Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026

Estonia is set to be represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 with the song "Too Epic to Be True", written by Sven Lõhmus and performed by the band Vanilla Ninja. The Estonian participating broadcaster, Eesti Rahvusringhääling (ERR), organised the national final Eesti Laul 2026 in order to select its entry for the contest.

Prior to the 2026 contest, Eesti Televisioon (ETV) until 2007, and Eesti Rahvusringhääling (ERR) since 2008, had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Estonia thirty times since ETV's first entry in 1994, winning the contest in 2001 with the song "Everybody" performed by Tanel Padar, Dave Benton and 2XL. Following the introduction of semi-finals in 2004, Estonia has, to this point, managed to qualify to the final on eleven occasions, including in 2025, when "Espresso Macchiato" performed by Tommy Cash ultimately placed third in the final.^[1]

As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, ERR organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. Since its debut, the Estonian broadcaster had organised national finals that featured a competition among multiple artists and songs in order to select its entry for the contest, with the Eesti Laul competition being organised since 2009. On 19 September 2025, ERR confirmed its participation at the 2026 contest and announced the organisation of Eesti Laul 2026 in order to select its entry.^[2]

Eesti Laul 2026 was the 18th edition of the national selection Eesti Laul, organised by ERR to select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2026. The competition consisted of a 12-song final on 14 February 2026 at the Unibet Arena in Tallinn, and was hosted by Karl-Erik Taukar and Karl "Korea" Kivastik.^[3][4]

On 19 September 2025, ERR opened the submission period for artists and composers to submit their entries up until 20 October 2025. Each artist and songwriter was only able to submit a maximum of five entries. Foreign collaborations were allowed as long as one of the songwriters were Estonian. A fee was also imposed on songs being submitted to the competition, with €50 for songs in the Estonian language and €100 for songs in other languages. Both of the fees increased for entries submitted from 17 October 2025: €150 for songs in the Estonian language and €250 for songs in other languages.^[5] 171 submissions were received by the deadline, of which 77 were in Estonian.^[6] A 34-member jury panel selected 12 finalists from the submissions and the selected songs were announced during the ETV entertainment program Ringvaade on 30 and 31 October 2025.^[7][8]

Among the competing artists were previous Eurovision Song Contest entrants Vanilla Ninja, who represented Switzerland in 2005, Getter Jaani, who represented Estonia in 2011, Stig Rästa (as member of Stockholm Cowboys), who represented Estonia in 2015 with Elina Born, and Victor Crone (as member of Stockholm Cowboys), who represented Estonia in 2019.^[8][9] Ant, Grete Paia, Laura Prits, Marta Pikani, Minimal Wind, Noëp, Ollie and Robert Linna have all competed in previous editions of Eesti Laul.^[10]

The final took place on 14 February 2026.

The Eurovision Song Contest 2026 will take place at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, Austria, and consist of two semi-finals held on the respective dates of 12 and 14 May and the final on 16 May 2026. All nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Four" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final will progress to the final. On 12 January 2026, an allocation draw was held to determine which of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show, each country will perform in; the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot.^[14] Estonia was scheduled for the second half of the first semi-final.^[15]

• Official site of Eesti Laul