This year, Estonia released 152 entries out of 175 total submitted ones (15 direct finalists, 20 wildcards and 137 rejected submissions - even though some of them got removed later, the internet still remembers). In a way, I think it could be a fun project to review literally all of them, so here I go, listening to a lot of bad songs. This post will be specifially about the wildcard round.
Let’s see if Estonia made the right choice with the automatic qualifiers/wildcard entries. Only one of these will make it to the main contest.
I wish this was just “Laura Põldvere – Pimepäev” as I really dislike the rapped verses. Though the verses, sung by Laura, aren’t very good either. This just feels cheap and generic. Listening to this is actively annoying.
On the other hand, this is a lot more to my taste. This is a fusion of folk and metal that feels targeted at me specifically and sounds much better than the annoying EDM soup of the automatic qualifiers. Though I fear that it still sounds a little underwhelming, it just lacks that sort of spark of greatness that would make me completely fall in love with this. Still, I’m putting this on my playlist.
This is completely in line with normal Eesti Laul offerings. A 50s big band-sounding jazzy piece? Sign me right up. It feels completely un-Eurovisiony and I mean that entirely positively. Though it’s a little too restrained by its length. It would be much better if it was allowed to be ~5 minutes long.
I think I would like this a lot more without unnecessary vocal processing. Still, there isn’t much to go on here as it’s a fairly generic self-empowerment ballad with, admittedly, a (probably) strong vocalist. Though I don’t think it would do much at Eurovision, just as it doesn’t do much for me.
The promising intro really led me to believe that it would be better than a very disjointed EDM song. This would need one hell of a revamp if it goes to ESC (or even the final) because it has no coherence to its structure, which is almost definitely intentional, but I can’t see anyone connecting with it as it leaves a very negative first impression (at least it did on me).
Talk about a vibe, this feels like a solo version of Með hækkandi sól. You can never go wrong with female vocals and a guitar instrumental if you want to appeal to me, so I don’t think anyone should be surprised that I really like this. It has a very nice, intimate feel and a great flow. I’m really happy I got to hear this.
I’ve said that I really appreciate a good piano before and I’ll say it again. This manages to be both simple and elaborate at the same time. It really creates a lovely melancholic feeling for the first half of the song, which is combined with kinda freeform singing by Elina, which complements the music really well. And when the beat kicks in for the second part of the song, it feels entirely natural too.
There’s something compelling here, even if the song is overall not very innovative. The verses and the pre-chorus are both fairly enjoyable, though the chorus itself is mostly instrumental and doesn’t really interest me. I don’t really like the singer’s voice though, it’s a little too high and nasally for me. Still, it’s a fair effort.
I can’t come up with anything to remark upon here as it’s just a decent pop song. There’s nothing actively bad here - it’s fairly well-rounded and competent, but not interesting at all.
This is another one of those “not bad” songs. I actually decently enjoyed this while listening to it, but I’m writing this review five seconds later and I already can’t remember a second of it. I decided to give it a second listen and the same thing happebed: I found it nice, but forgot all about it the second it ended.
This takes me back to 2014 and listening to Hollywood Undead, except this has no swearing (which is a positive for me since I now find excessive swearing cringy) and generally less cringy lyrics. Just like Dark Side, this really appeals to people who like this sort of music (which I do), so I think this could be a really good choice for ESC (especially since we don’t really get a lot of rock in ESC these days, so it would stand out).
For a rap song, this isn’t too bad, and I’m sure it faithfully represents Estonian rap (I’ve never listened to Estonian rap), but rap just isn’t for me and I can’t imagine ever wanting to revisit it in my life. But I respect him being confident in himself enough not to include a sung chorus.
A campfire song like this will never fall on the wrong side of my tastes, though it won’t be high in my rankings. But it’s definitely a vibe, I really like that the instrumentation only consists of a guitar, and her voice is very warm and pleasant. Since we keep getting more and more upbeat entries in ESC, this could actually stand out enough to qualify.
This is a pretty nice piece of schlager for the most part, but I really hate the beat here. It’s so annoying and loud that it completely kills any enjoyment of the song for me. And I don’t like her autotuned vocals, it’s definitely a musical trope I like the least. Just let your vocals shine, people, I’m sure they’re lovely. And I’m sure her real vocals are lovely too.
At first, I didn’t think much of this song, but after a couple of repeated listens, I found myself really enjoying it. I usually use the term “EDM with electric guitars” derogatorily (especially when watching Melodifestivalen), but this is an example of a song that actually pulls off this style perfectly. Now, though, I think that it’s absolutely brilliant and perfectly manages its progression. The verses are fairly accessible and poppy, the chorus is still accessible, but gets a tinge of a rock feel to it, and I actually think there’s enough lead-up to the screaming part that it feels very harmonious here. So yeah, well done. This is going straight on my NF playlist.
With a lot of these songs, it’s easy to tell why they’re wildcards. This is one of those songs that feels way too generic for me to embrace at all and its genericness and indistincness is actually mildly annoying. If this came on the radio and I was close by, I’d probably change the station, but if I was decently far away, I’d keep this playing because it would probably meld itself with all other generic radio pop.
And here we have it: a song that actively erases itself from my mind a second after I listen to it due to just how indistinct it is. I can’t remember anything about it, either good or bad, so I’ll just stick it above the actively bad songs and below the mildly alright songs.
Being hit with a double whammy of generic pop songs is never easy because I just can’t even pretend that I have anything original to say about them. This has a more pleasant male vocalist, I suppose, but I still won’t ever return to it.
I find this weirdly compelling, even though there aren’t any clear reasons for why. It’s a little underdeveloped as a musical track, but I really like the idea it has. In a way, it reminds me of Kedvesem, but with more musical variation and more participation from background vocalists. I think the main reason for that is the synth in the background, which manages to balance being noticeable and out-of-your-way, which is a great achievement. I think something like this could be a contender to be a fan favourite that inevitably loses Eesti Laul with a little bit more work. As it is, I don’t like it enough to consistently revisit it, but I hope we hear more from Sten-Olle in 2026 (or any later year).
I could imagine Ireland sending something like this in 1983, and I actually don’t mean this negatively. It’s just a nice, likeable song without any complications. It definitely provides some genre diversity, though it obviously isn’t a candidate for the win.
So, has Estonia made the right choices with these wildcards and the automatic qualifiers (I’ve listened to the studio versions of the automatic qualifiers already, but I won’t write my thoughts on them until the actual Eesti Laul final)? Not in my opinion. The 15 entries already in the final are mostly quite samey and don’t really live up to my (quite high) expectations of Eesti Laul. On the other hand, a lot of these rejected entries do feel like they’d fit perfectly at a lot of previous Estonian NFs. But I understand the reasoning behind this change, ERR is very underfunded and they need to cut down their budgets everywhere, including the budget for Eesti Laul. At least they can still afford to continue participating.
Stay tuned for my review of the 137 rejected entries, which will happen at some point in the future (hopefully).
I’d be very happy with either of my top five winning the wildcard selection, and I wouldn’t be exactly mad about anything down to my 8th. Knowing my luck, it’ll be my 20th going to the final though.