Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010

In October 2009, reports stated that Estonia may be forced to withdraw from the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 due to a 7% cut in the ERR spending budget. CEO of ERR Margus Allikmaa stated that "Personally I think cancelling Eurovision participation is the easiest option" in combat to the 28 million kroon (€1.5 million) cut in spending. However no discussions on how to combat the spending cut were held at that time, and no decision had been made.[1] This statement was later backed by Anneli Tõevere-Kaur, ERR's media relations manager, however a decision was still not made.[2]

On 6 November, it was announced that Estonia's participation in Oslo had been secured with 1.5 million kroon (€95,900) donation by Enterprise Estonia foundation, with the broadcaster providing 300,000 kroons (€19,170) for the national final, Eesti Laul. Enterprise Estonia's decision for funding EER's participation was the idea of showcasing Estonia to an audience of nearly 150 million people, as well as the sense of national pride in the Estonian entry.[3][4]

Eesti Laul 2010 was the second edition of the Estonian national selection Eesti Laul, which selected Estonia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. The competition took place on 12 March 2010, broadcast on Eesti Televisioon (ETV) as well as streamed online at the broadcaster's official website err.ee and the official Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.tv.[5][6]

On 16 November 2009, ERR opened the submission period for artists and composers to submit their entries up until 7 January 2010.[7] All artists and composers were required to have Estonian citizenship or be a permanent resident of Estonia. A record 155 submissions were received by the deadline—breaking the previous record of 110, set during the 2009 edition.[8] An 11-member jury panel selected 10 finalists from the submissions and the selected songs were announced on 11 January 2010.[9] The selection jury consisted of Ardo Ran Varres, Olavi Paide, Erik Morna, Toomas Puna, Ingrid Kohtla, Helen Sildna, Owe Petersell, Meelis Meri, Koit Raudsepp, Siim Nestor and Valner Valme.[10]

Among the competing artists were previous Eurovision Song Contest entrant Lenna Kuurmaa, who represented Switzerland in 2005 as part of the group Vanilla Ninja. On 20 December 2010, "Made Me Cry" performed by Nikita Bogdanov was disqualified from the competition due to the song being uploaded on YouTube before 1 September 2009 and replaced with "Siren" performed by Malcolm Lincoln & Manpower 4.[11][12]

The final took place on 12 March 2010 at the Nokia Concert Hall in Tallinn, hosted by Ott Sepp and Märt Avandi.[13] Ten songs competed during the show and the winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, a jury (50%) and public televote (50%) determined the top two entries to proceed to the superfinal: "Rapunzel" performed by Lenna Kuurmaa and "Siren" performed by Malcolm Lincoln & Manpower 4.[14][15] The public vote in the first round registered 18,804 votes. In the superfinal, "Siren" performed by Malcolm Lincoln & Manpower 4 was selected as the winner entirely by a public televote.[16] The public televote in the superfinal registered 22,224 votes.[17] In addition to the performances of the competing entries, Metsatöll and Urban Symphony, who represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, performed as the interval acts.[18] The jury panel that voted in the first round of the final consisted of Ines, Owe Petersell, Anne Erm, Siim Nestor, Alar Kotkas, Helen Sildna, Erik Morna, Tanel Padar, Tauno Aints, Silvi Vrait and Kerli Kõiv.