Urban Symphony have won Eesti Laul 2009 with the Sven Lõhmus song Rändajad, and will now represent Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow.
In this evenings show, hosted by brothers Henry and Robert Kõrvits, ten songs competed in Tallinn for the right to represent Estonia in Moscow.
The voting procedure in the initial round was as in a lot of other countries this year, a mixture of jury and televoting. The objective being to reduce the ten finalists down to two super finalists. When the two super finalists were announced, phone lines opened again and televoting would completely decide who would win the Moscow ticket.
The running order for the show was: (Super Finalists in Bold)
- 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
Although Laura won the public televoting with Destiny, the juries votes pushed her in to third place and therefore Urban Symphony and Traffic contested the Super Final.
The final results were announced. Urban Symphony were declared the winners. It is the second time that composer Sven Lõhmus has composed a winning entry for the Estonian selection, having won with Suntribe and Let's Get Loud in 2005.
Estonia will participate in the Second Semi-Final of Europe's favourite TV show on Thursday 14th May.
Estonia's Track Record
Estonia first participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1993, but failed to secure one of the three places available for the final in Millstreet during a seven song preselection show held in Ljubljana. Their full debut came in 1994 in Dublin where Silvi Vrait finished in 24th place.
The mid to late 1990's and early 2000's proved rather successful for Estonia, as they finished in 5th place in 1996 with Ivo Linna & Maarja Liis Ilus, 6th place in 1999 with Evelin Samuel and 4th place in 2000 with Ines before their big victory in 2001 in Copenhagen when Estonia won with the song Everybody performed by Tanel Padar & Dave Benton featuring 2XL.
On home soil a year later Sahlene managed joint 3rd place in 2002 for Estonia, but since the introduction of the Semi-Final system in 2004 Estonia has never qualified for the Final. Urban Symphony will be hoping to change all of that when they represent Estonia in Moscow in the Second Semi-Final on Thursday 14th May.
