Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006

Prior to the 2006 Contest, Estonia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest eleven times since its first entry in 1994,^[1] winning the contest on one occasion in 2001 with the song "Everybody" performed by Tanel Padar, Dave Benton and 2XL. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004, Estonia has, to this point, yet to qualify to the final. In 2005, "Let's Get Loud" performed by Suntribe failed to qualify Estonia to the final where the song placed twentieth in the semi-final.

The Estonian national broadcaster, Eesti Televisioon (ETV), broadcasts the event within Estonia and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. Since their debut, the Estonian broadcaster has organised national finals that feature a competition among multiple artists and songs in order to select Estonia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. The Eurolaul competition has been organised since 1996 in order to select Estonia's entry and on 16 October 2005, ETV announced the organisation of Eurolaul 2006 in order to select the nation's 2006 entry.^[2]

Eurolaul 2006 was the thirteenth edition of the Estonian national selection Eurolaul, which selected Estonia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2006. The competition consisted of a ten-song final on 4 February 2006 at the ETV studios in Tallinn, hosted by Marko Reikop and Gerli Padar and broadcast on ETV.^[3] The national final was watched by 268,000 viewers in Estonia.^[4]

On 16 October 2005, ETV opened the submission period for artists and composers to submit their entries up until 5 December 2005.^[5] 76 submissions were received by the deadline. A 10-member jury panel selected six finalists from the submissions, while an additional four finalists were selected by ETV via composers directly invited for the competition: Alar Kotkas, Ivar Must, Mikk Targo and Priit Pajusaar.^[6] The selected songs were announced on 13 January 2006 and among the competing artists was previous Eurovision Song Contest entrant Ines, who represented Estonia in 2000. Glow, Noorkuu and Sofia Rubina have all competed in previous editions of Eurolaul.^[7] The selection jury consisted of Jaak Joala (musician), Priit Hõbemägi (culture critic), Jaan Elgula (musician), Olavi Pihlamägi (journalist), Maarja-Liis Ilus (singer), Maido Maadik (Eesti Raadio sound engineer), Jaan Karp (musician), Heidy Purga (television presenter), Olav Osolin (music critic) and Jaagup Kreem (musician).

The final took place on 4 February 2006. Ten songs competed during the show and a jury selected "Through My Window" performed by Sandra Oxenryd as the winner.^[8] A non-competitive public televote which registered 24,756 votes was also held and selected "Mr Right" performed by Meribel as the winner.^[9] The jury panel that voted in the final consisted of Maja Tatić (Bosnian singer), Mariija Naumova (Latvian singer), Jürgen Meier-Beer (German television producer), Sietse Bakker (Dutch journalist), Jari Sillanpää (Finnish singer), John Groves (British music producer), Sandra Studer (Swiss singer and television presenter), Urša Vlašic (Slovenian lyricist), Bo Halldórsson (Icelandic singer) and Kobi Oshrat (Israeli conductor).^[10]

Final – 4 February 2006

Draw	Artist	Song	Jury Votes										Total	Place
			BIH	LVA	DEU	NLD	FIN	GBR	CHE	SVN	ISL	ISR
1	Carola Szücs	"It Was You"	2	2	7	7	6	7	6	8	8	3	56	5
2	Sofia Rubina	"Open Up Your Heart"	3	4	4	5	7	8	8	3	4	5	51	7
3	Reverend B and Crux	"Everytime I Tell You"	5	3	6	3	3	4	2	2	1	1	30	10
4	Ines	"Iseendale"	4	8	10	12	5	12	12	7	12	2	84	2
5	Aphro Tito	"Sweet Separation"	10	1	3	2	1	2	1	4	3	6	33	9
6	Sandra Oxenryd	"Through My Window"	8	7	5	6	10	10	10	12	10	12	90	1
7	Glow	"Higher"	7	12	2	10	8	6	3	10	5	10	73	3
8	Marilin Kongo	"Be 1st"	1	10	1	4	4	5	5	1	2	8	41	8
9	Noorkuu	"Friends Will Be Friends"	6	5	8	8	2	3	7	6	6	4	55	6
10	Meribel	"Mr Right"	12	6	12	1	12	1	4	5	7	7	67	4

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country, the "Big Four" (France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom) and the ten highest placed finishers in the 2005 contest are required to qualify from the semi-final on 18 May 2006 in order to compete for the final on 20 May 2006; the top ten countries from the semi-final progress to the final. On 21 March 2006, an allocation draw was held which determined the running order for the semi-final and Estonia was set to perform in position 21, following the entry from Sweden and before the entry from Bosnia and Herzegovina.^[11]

The semi-final and the final were broadcast in Estonia on ETV with commentary by Marko Reikop.^[12] The Estonian spokesperson, who announced the Estonian votes during the final, was Evelin Samuel who had previously represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1999 together with Camille.

Sandra Oxenryd took part in technical rehearsals on 12 and 14 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 17 and 18 May. The Estonian performance featured Sandra Oxenryd performing on stage in a blue dress and white thigh boots with the stage displaying pink, yellow, purple and red colours. Sandra Oxenryd was joined by five backing vocalists, three of them which later joined Oxenryd from the raised parts of the stage that they stood on: Carita Nyström, Emma Andersson, Jacob Gyldenskog, Dagmar Oja and Jelena Juzvik.^[13][14][15]

At the end of the show, Estonia was not announced among the top 10 entries in the semi-final and therefore failed to qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Estonia placed 18th in the semi-final, receiving a total of 28 points.^[16]

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Estonia and awarded by Estonia in the semi-final and grand final of the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Finland in the semi-final and the final of the contest.

Points awarded to Estonia (Semi-final)^[17]

Score	Country
12 points
10 points
8 points	Sweden
7 points	Latvia
6 points
5 points	Finland  Monaco
4 points
3 points
2 points	Denmark
1 point	Ireland

Points awarded by Estonia (Final)^[18]

Score	Country
12 points	Finland
10 points	Russia
8 points	Lithuania
7 points	Sweden
6 points	Ireland
5 points	Ukraine
4 points	Romania
3 points	Latvia
2 points	United Kingdom
1 point	Denmark