I was shocked about that too!

They'd have to pay me...

Is JESC even happenning?

I can just picture the executive producer sitting in his office twiddling his thumbs on the night before the contest thinking to himself 'I can't help but think that I'm forgetting something'

Firstly, I am constitutionally incapable of turning off my brain. It's a curse....

Secondly, here's the thing - I always try to pick a favourite, usually I get two or three favourites or songs that I think are a bit better. I got into trouble with last week's poll - is it all round insanity or is it oddness with actual musicality? It changes the nature of the poll itself. I actually had three lists which were quite different from one another at one point. Example - Winny Puuh utter crap but very strange and done with such conviction, so they'd do well in a crazy poll and near bottom in a poll of musical quality. Aaarrrggghhh!!!

Almost Natural – Electric
Alvistar Funk Association – Make Love, Not War
Angeelia – We Ride With Our Flow
Antsud – Vihm
Ariadne – Feel Me Now
Carl-Philip – Everything But You
Close To Infinity feat. Ian Karell – Sounds Like Home
Daniel Levi – All I Need
Elina Born – In Or Out
Ivo Linna – Suur loterii
Janno Reim & Kosmos – Valan pisaraid
Karli-Kristjan & Whogaux feat. Maian – Have You Now
Kerli – Spirit Animal
Koit Toome & Laura – Verona
Laura Prits – Hey Kiddo
Leemet Onno – Hurricane
Lenna Kuurmaa – Slingshot
Liis Lemsalu – Keep Running
Rasmus Rändvee – This Love
Uku Suviste – Supernatural

Eesti Laul line-up.

Kerli! Ooh Elina is back. That's a boss looking line up.

With a Stig penned song too.

And Laura back as well.

Looking forward to the songs......

oh look, one's available already.

Antsud - Vihm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3B9e8049wg

Bloody hell, Kerli! She and Elina must be the clear frontrunners on name alone.

Other people we know:

Koit Toome (1998) and Laura (from last year as well with Suntribe in 2005) with a song written by the legendary Sven Lohmus (who else?)
Ivo Linna (1996)
Lenna (2005 with Vanilla Ninja as well as runner up in EL 2012, also took part in EL 2014)
Daniel Levi (runner up to Stig and Elina)
Janno Reim (lead singer of Super Hot Cosmos Blues Band and thus runner up to Tanja)
Liis Lemsalu (frequent participant <3)
Rasmus Randvee (participated with Facelift Deer in 2013 and his song this year is cowritten by Ewert from Ewert and the Two Dragons)

Seems a more pop focused lineup than previous years so far, still pretty shocked Kerli's taking part!

A five minute version of Ivo's song is up; it's rubbish:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uC8yhiCVxB8

Eesti has been my favourite of the NF's the past couple of years, so really looking forward to hearing these.

First bit of 2017 folksy weirdy. I actually don't mind that...

That's some Eesti Laul line-up right there that is. Maybe it's Laura's year? Isn't that attempt number three or four? I have lost count. And Elina Born, she'll be a hot favourite surely.

ERR usually put together a good NF with some interesting picks which is more impressive given the fact that they only have just over 1.3 million people in their country and so, you would think a limited pool of talent to draw upon. Puts the BBC to shame really....

On name value alone, that is a fantastic line-up!

Genuinely can't believe they got Kerli - she has to be the hot fave (again, on name value alone).

EDIT

Elina Born is back already?! That's great news. If she can deliver something like Miss Calculation she'd have my vote

Oh God, not Laura again. I never understood the hype for the lyrical mess that is 'Supersonic'.

Until we hear the songs at least, backing Kerli from that list. She was songwriter for Cartoon last year and was jumping up and down like a lunatic when they got through to the super final, so I'm guessing she decided then that she quite fancied taking part herself.

Usually find Eesti Laul overrated but I'm genuinely interested this year with that line-up.

Really?!

I don't follow JESC at all but that sounds crazy....

Eesti Laul is my favourite.... it's all starting up again!

Israel finally released their song today, so that's all of them available now. Meanwhile with the budget juggling going on between NTU and the Ukrainian government, they're now getting the begging bowl out wanting help with their JESC expenses.

http://wiwibloggs.com/2016/11/08/fin...anuary/155991/

Confirmed a 1 off final for Finland

28th of Jan for the Finns... nice and early!

It will also be a great warm up for MelFest, which kicks off the following week.

Speaking of MelFest, there's another rumour emerging - and it could be this year's novelty act.

Johnny Edlind, a 21 year old model and former Paradise Hotel contestant (the same show that gave us Samir), has recently tweeted images of himself in a recording studio with Kempe...

I've never really been that excited over Eesti Laul, although I do have a habit of tuning into the last hour or so of the final when Melfest is over.

Surprised that UMK has been reduced to a one night shindig like MGP, it's become one of my favorite NFs

Ooh, Eurovision gets a mention in the first Christmas ad from Morrisons!

That is... One hell of an earworm! Love it already!

What are Jedward allowed to have such a large say in JESC? Surely Ireland entering is a conflict of interest.
and can they really be called experts?

The whole concept of this "expert jury" is a complete joke imo. Does anyone know why they scrapped the televote in the first place? And I mean a real, actual reason, not this "people weren't voting enough" crap they're using to justify it.

I think some countries were unhappy with JESC being treated too much like adult ESC. Everything seems to revolve around getting Germany back into the contest. It's weird.