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 cut in spending. However no discussions on how to combat the spending cut were held at that time, and no decision had been made. This statement was later backed by Anneli Tõevere-Kaur, ERR's media relations manager, however a decision was still not made. On 6 November, it was announced that Estonia's participation in Oslo had been secured with 1.5 million kroon donation by Enterprise Estonia foundation, with the broadcaster providing 300,000 kroons 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.
Eesti Laul 2010
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 consisted of ten entries competing in a final on 12 March 2010.
Competing entries
ERR opened the submission period for artists and composers to submit their entries up until 7 January 2010. A record 155 submissions were received by the deadline—breaking the previous record of 110, set during the 2009 edition. An 11-member jury panel selected 10 finalists from the submissions, knowing the names of the singers and composers of each submitted song, and the selected songs were announced and released on 11 January 2010 and 1 February 2010 respectively. 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. Shortly after the list was released, "Made Me Cry" by Nikita Bogdanov was disqualified from the competition due to the song having been uploaded onto YouTube before 1 October 2009, breaking the contest rules. As a result of this, he was replaced by "Siren" performed by Malcolm Lincoln & Manpower 4. Among the competing artists were previous Eurovision Song Contest entrant Lenna Kuurmaa, who represented Switzerland in 2005 as part of the group Vanilla Ninja. Lowry and Rolf Junior have both competed in previous editions of Eurolaul. According to Estonian media, the favourites to win the competition were Iiris Vesik, Marten Kuningas & Mahavok and Lenna Kuurmaa, while online portals had Violina & Rolf Junior as the favourite.
Final
The final took place on 12 March 2010 at the Nokia Concert Hall in Tallinn, hosted by Ott Sepp and Märt Avandi. 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: "Rapunzel" performed by Lenna Kuurmaa and "Siren" performed by Malcolm Lincoln & Manpower 4. 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. The public televote in the superfinal registered 22,224 votes. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, folk metal band Metsatöll performed as the interval act, while Urban Symphony, last year's Eesti Laul winner, performed their new single "Skorpion". 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.
At Eurovision
Estonia competed in the first semi-final of the contest, on 25 May 2010. Estonia placed sixth at last years contest but had to compete in the semi-final due to the new system of the semi-final. They placed 14th and failed to advance to the final.
