After discussions on whether Estonia should withdraw due to the Russian participation in the 2008 South Ossetia war in Georgia, Eesti Rahvusringhääling announced that, due to public demand, they would participate at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, to be held in Moscow. In August 2008 Estonian Minister of CultureLaine Jänes announced a possible boycott could be held between the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Latvia later rebuked the boycott and announced that they would be present at the 2009 contest. In September 2008 a public poll was held on whether Estonia should participate at the contest. 66% of the poll takers wished to see Estonia at the contest. ERR later submitted to public demand and announced that they would participate at the contest in May. The winner of the newly formed contest Eesti Laul, replacing the former Eurolaul, was Urban Symphony with the song "Rändajad", written by Sven Lõhmus, which received 82% of the final vote.
Before Eurovision
Eesti Laul 2009
ERR announced that a new contest, completely different from the preceding Eurolaul, will be used to select the Estonian representative for the 2009 contest. Eesti Laul 2009 was the first edition of the Estonian national selection Eesti Laul, which selected Estonia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2009. The competition consisted of ten entries competing in a final on 7 March 2009.
Competing entries
ERR opened the submission period for artists and composers to submit their entries up until 8 December 2008. 110 submissions were received by the deadline. An 11-member jury panel selected 10 finalists from the submissions, knowing the names of the singers and composers of each submitted song unlike in Eurolaul, and the selected songs were announced on 11 December 2008. The selection jury consisted of Timo Steiner, Owe Petersell, Siim Nestor, Toomas Puna, Erik Morna, Ingrid Kohtla, Kaupo Karelson, Valner Valme, Sten Sheripov, Koit Raudsepp and Helen Sildna. Among the competing artists were previous Eurovision Song Contest entrants Laura, who represented Estonia in 2005 as part of the group Suntribe, and Lowry, who represented Estonia as member of 2XL in 2010 together with Tanel Padar and Dave Benton. Lowry and Rolf Junior have both competed in previous editions of Eurolaul.
Final
The final took place on 7 March 2009 at the ERR studios in Tallinn, hosted by Henry Kõrvits and Robert Kõrvits. The winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, a jury and public televote determined the top two entries to proceed to the superfinal: "Rändajad" performed by Urban Symphony and "See päev" performed by Traffic. The winner of the public vote, Laura, only finished third overall. The public vote in the first round registered 22,809 votes. In the superfinal, "Rändajad" performed by Urban Symphony was selected as the winner entirely by a public televote. The public televote in the super final registered 26,475 votes. The jury panel that voted in the first round of the final consisted of Anne Erm, Jaanus Nõgisto, Birgit Õigemeel, Siim Nestor, Mare Väljataga, Owe Petersell, Helen Sildna, Ardo Ran Varres, Marju Marynel Kuut, Erik Morna and Jaagup Kreem.
At Eurovision
Since Estonia came 18th in the semi-final of the 2008 contest they had to compete in one of the two semi-finals in Moscow. At the second semi-final on 14 May Estonia and Urban Symphony performed 18th in the running order, following Ukraine and preceding the Netherlands. The group qualified Estonia to the finals for the first time in the country's history since the semi-finals were introduced in 2004. At the final on 16 May Urban Symphony performed 15th in the running order, following Malta and preceding Denmark and finished 6th.
Split results
In the Final Estonia came 6th with 129 points: the public awarded Estonia 6th place with 129 points and the jury awarded 5th place with 124 points.
