Estonia has selected Alika with Bridges for Eurovision 2023 following the familiar path through Eesti Laul in January and February.
It was a convoluted format to reach the final this year. Two semi-finals of 10 were wittled down to a final 10. Semifinals were decided by a 50/50 televote/jury split for four qualifiers. The remaining six songs faced another vote, with a full televote deciding the final qualifier.
The first semi-final was a tight battle for the top two with Ollie winning the televote by 62 votes to get the maximum 24, followed by Bedwetterz in second. Janek’s unpopularity with the jury cost it an automatic spot but the fans rescued the song sending it to the final.
The second semi-final was an indication of what was coming. Aika only came second with the jury but powered through the televote with almost 3,000 more than the next best to win the semi-final. Sissi won the jury vote and finished second overall despite only managing seven points from the televote. This semi-final had a big split between jury and public opinion.
After the semi-finals there were two more wildcard places with a public vote to pick those from the losing semifinalists. Mia and Elysa were granted a spot they just missed out on getting rescued to the final.
The final was the same process, with a 50/50 split getting the competitors down to three with the superfinal being decided by a televote.
Poor Mia wasn’t able to do more after getting the wildcard spot earning zero points. Alika swept the voting in the first round joined in the super final by Ollie and Bedwetterz, the trio finishing well ahead of the other finalists.
It was almost inevitable what would happen in the final round as Alika easily claimed the win, getting 41.83% of the vote to win the honor of representing Estonia in Liverpool.