See Päev
Ithaka-Maria - One Last Dance
Laura - Destiny
A combination of jury and televoting will reduce the ten finalists down to two super finalists. The winner of the super final will then be decided by televoting only. Two artists with first hand experience of what it is like to perform in the Eurovision Song Contest are Laura, who was part of the group Suntribe in the 2005 contest in Kyiv, and Lowry who was part of the group 2XL who backed Tanel Padar and Dave Benton to win the 2001 contest in Copenhagen.
Since the Semi-Final system was first introduced in 2004, Estonia has failed to qualify for the Final. Estonia will participate in the Second Semi-Final of Europe's favourite TV show on Thursday 14th of May.
Watch LIVE through the Eurovision.tv webcast, starting at 20:40 CET.
