Estonia chooses Alika and "Bridges" for Eurovision 2023

Estonia is officially ready for the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 with the selection of Alika and the song "Bridges" for Liverpool.

"Bridges" was written by Alika herself, Nina Sampermans, and Wouter Hardy.

Tonight, the very last show of Eesti Laul 2023 was broadcast live from Tallinn's Tondiraba Ice Hall.

Estonian actor Tõnis Niinemets and Estonian singer Grete Kuld were in charge of hosting the show which lasted about 4 hours, with a 30-minute break halfway through for news. While the show was opened by an Estonian version of "Hope," the second part of the national selection's final was guided by Stefan (Estonia 2022) himself who also performed another song.

After the jury and the televote shared their thoughts on who the best candidates were, a superfinal was held with the three higher-scored songs and, once all was said and done, Alika went home with the victory and the responsability of representing the country in Eurovision:

Alika

Alika Milova, professionally known as ALIKA, is a 20-year-old Estonian singer who rose to fame after competing in the most recent edition of her country's American Idol, which she ended up winning. Regardless, she had already competed in other singing shows such as The Baltic Voice, New Wave Junior, Kaunas Talent and Berlin Perle.

Alika is known for her indie-pop register and for her powerful voice. After competing in Estonian Idol, she signed a record deal with Universal Music Estonia and every song she released became a smash in the country.

Despite being new to Eurovision, all eyes are on her since her song "Bridges" was co-written by Wouter Hardy, who helped create "Arcade" (Netherlands 2019) and "Tout l’univers" (Switzerland 2021).

Eesti Laul 2023

Three shows were held for Eesti Laul 2023 with a total of 20 songs:

• Semi-final 1: 12 January 2023
• Semi-final 2: 14 January 2023
• Final: 11 February 2023

10 songs competed in each of the two semi-finals, and in each there were two rounds of voting. In the first round, the result was determined by a jury's vote and televoting by the television viewers; and in the second round only by televoting. If ERR decided, statistics from users' internet engagement could also have been utilized as a factor in the first round results.

In the final, an international jury had a 50% say in determining the three songs that progressed to the Superfinal. The members of the international jury were:

• Alma (Finland)
• Birgit Simal (Belgium)
• Kat Reinhert (USA)
• Lucas Gullbing (Sweden)
• Deben Aderemi (UK)
• Matthew Tryba (USA)
• Anja Roglic (Serbia)
• Joe Bennett (USA)
• Tomi Saarinen (Finland)
• Yves Shifferele (Switzerland)

Estonia in Eurovision

Estonia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 27 times, first in 1994, competing every year except 1995.

Estonia has managed to qualify for the Grand Final 8 out of 18 times.

Estonia has won just once, in the year 2001, with the song "Everybody," performed by Tanel Padar and Dave Benton and 2XL.